While at BBC Scotland, David commissioned Donna Franceschild to write the six part serial Takin' Over The Asylum. Starring Ken Stott, and with a leading-part debut for David Tennant, he then went ...Show More
While at BBC Scotland, David commissioned Donna Franceschild to write the six part serial Takin' Over The Asylum. Starring Ken Stott, and with a leading-part debut for David Tennant, he then went on to direct the show to huge public and critical acclaim, culminating in the 1995 BAFTA Award for Best Drama Serial.Subsequent collaborations with Franceschild included Donovan Quick, starring Colin Firth, which garnered a number of awards and nominations, including best actress for Katy Murphy at the RTS Awards and Best Single Film at the BAFTAs. The film also played several international film festivals, including Chicago and Cairo.David continued working on a range of high profile dramas including Split Second with Clive Owen and, in Poland, the esteemed adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, starring Helen McCrory, Kevin McKidd and Stephen Dillane, harvesting five BAFTA and RTS nominations. There followed a movie, Tabloid, starring Matthew Rhys, John Hurt, David Soul and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.David directed a BBC version of the classic Thomas Hardy novel, Tess of the D'Urbervilles with Gemma Arterton and Eddy Redmayne and another feature, Best Laid Plans, starring Stephen Graham, David O'Hara, Maxine Peake and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.He also contributed an episode to the Sky Playhouse season: Snodgrass, with Ian Hart reprising his role as John Lennon.David has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with Jimmy McGovern. Beginning with The Lakes in 1997 and continuing through The Street and Accused - over twenty hours of drama - work that has received worldwide recognition and been showered with awards and nominations - including RTS, Baftas and International Emmys. They also called on some of Britain's finest acting talent, many of them receiving Best Actor nods in the process, including Jim Broadbent, Bob Hoskins, Chris Eccleston and Olivia Coleman.Common, another collaboration with McGovern - starring Nico Milallegro, Susan Lynch, Danny Mays and Sir Michael Gambon - about the dubious machinations of 'Joint Enterprise', transmitted during 2014 to glowing reviews and subsequent deliberation in both the Houses Of Commons and Lords. It won the RTS North Best Drama Award, Best Single Drama at the Broadcast Awards and received RTS and BAFTA nominations for Best Single Drama. It was also nominated for an International Emmy for best TV movie or mini-series.During the latter part of 2014 and early 2015, David completed two features, The Messenger, starring Robert Sheehan, Lily Cole, Tamzin Merchant, Joely Richardson and David O'Hara and Away, starring Timothy Spall, Juno Temple, Matt Ryan and Susan Lynch which is scheduled for release during 2016.David recently completed another Jimmy McGovern film for the BBC, Reg, about one man's quest for accountability for a son lost in Iraq, starring Tim Roth and Anna Maxwell Martin. Hide
