Tom Kingsley

I directed David Tennant and Catherine Tate in ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ - the second of Russell T Davies’s three 60th Anniversary episodes of Doctor Who.

★★★★★ “Jaw-dropping… an instant classic” - Daily Telegraph.

★★★★★ “Spine-chilling… a true masterclass in television” - Independent.

★★★★★ “Perfect… an instant classic” - Evening Standard

★★★★★ “Utterly singular - one of 2023’s finest hours of TV” - Empire.

I directed the second half of This is Going to Hurt: the adaptation of Adam Kay’s insanely best-selling diaries about life as a doctor in the NHS.

Here’s a link to my Behind-the-Scenes thread

The New Yorker and Time magazines named it one of the 10 best TV series of 2022.

★★★★★ “Painfully funny and profoundly sad” - The Times, ★★★★★ “Extraordinary… vibrantly directed” - Empire, ★★★★★ “One of the best dramas of 2022” - Radio Times, ★★★★★ - The Independent, ★★★★★ - Evening Standard

I’ve directed the first two series and Christmas Special of Ghosts, written by the stars of Horrible Histories and Yonderland. It’s been nominated for three BAFTAs and is:

The 10th best TV show of 2020 - The Guardian. ★★★★★ “the funniest family comedy in years” - Daily Mirror. ★★★★ “Laugh-out-loud funny” Daily Mail. ★★★★ “A continuous delight” The List.

Here’s a link to my Behind-the-Scenes thread

Starring: Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Laurence Rickard, Charlotte Ritchie, Ben Willbond, Katy Wix. Producer: Matthew Mulot. Executive Producer: Alison Carpenter. DOP: Will Hanke. Production Designer: Amy Maguire. Costumes: Lucy Williams. Music: Arthur Sharpe and Ralegh Long. Editor: Mike Holliday.

Two series of Jamie Demetriou’s triple BAFTA-winning sitcom about Stath, who lets flats. Out now on Channel 4

“The funniest show of the year” - The Guardian. “Hilarious - could be our new comedy obsession” - Heat. “Hilarious - you could be watching the birth of a new classic show” - The Sun.

Created and written by Jamie Demetriou. Directed by Tom Kingsley. Produced by Seb Barwell.

Starring: Jamie Demetriou, Natasia Demetriou, Alastair Roberts, Katy Wix, Christos Stergioglou, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Ellie White, David Mumeni, Kayode Ewumi, Dustin Demri-Burns, Tom Stourton.

A one-off satirical mockumentary about the cost of living crisis. It’s based on the 300-year-old essay A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift. Gregg Wallace presents a story about a company that pays to extract the flesh of people who have been abandoned by the state, grows it into steaks, and sells it cheaply in the supermarket.

“Is this Channel 4’s most tasteless show ever?” - Daily Mail.

“Flawlessly executed… is this the most disturbing TV satire ever?” - The Guardian

Written by Matt Edmonds, Directed by Tom Kingsley, Edited by Jon Dean, Produced by Jonathan Levene, Executive Produced by Jack Kennedy and Tom Kingsley, Commissioned by Tim Hancock, Made by Untold Studios.

A short film for Sky Arts where a man slowly and painfully turns into a car.

Written by Jamie Demetriou. Directed by Tom Kingsley. Produced by Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet at Guilty Party.

Starring: Jamie Demetriou, Ellie White, Natasia Demetriou, Ben Ashenden. 

DOP: Will Hanke. Make-up: Emma Croft. Editor/VFX: Tom Kingsley.

A BAFTA-nominated six-part BBC3 series about YouTube vloggers.

"The 19th best TV show of 2017" - The Guardian. "Wonderful" - Observer. "Perfection. Nathan Barley's spiritual successor" - GQ. "Terrifyingly accurate" - Big Issue. "One of the year's three best new sitcoms" - The Telegraph. Winner: Best Web Series - Raindance.

Written by Liam Williams. Created by Olly Cambridge. Directed by Tom Kingsley. Produced by Rupert Majendie.

Starring: Liam Williams, Emma Sidi, Jon Pointing, Tim Key, Lolly Adefope, Jamie Demetriou, Hammed Animashaun, Jordan Brookes.

