Farren Blackburn is a British film and television director and screenwriter. His work includes Netflix's young adult love story, The Innocents , the French English-language psychological thriller Shut In starring Naomi Watts, Netflix and Marvel's Daredevil , Iron Fist and The Defenders .
He attended Caythorpe primary school, [1] then the Sir William Robertson School in Welbourn. In Caythorpe, he lived on South Parade. [2] In 1989, went to the US, to teach soccer over the summer. [3] He studied sports at the West London Institute of Higher Education. [4]
As a young man he was on the books of Cambridge United Football Club and represented England at youth level.[ citation needed ] After being in London, he arranged a Career Development Loan, and completed an MA in Film and TV at Bournemouth University.
He found his way onto the BBC Production Training Scheme, for which there were ten places a year, with around five hundred applicants. He had a film featured at the BBC Short Film Festival.
He directed The Fades for which he received a BAFTA for best Drama Series. He also directed the Golden Globe nominated crime series Luther , the movie Hammer of the Gods, BBC period drama The Musketeers and the Doctor Who episodes "The Rings of Akhaten" and the 2011 Christmas special, "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe". [5] He directed Naomi Watts in the French English-language psychological thriller Shut In (2016), from Christina Hodson's Blacklist screenplay about a woman who discovers a shocking secret about her catatonic son. [6] In June 2019 he announced via Twitter that he will direct 5 episodes of season 2 of A Discovery of Witches .
In years previous, he was also a regular director of BBC medical drama Holby City.
He is married to actress Verona Joseph and has two daughters and a son: Elsie-Mae Blackburn, Ruby-Rose Blackburn and Terrell Blackburn. [8]
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama For Love Alone (1986) and then appeared in three television series, Hey Dad..! (1990), Brides of Christ (1991), and Home and Away (1991), and the film Flirting (1991). After moving to the United States, Watts initially struggled as an actress, taking roles in small-scale films until she starred in David Lynch's psychological thriller Mulholland Drive in 2001 as an aspiring actress. The role began her rise to international prominence.
Matthew Robinson is a British-Cambodian television and film executive producer, producer, director and writer. After graduating from Cambridge University. he directed many episodes of popular British television dramas and soap operas in the 1970s and 1980s. He became the first producer of the series Byker Grove (1989–1997), and was also made the executive producer of EastEnders (1998–2000).
Euros Lyn is a Welsh film and television director, best known for his work in Doctor Who, Sherlock, Black Mirror, Daredevil, His Dark Materials and Heartstopper.
Verona Joseph is a British actress. She played the role of Jess Griffin in the BBC drama series Holby City between 2002 and 2007 and continued to appear as a recurring character from time to time. In 2004, she appeared in the first series of the BBC dancing competition Strictly Come Dancing with her professional dance partner Paul Killick. She appeared in the first episode of series four of Doctor Who as Penny, a journalist.
James Hawes is a British television director. He has worked in British television drama since the mid-1990s, and has also produced documentaries for British and American television networks. His work has ranged across high-end period pieces and prime-time adventure drama, including the re-launch of Doctor Who and Enid, a biopic starring Helena Bonham Carter about the celebrated children's author Enid Blyton, which won Hawes a BAFTA nomination as Best Director at the 2010 ceremony.
Tony Curran is a Scottish actor who has appeared in Underworld: Evolution, Doctor Who, Roots, and the Netflix historical epic Outlaw King. He appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor: The Dark World (2013) as Bor and the second season of Daredevil (2016) as Finn Cooley. In late 2022, Curran starred in the BBC drama Mayflies.
Janice Margaret "Jan" Graveson is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in EastEnders as Disa O'Brien and Benidorm as Susie.
Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2023), for which she won a Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Pete McTighe is a British screenwriter and executive producer. He is originating writer of Wentworth, a female ensemble prison drama series that won Most Outstanding and Most Popular Drama at the Logie Awards. He is the creator and writer of the BBC1 mystery thriller series The Pact and has written various television productions in the UK and internationally including Doctor Who, The Rising, Glitch, Nowhere Boys and A Discovery of Witches. McTighe has received five Australian Writers Guild Award and one Welsh BAFTA nomination for his work.
Dominic Mafham is an English stage, film and television actor. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
The seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who was broadcast concurrently on BBC One in the United Kingdom, and was split into two parts as the previous series had been. Following its premiere on 1 September 2012, the series aired weekly with five episodes until 29 September. The remaining eight episodes were broadcast between 30 March and 18 May 2013. The 2012 Christmas special, "The Snowmen", aired separately from the main series and introduced a new TARDIS interior, title sequence, theme tune, and outfit for the Doctor.
"The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2011, it is the seventh Doctor Who Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Farren Blackburn. Internationally, the special was shown on BBC America in the United States and on Space in Canada the same day as the British broadcast, with ABC1 in Australia showing it one day later.
"The Rings of Akhaten" is the seventh episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 6 April 2013. It was written by Neil Cross and directed by Farren Blackburn.
Iain De Caestecker is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying Leopold Fitz/The Doctor in the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020). He is also known for his roles in Coronation Street (2001–2003) as Adam Barlow and the films Shell (2012), In Fear (2013), Not Another Happy Ending (2013), Lost River (2014), and Overlord (2018).
The Musketeers is a British period action-drama program based on the characters from Alexandre Dumas's 1844 novel The Three Musketeers and co-produced by BBC America and BBC Worldwide. The series follows the musketeers Athos, Aramis, and Porthos as they serve King Louis XIII and citizens of 17th-century Paris. The first episode was shown on BBC One on 19 January 2014. It stars Tom Burke as Athos, Santiago Cabrera as Aramis, Howard Charles as Porthos, Luke Pasqualino as D'Artagnan, Tamla Kari as Constance Bonacieux, Maimie McCoy as Milady de Winter, Ryan Gage as Louis XIII and Alexandra Dowling as Queen Anne. It also features Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu in Series One, Marc Warren as Comte de Rochefort in Series Two, and Rupert Everett as the Marquis de Feron in Series Three.
Alexandra Dowling, is an English actress best known for her lead role as Queen Anne in the BBC One historical action drama series The Musketeers, which is based on the characters in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. She is also known for her guest starring role as Roslin Frey in HBO's Game of Thrones.
Shut In is a 2016 psychological horror thriller film directed by Farren Blackburn, written by Christina Hodson, and starring Naomi Watts, Oliver Platt, Charlie Heaton, Jacob Tremblay, David Cubitt, and Clémentine Poidatz.
Charles Ross Heaton is an English actor and musician. He is known for starring as Jonathan Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things (2016–present) and for his roles in feature films like As You Are (2016), Marrowbone (2017), The New Mutants (2020), No Future (2021), and The Souvenir Part II (2021). Prior to his acting career, Heaton played in a number of London-based bands.
Gypsy is an American psychological thriller drama television series created by Lisa Rubin for Netflix. Naomi Watts stars as Jean Holloway, a psychologist who secretly infiltrates the private lives of her patients. Billy Crudup co-stars as her husband Michael. The first season comprises 10 episodes and was released on June 30, 2017.
Peter Hoar is a double BAFTA winning British director of film and television, known for his work on Daredevil, Doctor Who,It's a Sin and The Last of Us.