E134 - Halloween Special: Directing Ghostwatch with Lesley Manning

The Directors’ Take Podcast

In this episode of The Directors' Take podcast, your hosts Oz Arshad and Marcus Anthony Thomas are joined by Lesley Manning, the director of 1992's cult classic British horror, Ghostwatch. The highest rated single drama for 48 years on the BBC and named by Channel 4 as the most controversial TV drama, Ghostwatch has had a a resurgence around its 30th anniversary and is now being credited as one of the films to have popularised the use of found footage, comfortably predating The Blair Witch Project. Lesley is also a tutor at the prestigious National Film and Television School, so we talk about her career as well as doing a deep dive on craft. The conversation covers:

-What is directing?

-Her journey into the industry.

-What obstacles did she face in trying to become a director?

-How did she get her first break?

-A craft deep dive on Ghostwatch and the fallout after release.

-Her process of teaching, commonalities in directors.

-How she sees the industry now and the challenges that are there.

Lesley's Bio

Welsh born Lesley Manning started making films at Bristol Art College where she graduated with 1st Class Honours. She trained at the National Film and Television School as a director and graduated to work on films and serials at the BBC. One of which was the cult hit Ghostwatch, the highest rated single drama for 48 years – BBC Screen One film strand and named by Channel 4 as the most controversial TV drama.

Lesley directed My Sister Wife BBC Screen Two film strand and won CRE best drama, Best Asian Film Award and was screened at Dinard and Brussels film festivals. 2011 Leila is the first feature Lesley has written as well as directed – and was a finalist at Austin Festival, winning Best Actress at London Independent FF and Audience and Jury award for best narrative at United Festival.

In 2013 she completed Honeycomb Lodge – written by Surendra Kochar – a controversial film set in the British/Asian community won Best Film NRI in Delhi International Film festival. Now a tutor at the National Film and Television School, she has helped the careers of directors' such as Lewis Arnold, Nick Rowland, Rose Glass and Mahalia Belo.

Nuggets of the week

Marcus: The Battersea Poltergeist - Podcast series

Oz: Top Boy Director Breaks Down The Final Ever Episode | William Stefan Smith

Lesley: Chinese Proverb - 'The person who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt the person doing it'

Credits

Music by Oliver Wegmüller

Socials

Instagram: @TheDirectorsTakePodcast

Twitter: @DirectorsTake

Lesley Manning: Instagram & X (Twitter)

If you have any questions relating to the episode or have topics you would like covering in future releases, reach out to us at [e-mail].