Eddy Marshall
DIRECTOR
BIOGRAPHY
FOR SPEED, GO TO THE CV PAGE
WHICH HAS LINKS
'As a small kid, I developed a square-eyed love for the television. When BBC1 went off air on weekday afternoons I’d sit and study Test Card F and sometimes do a spot of interpretive dance to the accompanying light jazz. My first love was the television and as soon as I learned how to use the bus I became an avid cinema-goer too.
​At around the age of seven, my granddad Jack handed me a pearl of wisdom.
"Mate," he said, gimlet-eyed through a fug of Golden Virginia tobacco smoke, "Find out what you love doing and then see if you can get paid for it."
This fine but financially questionable advice led to two years studying acting, to doing all sorts of jobs (I worked as a copywriter, English teacher, care worker, cinema manager, researcher, comedy magician, oral historian and farmworker), to an undergraduate degree in Cultural Studies and Media at Leeds University as a mature student, to working for a film festival and then, in 1995, to a film school directors' course.
As soon as I started making my first proper film, the preceding times I'd spent making music, studying performance and media, photography, acting, writing, working for Leeds International Film Festival and watching many hundreds of films, all gathered into a single role that I instantly and absolutely loved. I exited the Northern School of Film & Television with what became an award-winning short film and a good second film.
The second part of my granddad's advice, the getting paid bit, took longer but I continued to make films while working in day jobs and I still love directing. I have a sharp eye and am an actors' director with a strong instinct for delivering an engaging, truthful story. My job involves being organised, clear and kind.
Over a diverse career, I've directed 70+ hours of single camera UK television drama and created many shorts, promos and commercial projects, some of which are on this website.
TV work includes multiple episodes of Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Doctors, Holby City, the last-ever episode of Grange Hill in 2008, Dream Team and Cavegirl.
I live up a hill in Cumbria overlooking Morecambe Bay with my wise and funny wife Claire and our twelve year-old son John, AKA Iggy.'
May, 2024
SELECTED
FILMOGRAPHY
EMMERDALE - FALLOUT SCENE
All of the selections featured on this page are about story. I could edit lots of nice, unconnected shots into a showreel and underscore them with music but I don't think it'd show you how a piece works because, really, that's what it's all about, telling a story. There are various forms and durations included here and they're all firmly narrative.
​This Emmerdale excerpt from May 2023 features an extremely rare thing in the world of continuing drama, a single scene occupying the whole first part of an episode.
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The piece was originally three separate scenes, two long scenes separated by a shorter scene. I suggested removing the divider scene and having instead a single 17 page-long scene, comprising whole Part One of the episode.
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Obviously, there needs to be a strong story to carry such a long scene but the scene is a direct pick-up from Charity (Emma Atkins) learning that new husband Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb) has been unfaithful with lodger Chloe (Jessie Elland), who's also just had Mack's baby. Things are further complicated in that Sarah (Katie Hill) Charity's niece knew about the deception but was convinced by Mack to stay quiet. Charity's son, Noah (Jack Downham), has remained in the dark.
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The unfaithfulness/secret baby storyline had been building for several months, so there was plenty of emotional fuel to fire up. To help nail writer Jo Maris' scene prior to shooting, we rehearsed out-of-hours on Zoom.
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BAFTA NOMINATION - This episode was one of four Emmerdale episodes selected by ITV to represent the best of Emmerdale's annual output and which led to a 'BAFTA 2024 Television Best Soap & Continuing Drama' nomination.
HOLLYOAKS - BIRTH
This eight minute Hollyoaks clip from 2022 is made up of five scenes with a heavily pregnant Nancy (Jessica Fox) and hapless Felix (Richard Blackwood), which were interwoven with the tragic death of long-term character Luke Morgan. To contrast the tragedy of Luke’s death these scenes have a comic tone, with a twist. With good support from Tomi Ade as Felix’s son DeMarcus and Charlie Behan, if you give this clip your time, it’ll be rewarded.
