Bruce flits between drama and documentary and everything in between. He established himself as one of the country’s leading drama directors on diverse work such as Our World War, Our War,Home Fires, Doctor Foster (season 1) and Murdered by My Father, that garnered Adeel Akthar with his first BAFTA and the first BAFTA awarded to a non-white lead male.
Bruce’s first feature film Leave to Remain about child refugees going through the asylum process was selected for The London Film Festival and has won awards globally.
More recently Bruce has directed Born To Kill about a psychopath which, won Jack Rowan a BAFTA nod for male lead – the youngest yet and, Anne for ITV starring Maxine Peake as the Hillsborough campaigner.
Bruce’s work has garnered many awards across insitutions such as BAFTA, RTS, Grierson, Broadcast and Emmy.
When did you know you wanted to be a director?
It was all accidental. There was no real master plan – in fact my journey started with a tragedy that I never thought I’d emotionally recover from, in that my daughter died suddenly as a baby. I’d been a street photographer for a while subsisting on the dole and taking advantage of the various brilliant YOP schemes on offer – that’s a Youth Opportunity Programme to all you youngsters and rich folk. A brilliant bloke that ran a photo gallery and dark room in Leicester saw my snaps and offered me an exhibition.
I should have been mighty grateful but inside when I experienced the ‘opening night’ I felt a bit sick and irritated by all the visitors. I realised I was serving up what we now call ‘poverty porn’ or in my case I documented the local black community. I felt a disconnect and thought that TV was the best way to reach what I considered as ‘my audience’. Folio in hand I applied and was accepted to Newcastle Poly that ran a hybrid new course that took in film and photography. Then tragically in the summer of my first year, my daughter Camilla died and this was a full stop to my life.
An inspiring photography lecturer encouraged me to document how I felt with my photography and that it might even help. It did. A BBC producer then saw my show about Camilla and asked me to make a documentary about it. This documentary won an RTS award and that was it – I was away. Directing docs. But that feeling crept back in – I was making people share their most difficult and private parts of their lives and I couldn’t square it, so I moved across to drama. Here I felt more able to express what a character needed to an actor as opposed to a contributor, as they have the capacity (most of them) to manage the difficult feelings we need them to express. And they get paid for it! Working with actors was a revelation. I’m in awe of what they can do.
Once you knew you wanted to pursue a career as a director, what where your first steps in achieving this goal?
I was living up north and everything was in London. My first steps were to write to every producer, executive and production company that was listed in The Knowledge and ask for a job. I have a tonne of rejection letters that I still have today. I applied to every bit of funding going, wrote scripts, made short films and it was one short film called Fish that brought me to the attention of an agent. Who’s been my agent ever since.
In my pure doc days I’d done a lot of music related documentaries too, so pulled a few favours and knew that Mel B from Spice Girls was wanting to try her hand at acting – so I gave her the gig of playing a fish wife in Newcastle (where I had studied), and she was great. I then managed to get a very cool soundtrack and a great script about mixed race kid not fitting in – but inspired by a Fish. It was sub Kes – Kes moved me like no other film when I was growing up. However, I knew I didn’t want to make verite films – but felt a need to tell stories about something of consequence, that moved people – from the margins. Fish was my Kes in short form and opened up drama directing a little more.
What obstacles or set backs did you face in becoming a director?
Our business isn’t as creative as it likes to think. There are some hugely creative people in it but broadly speaking, it likes to know whether you shoot cars or kids, it likes to put you in a predictable box – this is what I learned early on. What I mean is – because I made docs about serious stuff (Cot death, war and asylum) and not so serious music docs (Eminem/Puff daddy/Mary J Blige) it was hard to categorise me. I found that with some docs there was an appetite and need for reconstruction. I feel you quiver, and rightly so. It can be rubbish. But recon or what’s now called visualisations, can also elevate a doc where access is denied or its imperative to put the viewer into an experiential space where they feel the jeopardy that the contributor might feel. So, I made a range of high-octane drama docs like SAS: Iranian Siege and Brinks Mat: Greatest heist and Flight 93. This brought me to the attention of some drama folks, and I was ‘tested’ on a returnable series to get ‘flying hours’. That was a real awakening. Here I learned a LOT, but also that the director is not that important to returnable series. I once met with the people that made 24 – and they said, “if anything goes wrong, it’s your fault” – and its true – you’re a custodian, a cog, that’s all. If you mess up the machine by trying to be different – it all breaks down. Not in my nature unfortunately. It was a while before I returned to drama and found my feet and voice.
How did you develop your voice and hone your craft?
When I started making ‘fact based’ drama’s my voice was starting to appear. I get emotional by real stories and real drama. I also found that the responsibility of telling a story about people whose family are alive or if they are not, is immense, and everybody gets that. From the actors to the crew – we want to do our best for those people whose lives have been ruined by a stabbing, a suffocation, a drowning or by being at war. I really felt a sense of purpose. That’s important to me. Then having such a strong bond with actors who I think are extraordinary – so I constantly search for a truth in a performance and always try and push the ‘take’ about, like moulding clay. For me, it’s not about the last take being ‘the best’ but each take being a step to something different. I’m not the kind of director that storyboards everything – stunts and car chases or VFX sequences, yes. I plan carefully but do like to leave some things to chance and magic that can happen on set – particularly if you are in the elements or in real places where random things can happen which can keep ‘takes’ alive and moving.
How did you get your first break?
Breaks are a continuous thing – I am still getting ‘breaks’ – each project feels like a new start – but I guess my first break that got me into making telly in the first place was when LWT were running a competition to find documentary filmmakers to join their factual department. We needed to answer a question about what ‘Home’ meant to us. I can’t recall what I said – but coupled with my film about Camilla (my daughter who died) – that was my ticket. She was my ‘ticket’.
TV Credits: Then Barbara Met Alan (2022), Anne (2022), Murder in the Car Park (2021), The Cure (2020), Born to Kill (2018)
Film Credits: Black Cab (2024).
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