Paul Wilmshurst's Email Addresses & Phone Numbers

Award-winning TV director, writer and producer. Committed, intelligent and passionate approach. Drawn to formal challenges and difficult subjects. * Directed a number of ambitious, large-scale action and historical fantasy dramas for US cable networks. * Written and directed dramas about child runaways and child abuse * Regularly directs popular crime drama. * Made a wide range of...

Award-winning TV director, writer and producer. Committed, intelligent and passionate approach. Drawn to formal challenges and difficult subjects. * Directed a number of ambitious, large-scale action and historical fantasy dramas for US cable networks. * Written and directed dramas about child runaways and child abuse * Regularly directs popular crime drama. * Made a wide range of documentary, factual and cross-genre programmes. * Always looking for an interesting challenge. Specialties: Intense performances. Visual flair. Foreign filming. Working with international teams. Action set-pieces. Factual drama and docu-drama. Writing scripts drawn from testimony and historical archive. Drawing together complex and contradictory data to produce a clear through-line (eg Hiroshima).Director: "Indian Summers II - Eps 7-10" @ From July 2015 to Present (6 months) Director: "A.D." - episodes 11 & 12 @ Directing final block of epic biblical series exploring political and religious upheavals in first century Jerusalem. Working with DoP Tim Fleming, editors Nick Arthurs & John Richards, production designer Alan Spalding, producer Jonathan Curling and executive producer Richard Bedser (and many more). From January 2015 to May 2015 (5 months) Director: "Doctor Who Xmas Special" @ Directed "Last Christmas" by Steven Moffat, starring Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman with Nick Frost as Santa Claus. Also featuring Dan Starkey, Nathan McMullen, Natalie Gumede, Maureen Beattie and Faye Marsay. With Neville Kidd as DoP, Murray Gold composing and Adam Trotman on editing duty. Polar explorers are attacked by dream crabs in a complex and cerebral multi-layered thriller. Produced by Paul Frith with Scott Bates doing the scheduling and jollying everyone along. Pretty well reviewed. Quotes to follow... From September 2014 to December 2014 (4 months) Director: "Doctor Who Series 8 - Episodes 7 & 8" @ Directed "Kill the Moon" and "Mummy on the Orient Express" starring Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, with Hermione Norris and Frank Skinner respectively... From March 2014 to August 2014 (6 months) Director: "Strike Back 4 - Eps 5 & 6" @ Directed Episodes 5 & 6 of the new season of Strike Back. Story is set and filmed in Budapest, and features a large-scale terrorist attack and its consequences. From January 2013 to July 2013 (7 months) Budapest, HungaryDirector: "Da Vinci's Demons" @ Directed two episodes of Da Vinci's Demons - a television drama series about Leonardo da Vinci's early life. The series is written by David S. Goyer and marks the first collaborative effort between Starz and BBC Worldwide under a new co-production agreement. Described as a historical fantasy, the series explores the untold story of da Vinci "inventing" the future at the age of 25. In these two episodes he is tried for sodomy and travels to Transylvania to meet Vlad the Impaler. From September 2012 to December 2012 (4 months) Swansea, United KingdomDirector: "Strike Back 3 - Eps 3 & 4" @ Directed Episodes 3 & 4 of returning Sky/Cinemax action series. Story is a chase and a siege, set in Niger and Algeria. From November 2011 to July 2012 (9 months) Director: "Strike Back 2 - Eps 7 & 8" @ Directed two episodes in Budapest for exciting Sky/HBO action series. From March 2011 to September 2011 (7 months) Director/Producer: "Combat Kids" @ Combat Kids was a BAFTA-nominated 3-part series telling the story of a group of kids growing up on an army base who meet an alien in the woods and choose to believe he’s real, perhaps to avoid the pain of the real world. Made by Lime Pictures for CBBC. Screened November 2010, it achieved strong previews and high viewing figures. Final episode in Top 5 kids’ programmes of the week. * Worked on project from treatment stage, helping develop the script with writer Robin Mukherjee, script editor Tim Compton and executive producer Tony Wood. * Assembled production team and crew with Line Producer Colette Chard, working to Head of Production Jamie Hall. * Worked closely with production designer Julian Perkins who created a spaceship from a rusty old tank. Also senior graphic designer Andy Johnston, who created a multi-layered animated title sequence. *Managed 3 week shoot (with DoP JP Gossart shooting on RedCam) in dual role as producer and director. * Edited with film editor Tony Ham on site at Lime using Final Cut Pro, and worked with PR Gill Bowker to create press pack and publicity/marketing campaign. From April 2010 to November 2010 (8 months) Director: Law & Order UK @ Directing episode in long-running crime series. Working with actors Bradley Walsh, jamie Bamber, Harriet Walters, Ben Daniels, Freema Agyeman and Bill Paterson. Fast-turnaround schedule. Two weeks prep, two weeks shoot, two weeks edit. Need to fit into efficient and pre-established production rhythm, make effective decisions, motivate large team. From February 2010 to April 2010 (3 months) TV Director: "Silent Witness" @ Directed the closing two-part story (set in Cape Town) in series 13 of Silent Witness, broadcast February 2010. Filmed on location in Cape Town with a largely South African cast. Story dealt with a young girl being