paul wilmshurst "> PAUL WILMSHURST - FILMOGRAPHY

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Drama

HISTORICAL DRAMA: Paul has most recently finished work on the new series JAMESTOWN, made by Carnival Films for Sky 1 and broadcasting in the spring of 2017. He directed the final four episodes of the Channel 4 drama series INDIAN SUMMERS. Before that he directed the final block of the NBC series A.D., set in 1st Century Jerusalem, and shot in Morocco.

SCI-FI: He directed three episodes of DOCTOR WHO, in Peter Capaldi's first season on the show. All three were well received. Kill the Moon featured giant spiders and an even larger space dragon. Mummy on the Orient Express was set on a space train and featured a mummy that could only be seen by its victims. And Last Christmas (the 2014 Xmas special) starred Nick Frost as Santa and featured a story set on a polar base with monsters and multiple levels of dreams and nightmares.

ACTION: Paul directed on three seasons of STRIKE BACK for Sky and Cinemax/HBO, a full-throttle action adventure genre piece with a team of covert Special Forces operatives chasing terrorists across the globe, packed with explosions, shoot-outs, sex and violence; with exotic locations, glossy production values and classy guest actors, starring Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester. This vastly ambitious show filmed in Budapest and Cape Town, and involved highly complex and demanding stunts and action set pieces.

FANTASY: Paul directed two episodes in the opening season of DA VINCI’S DEMONS for StarZ and BBC America. This historical fantasy series - scripted by David S. Goyer (co-writer of The Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel) - was shot on location in Wales, principally using constructed sets in Swansea.

KIDS: Previously Paul produced and directed COMBAT KIDS for Lime Pictures and CBBC -- a 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. It screened in November 2010, achieving a mixture of strong reviews and high viewing figures. The final episode was in the Top 5 kids’ programmes of the week. Paul also wrote and directed the three-part children’s mini-series RUNAWAY (about child runaways), transmitted on CBBC and BBC1 in March 2009.

CRIME: Paul’s episode of LAW & ORDER UK (made for Kudos/ITV) was broadcast in January 2011, and explored the emotional fallout after the sudden death of a baby; with Gemma Redgrave guest-starring. He directed the closing two-part story (set in Cape Town) in the 2010 series of SILENT WITNESS, about a traumatised Zimbabwean asylum seeker (Shoki Mokgapa) who is deported to Cape Town and then co-erced into working in a brothel. He directed a two-part episode of TRIAL & RETRIBUTION, the long-running crime thriller made by Lynda LaPlante for ITV (with guest stars Maurice Roeves, Johnny Harris and Kierston Wareing).

PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA: FORGIVEN was a 90-minute single drama about child abuse and treatment for sex offenders, a challenging account of a real family's experience, starring Lucy Cohu and Derek Riddell, which Paul wrote, produced and directed. Lucy Cohu won an International Emmy for her performance, and the programme was widely and well reviewed. It won an RTS award for Best Drama Editing, as well as being nominated for Best Single Drama in the Broadcast Awards, and was nominated for a Grierson Award. FORGIVEN was listed in The Observer’s Top 10 TV Programmes of the Year and the Times’ Best 50 TV Programmes of the Decade.

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Dramadoc

Paul’s dramadocs have mainly explored secret or forgotten worlds: cocaine dealing (
SECRETS AND LINES), the motives of people who commit pseudocide (VANISHED), the building of the Brooklyn Bridge (SEVEN WONDERS OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD), the psychology of high-functioning alcholics in the workplace (PISSED ON THE JOB), the buildup to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath (HIROSHIMA), and the experience of being kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (ALIVE: KIDNAPPED IN THE KILLING FIELDS).

HIROSHIMA - a 90 minute international co-production for the BBC - won a BAFTA Award for Visual Effects and an International Emmy for Best Documentary.

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Documentary

Paul’s feature documentaries covered a range of subjects: a mob attorney who defends the mafia with now-mayor of Las Vegas Oscar Goodman (
MOB LAW - 1997); the relationship between dicing, identity and chance with cult novelist Luke Rhinehart (DICEWORLD - 1998); Elvis-worship and the trade in fraudulent celebrity memorabilia with Frank Skinner (A LITTLE BIT OF ELVIS - 1998); white English culture and its failings with Darcus Howe (WHITE TRIBE - 1999); the exhilaration and desperation of compulsive gambling with Jonathan Rendall (THE GAMBLER - 2000); celebrity autobiography again with Frank Skinner (FRANK SKINNER ON FRANK SKINNER - 2001); and holiday binge-drinking on a summer holiday in Ibiza (DOGUMENTARY: REWIND THE SUMMER – 2002).

Before these Paul cut his teeth working on a range of arts, science and political programmes, including
EQUINOX, J’ACCUSE, INSIDE OUT, IF I WERE PRIME MINISTER, DESIRE and WHITE HEAT - as well as current affairs, talkshows and news programmes, working with writer/presenters like Janet Street-Porter, Germaine Greer, Stephen Bayley and Cosmo Landesman.

Paul co-produced the series
REEL SECRETS WITH BOB MCKEE, in which the Hollywood script guru explored his favourite film genres, and also worked on the BAFTA-winning J’ACCUSE CITIZEN KANE which McKee wrote and presented.

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