DOP: Will Hanke. Sound: Calum Sample. Production Manager: Harry Munday. Editor + VFX: Tom Kingsley

Watch all six episodes here

BAFTA-nominated feature film about a family who are accused of murder.

★★★★ "A deeply eccentric, haunting marvel" - The Guardian / ★★★★ "Totally superb" - Financial Times / ★★★★ "Hugely impressive, charmingly odd" - Daily Telegraph / ★★★★ "Subtle and surprisingly moving" - Little White Lies

Starring: Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Will Sharpe, Helen Cripps, Anna O'Grady. 

Written by: Will Sharpe. Directed by Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe. DOP: Simon Walton. Music: Ralegh Long and Arthur Sharpe

Will Sharpe and I made and distributed this on our own for £25,000. We wrote an article for the independent about why we cast Chris Langham.

More info on the official website. Buy/rent on iTunes / Google Play / Amazon Prime

A feature film about a man searching for his sister who went missing on a canal boat. 

★★★★ "It's mad. It's sane. Defies description" - Financial Times. ★★★★ "Absorbing, intelligent. A movie of strangeness and charm" - The Guardian. ★★★★ "Combines piercingly funny observation with unashamed weirdness" - The Observer.

More info at the official website.

Starring: Will Sharpe, Tiani Ghosh, Joe Thomas, Raph Shirley, Chris Langham, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Jamie Demetriou, Ewan Bailey, Sharon D Clarke, Jonny Sweet, Simon Bird.

Directed by Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe. Written by: Tiani Ghosh and Will Sharpe. DOP: Will Hanke. Sound: Edwin Weiss. Music: Arthur Sharpe and Ralegh Long. Edited and Produced by Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe.

Buy/rent on iTunes / Google Play / Amazon Prime / BFI Player

I made two TK Maxx adverts: the first was a motorcycle ballet, starring world-class French stuntwoman Sarah Lezito. And the second was set in on a more glamorous version of the International Space Station.

Production Company: Colonel Blimp, Service company: Radioactive Film, Agency: Wieden+Kennedy. Creatives: Mark Shanley and Paddy Treacy. Creative Directors: Freddie Powell and Hollie Walker. 

Directed by Tom Kingsley. DOP: Simon Chaudoir. Producer: George Saunders. Executive Producer: Paul Weston.

I wrote and directed the opening hour-long episode of Channel 4’s new docudrama series. Hellfire Farm is about a haunted Welsh farmhouse and the priest who saved the day.

“Genuinely sinister, pleasingly old-fashioned… nerve-wracking, with a fabulous frisson reminiscent of Ghostwatch” - FrightFest. "Chilling... lots of thumping good scares" - Radio Times. “Impressively spooky” - The Guardian. “Truly horrifying" - Daily Telegraph

Starring: Amy Morgan, Adam Leese, Llyr Evans. DOP: Will Hanke. Production Designer: Miren Maranon. Writer / Director / VFX: Tom Kingsley. Story Producer: Jon Parker. Executive Producers: Alex Marengo, Joel Wilson, Jamie Campbell. Production Company: Eleven.

Two short tasters for a possible future BBC3 series.

Written by and Starring: Jamie Demetriou and Ellie White. Directed and Edited by: Tom Kingsley. Director of Photography: Will Hanke. Hair and Make-up: Emma Croft. Produced by: Spencer Millman. Executive Producers: Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet. Production Company: Guilty Party

30-minute short film about a Japanese cockroach exterminator who thinks he might be the Messiah. This was the first film I made with Will Sharpe - we went to Japan to visit his aunt, uncle and grandmother in Tokyo, and filmed every day for nine days, apart from one day we had off to visit Kyoto. When we finished it, we realised it was 1/3 the length of a proper feature film, and so maybe we might be able to make one.

Starring Will Sharpe. Directed by Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe. 

Stop-motion animation about a paper man persecuted by the scissors that created him.

This animation is the first short film I ever made. It was heavily inspired by Jan Svankmajer, and I made it on the kitchen table in the evenings when I was working as a journalist. I sent it to some production companies to try and get work as a runner. Bart Yates at Blinkink watched it, got me work experience at Blink Productions, and I've been there ever since.

The first film I made. 12 years old. An hour long James Bond spoof. Nearly all terrible, but I edited the best 5 minutes into a music video for a James Bond covers project.