Alice Troughton
Born
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Kent
Occupations
Years active2002–present

Alice Troughton is a British film and television director known for her work on Merlin, Doctor Who and its spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. In 2023, she made her feature film debut with The Lesson.

Career

Troughton studied drama at the University of Kent, where in her second year she directed Hamlet.[1] She realised she wanted to be a television director when she was 32 years old, having worked as a fringe-theatre director, writer, personal driver at ICM and BBC Films and care worker.[1] In 2002, she enrolled in the Doctors directing course.[1] The same year in India, Troughton filmed her first short film called Refuge, based on the diary of a young Tibetan woman.[1][2] It was later followed by another short film, Doris the Builder, starring Tom Ellis and based on a true story from her hometown, Aylesbury, about a builder who took a load of breast-enhancing hormones for a dare.[1]

From 2006 to 2010, Troughton directed episodes of each of Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Doctor Who. She was only the second person (after Colin Teague) to direct episodes of all three shows, which are set in a shared universe.[3] Despite their shared surname and common association with Doctor Who, Troughton is not related to actor Patrick Troughton, who played the Second Doctor in the 1960s.[4] Her directing in the franchise received overwhelmingly positive reviews, particularly for the Doctor Who episode "Midnight".[5][6] Since then, she has gone on to become a leading director, working on acclaimed award-winning British shows such as BBC Three's In the Flesh and Channel 4's Cucumber and Baghdad Central.[7] For her work on Cucumber, she was nominated for Best Director: Fiction at the 2015 Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards.[8] In the US, she worked on The CW's superhero series The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow and Netflix's science fiction series Lost in Space.[7]

For Doctor Who, she cast Colin Morgan in his second television role as the conflicted teenager Jethro Cane, which contributed to him being cast in Merlin,[9][10] where Troughton became one of the regular directors from the second series onwards. The two later collaborated on the BBC supernatural horror drama The Living and the Dead.[11]

Her debut feature film The Lesson, starring Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.[12][13]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Notes Ref.
2002 Refuge Short film [1]
2004 Doris the Builder Short film; also writer [1]
2023 The Lesson [12]

Television

Year Title Notes Ref.
2002–2004 Doctors 23 episodes [1]
2004–2005 Holby City 6 episodes [1]
2004–2006 EastEnders 20 episodes:
  • Episodes dated 5 to 9 January 2004
  • Episodes dated 31 May to 4 June 2004
  • Episodes dated 29 August to 2 September 2005
  • Episodes dated 6 to 9 June 2006
 [1]
2006 No Angels 3 episodes [1]
Torchwood 2 episodes: [9]
2007–2010 The Sarah Jane Adventures 10 episodes [6]
2008 Doctor Who 3 episodes: [3]
2009 Casualty 2 episodes [14]
Tonight's the Night Doctor Who sketch [15]
2009–2012 Merlin 13 episodes [16]
2012 Silk 2 episodes [1]
2013 Frankie 2 episodes [1]
Atlantis 5 episodes [16]
2014 In the Flesh 2 episodes [17]
2015 Cucumber 3 episodes [18]
Teen Wolf Episode: "Required Reading" [7]
2016 The Flash Episode: "Flash Back" [7]
The Living and the Dead 3 episodes [11]
2016–2017 Legends of Tomorrow 2 episodes [7]
2017–2020 Tin Star 3 episodes [7]
2018 Lost in Space Episode: "The Robinsons Were Here" [7]
A Discovery of Witches 3 episodes [19]
Lore 3 episodes [7]
2020 Baghdad Central 3 episodes [20]
2022 The Midwich Cuckoos 2 episodes; also executive producer [21]
2023 Boat Story 2 episodes [22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Arnold, Lewis (26 July 2020). "Alice Troughton". Directors Now. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  2. ^ Clipland. "Refuge - Short Film on Clipland". www.clipland.com. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Donna Feels the Heat!". Doctor Who Magazine (388): 5. 14 November 2007.
  4. ^ Lewinski, John Scott (3 June 2008). "The Doctor Dates His Daughter From 'The Doctor's Daughter'". WIRED. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  5. ^ McEwan, Cameron K (21 October 2009). "The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Mad Woman In The Attic Part 2 review". Den of Geek. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b McEwan, Cameron K (6 November 2009). "The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Eternity Trap Part 1 review". Den of Geek. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h White, Peter (6 September 2018). "'Doctor Who' & 'Lore' Director Alice Troughton Set As Lead Director For C4 Drama 'Baghdad Central'". Deadline. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  8. ^ "RTS announces Craft & Design awards nominees". Royal Television Society. 4 November 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Doctor Who Midnight director praises Russell T Davies and David Tennant". Radio Times. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  10. ^ AliceTroughton (26 February 2023). "👋🏻Hey everyone my name is Alice Troughton and I was one of the directors of the tv show Merlin and I've been asked to pop over to your group to have a quick Q&A with you all via live chat". r/merlinbbc. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  11. ^ a b Lawson, Mark (28 June 2016). "Phantoms in the four-poster: will The Living and the Dead outspook TV's scariest ghosts?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  12. ^ a b Lund, Anthony (14 June 2023). "The Lesson Trailer Brings Richard E. Grant and Julie Delpy to Film Noir". MovieWeb. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  13. ^ Wise, Damon (12 June 2023). "'The Lesson' Review: Richard E. Grant Steals Show In Slow-Burn Tale Of Literary Larceny – Tribeca Film Festival". Deadline. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  14. ^ "BBC One - Casualty, Series 23, With This Ring". BBC. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  15. ^ "BBC - Doctor Who - Tonight's the Night Preview". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  16. ^ a b "What could a female director mean for Star Trek?". BBC News. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  17. ^ "BBC Three - In The Flesh, Series 2, Episode 5". BBC. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  18. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (7 July 2023). "Richard E. Grant In 'The Lesson', Mark Duplass In 'Biosphere' & Their First-Time Female Directors – Specialty Preview". Deadline. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  19. ^ Boucher, Geoff (15 April 2019). "'A Discovery Of Witches': Female Creative Team Finds That It Takes A Coven". Deadline. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  20. ^ "Palestinian Waleed Zuaiter nominated for Best Actor at BAFTA TV Awards 2021". Esquire Middle East. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  21. ^ "Casting News: Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley to Lead TV Adaptation of John Wyndham's 'The Midwich Cuckoos' | Anglophenia | BBC America". BBC America. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  22. ^ "BBC releases first-look pictures for new thriller Boat Story starring Daisy Haggard and Paterson Joseph". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.

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