exploited and abused by corrupt immigration officials. A harrowing tale. From January 2009 to August 2009 (8 months) Writer/Producer/Director: Runaway @ Working in-house for CBBC Drama Production, and working directly to Head of Drama Jon East, who commissioned this 3 part series and also executive produced it. The storyline explored the excitement and dangers of running away from home. Cast included Kierston Wareing, Manjinder Virk, Michael Culkin and William Miller and Saffron Coomber. "While this new 3-part drama (which coincides with the Beeb's homelessness season) is scheduled in the children's after-school slot, its appeal is universal and it won't leave a single adult unmoved. That's thanks to writer Paul Wilmshurst, as well as the young lead, William Miller (who you'll remember as a very cute Oliver Twist in the BBC's 2007 adaptation)." - Radio Times From April 2008 to January 2009 (10 months) Writer/Director: "Forgiven" @ Writer/director of this powerful, harrowing, provocative factual drama. Suburban housewife Liz discovers that husband Stephen is abusing their daughter. She confronts him and reports him to the authorities, but also decides to try to help him recover from what must be "a sickness". Stephen is tried and imprisoned. When he leaves prison, Liz arranges for him to receive treatment at a residential clinic for sex offenders, where he undergoes intensive therapy. Stephen finally faces his guilt and the consequences of his abuse. The family decide to rebuild their lives together. Is this right? Is it even possible? And – if they do - what's the emotional cost? *Lucy Cohu - Winner International Emmy Award for Best Actress *Winner RTS Craft Award for Best Editing, Drama - Luke Dunkley *Nominated for Broadcast Award for Best Single Drama *Nominated for Grierson Award for Best Drama Documentary *Listed in Observer Top 10 TV Programmes of the Year 2007 *Listed in The Times Top 50 TV Programmes of the Decade "Although painful to watch, it would be hard to praise Paul Wilmshurst’s drama too highly. Adapted from a real case, a wife (Lucy Cohu) discovers that her husband of 18 years (Derek Riddell) has been systematically abusing their daughter. “What it felt like,” she says, “was my family having its guts wrenched out and ripped apart.” With two blistering performances at its core, Forgiven describes how she reacts and what happens to their relationship. Every stage of this terrible journey defies expectations and gives off the unmistakeable stench of truth. “You can’t understand,” she says, “and you can’t comprehend – until it happens to you – how you will react or feel.” It is easy to condemn child abuse; it is far harder to understand it, to engage with the abuser and try to stop it. That is what this superlative drama is all about." Times From February 2006 to September 2006 (8 months) Director/Producer: "Hiroshima" @ Produced, wrote & directed 90 minute feature documentary and factual drama, telling the story of the bombing of Hiroshima. Mixing testimony, archive, CGI and full-scale reconstruction to communicate the detailed content and context of this terrible event, with a substantial co-production budget and a necessarily ambitious canvas, story and effects. Screened in 30 countries around the world for the 60th anniversary of the bombing in August 2005. "For 90 minutes last night we were battered, horrified, moved to tears and driven to pity and anger by Hiroshima, a towering dramatised documentary by Paul Wilmshurst... In an accomplished and thrilling interwoven narrative style, with brilliant but chilling reenactments of the dreadful aftermath of the bomb, Hiroshima - wonderfully well-acted by a Japanese and American cast, supplemented by newsreel footage from the time and surviving witnesses - gave us the stories of the statesmen, the scientists, the aircrews and the unfortunate people of Hiroshima." Daily Mail "Without doubt, Hiroshima is the most fair and balanced comprehensive presentation yet produced of what has become one of history's most controversial events. It is also a dynamic example of the inherent power of film media to inform and enlighten in an interesting and absorbing manner. All of the latest and most effective techniques in documentary film production - historical participant interviews, docu-drama recreation, archival film footage and state-of-the-art computer graphics (CGI) - are combined in BBC Video's Hiroshima by a producer of skill and vision into a riveting film that captures viewers' attention from the first frame and firmly holds it until the end. ... Visually stunning, historically and scientifically accurate, and powerfully presented, BBC Video's Hiroshima is an expertly produced must have DVD that is clearly deserving of its 5-Star rating." Jerry D. Morelock Editor in Chief, Armchair General magazine From January 2004 to April 2005 (1 year 4 months) Writer/Director: "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World - Brooklyn Bridge" @ Researched, wrote and directed the story of the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Part of BAFTA-nominated series, made by the BBC Science Department and featuring full-scale dramatisations of the engineering feats involved. From 2003 to 2003 (less than a year) Post-Graduate Diploma, Journalism @ City University London From 1985 to 1986 Double First, English @ University of Cambridge From 1981 to 1984 Paul Wilmshurst is skilled in: Television, Film, Documentaries, Broadcast, Post Production, Directing, Drama, Final Cut Pro, Editing, Storytelling, Copywriting, Feature Films, Video Production, Video, Broadcast Television, Producing