Christopher Hall (producer)
Christopher John Hall (born 30 March 1957) is a British TV drama producer, who has produced dramas primarily for the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 networks, and worked for major British production companies including Kudos, Carnival Films, Hat Trick Productions, and Tiger Aspect.
Hall was born in London, the son of director Sir Peter Hall and actress Leslie Caron. He was educated at Eaton House Belgravia,[1] Bedales School and St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. He started his career as an assistant director on feature films with David Hare (Strapless (1989) and Paris by Night), Ken Russell (The Lair of the White Worm (1988)), and as a floor manager or assistant director on TV shows such as Inspector Morse and Porterhouse Blue. Working his way up through the grades, he became a line producer and then a fully fledged producer. In 1996, he produced The Final Passage, directed by his father Sir Peter Hall, which won BAFTA and RTS awards for Cinematography.
Hall's best-known productions include The Lost World (2001) starring Peter Falk, Bob Hoskins, James Fox, and Matthew Rhys. The production was noted for stripping the Conan Doyle text of racial overtones.[2] He also produced Archangel (2005) for the BBC, starring Daniel Craig, which was adapted from a 1998 Robert Harris thriller by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and filmed on location in Moscow and Latvia. In 2011, for Hat Trick and ITV, Hall produced Case Sensitive starring Olivia Williams. Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), which starred Richard E. Grant, John Nettles, Ian Hart, Richard Roxburgh and Geraldine James and received a BAFTA nomination for best sound, was another of Hall's productions.[3] Aristocrats, based on the Stella Tillyard biography of the Lennox sisters in 1999, was another major production. One of Hall's drama productions, made as a Christmas show for the BBC in 2003, was the BAFTA-winning The Young Visiters starring Jim Broadbent, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Sally Hawkins and Simon Russell Beale. It was narrated by Alan Bennett, and directed by David Yates.[4] The score, by Nicholas Hooper, won the BAFTA award for Original Television Music.[5]
Christopher Hall won a 2005 Emmy award[6] for producing the animated natural history drama, Pride.
In 2011 he produced Hidden, a four-part drama written by Ronan Bennett, starring Philip Glenister, and was creative producer on Labyrinth and, in August 2012, an adaptation of The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison, scripted by Mick Ford for Carnival Films and ITV. In 2013, he produced the Carnival Films ITV pilot Murder on the Home Front.[7] He also completed a ten-part series Dracula for NBC and Sky Living, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers. He produced the 13-part medical drama Critical[8] for Sky One and Hat Trick written by Jed Mercurio. The Durrells, a six-part series based on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy written by Simon Nye for Sid Gentle Films and ITV has transmitted to exceptional reviews and ratings. 8.2 million people watched the first episode, making it the most successful ITV drama launch since 2014. After its second episode a new series was commissioned. The first series had many award nominations including a Bafta nomination for best drama series. The Durrells won a Royal Television Society award for best production design. Hall has produced all twenty-six hours, (four seasons) of The Durrells.
Productions
- As producer
- The Durrells (2019)
- The Durrells (2018)
- The Durrells (2017)
- The Durrells (2016)
- Critical (2015)
- Dracula (2013)
- Murder on the Home Front (2013)[9][10]
- The Last Weekend (2012)
- Labyrinth (2012)
- Hidden (2011)
- Case Sensitive (2011)
- Ice (2011)
- The Fixer (2008)
- Burn Up (2008)
- The Commander (4) (2006–2007)
- Trial & Retribution (6) (2005–2007)
- Archangel (2005)
- Pride (2004)
- The Young Visiters (2003)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002)
- The Lost World (2001)
- Other People's Children (2000)
- Blue Murder (2000)
- Aristocrats (1999)
- The Final Passage (1996)
- As associate producer
- Agatha Christie's Poirot (1996)
- The Fragile Heart (1996)
- Bugs (1995)
- Anna Lee (1994)
- London's Burning (1990–1994)
References
- Higgins, Interviews by Ria (23 April 2017). "Relative Values: The French actress Leslie Caron and her son, Christopher". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- Poole, Oliver (12 November 2000). "BBC will strip Conan Doyle of racial overtones". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- "Craft Nominations 2002". BAFTA. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- Lowry, Brian (31 October 2004). "The Young Visiters". Variety. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- "Craft Nominations 2003". BAFTA. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- "Outstanding Children's Program – 2005". Emmys. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- Murder on the Home Front. Netflix. 2013.
- Critical (2015-)—cast and crew at IMDb
- Murder on the Home Front. Rotten Tomatoes. 2013.
- Murder on the Home Front. IMDb. 2013.