Chloë Thomas

I’ve had a few breaks. And the biggest ones both came after low points. 

There was a point where I was doing pretty well in arts documentaries and could have carried on, but I never really wanted to do that kind of filmmaking, I would rather fail making something original than succeed making a film about someone else’s art, even though I love watching arts films. So I made a conscious decision to turn down documentaries to break into comedy, where more women seemed to be hired to direct than in drama, and anyway, I love laughing. I did some comedy/factual crossovers, where a comedian plays a fictional character in real situations,  deceiving members of the public, but I hated the lying involved. The worst one of these led to my best comedy break. I was series producing an E4 dating format which made me feel dirty, but the production company was making comedy pilots. I threw myself at them, saying I’d work for free at weekends to direct comedy. I met Sharon Horgan and we made a mockumentary style pilot of her early sitcom Angelo’s. Then a year later, producer Damon Beesley (pre-Inbetweeners) hired me (post-baby) to direct all six episodes of it, which was a massive break. I used this as leverage to get meetings with agents. (And before that I’d asked producers I knew, which agents they would go to first when they were looking to hire a director.) 

After that break, I did get seen for more comedy directing gigs. The highlight was directing the first ever episode of Horrible Histories on CBBC. But then, I was labelled as a director “in Children’s”, which is a pigeon hole. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Children’s TV hires more diversely across all roles and is actually a fantastic genre to get fiction directing experience. This is commonly explained because the budgets are lower and so the perceived ‘risk’ of hiring a non-white and/or non-male director is mitigated. Post Horrible Histories I was offered more children’s, less comedy, and I was still way outside the adult TV drama world. This was my rationale for pitching hard for Hetty Feather, a high-budget Victorian era children’s BBC drama based on Jacqueline Wilson’s book. I figured that this would get me intensive costume drama experience (ten x 30-minute episodes) and might eventually get me to a point where I would be considered for adult period drama. 

My biggest drama break happened recently – my break into high end drama, when I was hired to direct Victoria for ITV. The writer and creator is Daisy Goodwin who I’d worked for as a totally inexperienced trainee on her BBC book magazine show and later on a high street fashion series. I bumped into her and gave her a hard time, and told her she should get me in to interview for Victoria. Making 2 series of Hetty Feather had led to interviews for adult dramas at last, but no job offers, on them – or anything at all! – for 18 months. It was great to realise during my Victoria interview prep that finally my eclectic CV was actually helping me – I’d directed Horrible Histories, I knew the story of Cholera in 1840s London and my hero Dr John Snow, and could reference art inspiration like Gustave Doré’s work. My episodes of Victoria were a huge step up in terms of scale, vision, profile of the cast, size of crew, and the budget. They went really well and this has transformed my career, I’m now being seen and pitching for high-end drama jobs. 

It shouldn’t matter that I am a woman director, but it does, and for the first time ever in my career, it’s an advantage. Producers are actively seeking out female creators. The Me Too movement has shamed television executives into realising that they don’t hire enough female talent, and in a similar way to Black Lives Matters has made producers start to own up to the whiteness of the industry. I’m interested in models of power. Directing is not just about vision and being an artist, it’s about leading and shaping the work of the talent around you. We don’t all have to be the same. Female models of power may still be less prevalent but they are there and we don’t have to follow a set leadership style. We don’t have to bully and shout to command authority. I have often been asked outright if I could ‘cope’ with a large crew (code for “can you tell men what to do?”) and tricky cast, in a way that I don’t hear reported from many male directors. 

On a drama set recently I had a real run in with a male actor. Crew members whispered to me: “He wants to direct and thinks he can”. I replied, “I’m sure he can direct. Most people can. But he isn’t right now. I am”. 

That Samuel Beckett quote has been turned into a cliche now, a bedroom instagram poster, but really there is nothing more true to me than “Fail Again. Fail Better.”

The challenge in being a director at any level is finding good material to work with. I’m now developing my own writing work and seeking out writers to make original projects.