researchers working alongside Peter. We can’t make it up too much – although the conversations are obviously imagined, I think we’ve got the essence of what people thought about each other. And because we don’t necessarily choose the obvious points of historical focus, you get Google spikes after each episode, with people wanting to find out what Suez, or Billy Graham were all about. In the earlier series the history was slightly more at arms-length, whereas the next one takes us from 1963 and the election of Harold Wilson to 1977 and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. It’s still just before my time; or at least, I get born right at the end of the series!
Crowning around: Benjamin Caron, Claire Foy (the Queen), Peter Morgan (writer), Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret) and Matt Smith (Prince Philip)
I had a wonderful time at Homerton. I was on the Boat Club Committee and the May Ball Committee, as well as being heavily involved in acting and directing and taking part in the National Student Drama Festival. I enjoyed working with actors but realised I wasn’t going to be one of the best. Film directing didn’t even feel like it was an option, but theatre directing felt like something I could aim at.
What was your post-Homerton career trajectory? Shortly after graduation, I met a producer working on The Big Breakfast, who suggested I apply for graduate trainee schemes in television. Having made my way to London, I started at a production company making light and factual entertainment programmes. Whilst there, I began doing the odd bit of directing. It was really eclectic – I was making everything from music videos, to documentaries and commercials. After a good stint, I decided to go freelance and began working with the illusionist Derren Brown on a Channel 4 special called The Heist. It did rather well, winning a few awards and such like, and so off the back of that I was able to get myself an agent. Of course, like any director, I wanted to work out how to get into feature films and the general consensus was that you had to do your time in television drama first. I moved up to Liverpool, where I directed a few episodes of Hollyoaks, which at the
time was quite good at enabling young directors to earn their stripes and get some experience. I then made a few episodes of Casualty in Bristol and Scott & Bailey in Manchester. Gradually, more industry folk became aware of me and I went on to direct an episode of Skins and a show of which I’m very proud; My Mad Fat Diary, starring Sharon Rooney and Jodie Comer of Killing Eve fame. Following that, I joined Left Bank Pictures, where I directed a single film for TV about Tommy Cooper, and the final three episodes of Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander.
You’re now working on The Crown, which has had an extraordinary global reception. Did you think it was going to be as big as it has been? No, absolutely not – you never know. We knew it was extremely well written, we knew we had an amazing cast, but it’s just impossible to tell what will grab an audience’s attention.
What do you think The Crown gets so right? We have an amazing writer, Peter Morgan, who continuously mines for moments in history that resonate today, so that the drama shines a light on things happening now, as well as the past. It’s not about lookalikes, and it’s not a documentary but what we are always trying to do, is get to the truth of the characters. We also have an amazing team of
The past decade has seen a huge shift in how television drama is perceived. Do you still see television as a stepping stone to feature films, or does it now offer more exciting opportunities in its own right? I will definitely make a film at some stage, but I want to make sure it’s a film worth seeing – I don’t want to make it until I have something to say. But yes, the television landscape has completely changed. The Crown, as with other shows such as Game of Thrones, has a decent budget, which allows you to almost treat each episode as though it were a film in its own right. And because of the long-form format of television, you have the ability to delve into characters’ back stories and to do so much more than there would ever be room for in a film. In that way it’s much more novelistic. The way people access and watch television now is completely different from when I started out. You have the ability to reach so many more people.
We’re very excited at Homerton that we now have two connections to The Crown, in the shape of you and Olivia Colman. What a coup to have signed her up just before she took the world by storm and won every award going… Absolutely, we’re very lucky to have her. We actually overlapped at Homerton, though we never met. She’s a wonderful, instinctive actress. Some actors do all their preparation ahead of time, whereas Olivia instinctively feels it. She’s always so self-effacing and as I said, absolutely brilliant!
HOMERTON COLLEGE
29