DREAM TEAM - 'THE WEDDING SINNER'
This excerpt is one of my favourite pieces of work to date. It features that perennial serial drama storyline of 'things going wrong at the altar' and was cut by Emmy-winning editor Tim Porter. Jason (Frankie Fitzgerald) has been unfaithful to Katy (Amy Perfect) and, on the eve of their wedding, everything starts to unravel ... [HD 20'40]
Off the back of my film school graduation film The Ring (below) I signed to commercials production company Chaos. This spot for UK Gold was shot in Wales' Black Mountains in chilly December, complete with fake cow piss, a rain machine and, very exotic at the time, a Helicam rig, that being a radio controlled helicopter the size of a small dining table with a 16mm camera onboard - pretty fabulous in 1999. The script was based on a pitch by TBWA and the sepulchral voiceover was delivered by the late, great Welsh actor Philip Madoc. [16mm 45 secs]
UK GOLD - 'SCHADENFREUDE'
THE RING
I studied directing at the Northern School of Film & Television in Leeds in 1995-96. The Ring, a black comedy about love, lust and larceny, got me going as a filmmaker. It won The Best British Production award at the 1997 British Short Film Festival and had numerous TV and festival screenings. I wrote the opening music and that's me singing over the end credits, so keep the volume button down low for that bit. I chose the script by playwright Jean Binnie because it was all action and no dialogue, as I wanted to show I could tell a story without words. I was later told esteemed film educator Andrej Mellin at the Lodz film school in Poland said the bedroom scene was 'good', which was apparently a rare accolade. [16mm 13 mins]
While working at Chaos I won a pitch to make this narrative promo for The Egg. The film features the band in pursuit of a McGuffin package and I wrote the film around the cover of The Egg's then-current album Travelator, which features a woman's feet in white heels, standing on a travelator:
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THE EGG - 'GETTING AWAY WITH IT'
THE EGG - 'GETTING AWAY WITH IT'
HOLLYOAKS - FLASHBACK
To date I've directed 121 episodes of Hollyoaks, including Christmas eps, births, deaths, funerals and four late night special eps, 'Hollyoaks: Back From The Dead', with Warren Brown nominated for 'Best Exit' at the 2006 British Soap Awards. Hollyoaks was a great place to push boundaries and try new ideas. Producer Lucy Allan allowed me to add unscripted visual elements to this scene exploring the trauma of the Afghan war, on the proviso that they didn't compromise the budget or the schedule (they didn't).
We got help from the local Territorial Army unit, some of whom had served in Afghanistan and avoided the cost of an armorer by making flat, painted outlines of the soldiers' rifles. After transmission the scene was immediately echoed by the lead Channel 4 News story about the of effects the war on both Afghans and British personnel. The news footage was a strange mirror of what we'd created in the show. As a piece of filmmaking it's very much the art of the possible but it was an interesting opportunity to explore a contemporary story in a timely and relevant way, played by Kent Riley and Michael Ryan, as brothers Zak and Caleb. [HD 3'20]
Narrative promos are tricky. I drew on the atmosphere of the song as the primary motor and tied in the album cover as an extra layer. [16mm 4 mins ]
This Hollyoaks episode was the culmination of a long-running storyline around bullied gay teen Esther (Jazmine Franks). During pre-production I worked closely to advisory notes provided by The Samaritans, whose brief was not to make the suicide attempt look in any way a romantic option, as imitative behaviour is a serious concern among younger viewers. In directing the ep, the intention was to create an alienating sensation of watching something deeply wrong and unpleasant, within the limitations of a pre-watershed show.
HOLLYOAKS - ESTHER'S SUICIDE
The central performance was internalised, the framing often spare and the atonal percussive music by Evelyn Glennie deliberately emotionally distancing. The episode created a sensation among Hollyoaks’ fans, with a massively positive fan reaction and the highest viewing figures for two years, plus strong positive feedback from The Samaritans and the Chief Medical Officer of Great Britain. [HD 22'30]
SICK PARTY
Sick Party is an educational drama I wrote, directed and co-produced for Leeds-based anti-exploitation charity Basis. Sick Party is aimed at 12-16 year-old girls to warn against the hazards of the 'party' model of grooming. The script was based on historical identity-redacted case studies provided by Basis (formerly called Isis, name changed for obvious reasons) and the performances were part scripted, part workshopped and improvised.
The film is core to a national training pack which has sold over 1,000 copies to schools and youth organisations and raised over £50K for Basis. Sick Party is probably the most disturbing film I've made, not because it's graphic but because the threat is credible, genuine and insidious. It's also the piece of work which I know will have had a the greatest positive effect on its intended audience. The film was made on a low budget with a crew of recent graduates from the Northern Film School, with equipment and services supplied for free. [HD 15 mins]
This bleak period piece about phobia set in 70s Hull was a UK Film Council Digital Short and the first to be shot on HD. Shot by George Steel, it was edited at Anthony Minghella's Belsize Park production base alongside Cold Mountain which was itself edited by the great Walter Murch. It won the Sweet Success award at the Sweet HD Film Festival in 2004 and was nominated for the Directors' Guild of Great Britain Best Short Film in 2005. It was screened at the National Film Theatre's Digital Test Bed and was also taken on by the UK Film Council for numerous festival screenings. [HD 10 mins]
THE WRECK OF THE MARY CELESTE
SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN
Written by playwright Robert Farquhar, Something To Believe In was one of a series of three minute films commissioned by Channel 4 in collaboration with Liverpool's Everyman Theatre to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species. The film features the excellent Paul Copley as a Darwinist street preacher aided by Shaun Mason. It's a nice, upbeat reset if you've watched Sick Party or Mary Celeste beforehand. The music was an early work by composer Hannah Peel. [HD 3 mins]
The Ring
BRITISH
SHORT FILM
FESTIVAL
1997
UCI CINEMAS BEST BRITISH PRODUCTION AWARD
Top prize out of 3,500 entries.
The Wreck Of The Mary Celeste
SWEET HD FILM FESTIVAL
2004
SWEET HD
SWEET SUCCESS AWARD
Top prize at Edinburgh in this festival of High Definition films.