The first director (replaced by Simon Curtis) of the BBC's adaptation/rewrite/travesty of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford, well and truly dobbed in by the wonderful Eileen Atkins.
The original director was let go after six weeks. “He didn’t really understand why it was funny. I don’t want to down this bloke, because he might turn out to be able to do wonderful, deeply left-wing, odd little films where nobody is a professional. But his one note to me – and I did not know what he was talking about – was, ‘You see, Eileen, if I went to a dinner and I saw that everybody round the table was a conservative, I would not sit down at that table. I want you to persuade me to sit down at that table.’ I hope, even not as an actor, you can see it’s not a great help.”
According to this fan site the original director was one Steve Hudson.
Put On Your Big Boy Pants, Maybe?
2 hours ago
