James Hawes

James Hawes is a British television director. He has worked in British television drama since the mid-1990s, and has also produced documentaries for British and American television networks. His work has ranged across high-end period pieces and prime-time adventure drama, including the re-launch of Doctor Who and Enid, a biopic starring Helena Bonham Carter about the celebrated children's author Enid Blyton, which won Hawes a BAFTA nomination as Best Director at the 2010 ceremony.

Hawes was born in Wimbledon, England, but his father's career in the mining industry soon moved the family to South America. Hawes started school in Lima, Peru. Eventually returning to the UK, the family settled in Cornwall where Hawes attended the local Constantine Primary School before moving on to Truro School. He read law at the University of Warwick, combining his studies with acting and directing in the student drama society. Around him at the time was an unusually talented group of students who would go on to considerable success as actors, writers, directors, producers and agents - including Ruth Jones, Stephen Thompson, Paul W. Anderson, Lawrence Till and Paul Stephens. On the Warwick academic staff at this time was Andrew Davies, soon to become a celebrated screenwriter.

In his graduate year, Hawes directed his own adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry plays, touring it to commercial venues.

Hawes began his television work in factual programming, working in the BBC's documentary and current affairs departments. In parallel, he launched The Young Shakespeare Company, a professional touring theatre company, which he ran as artistic director and which performed in the UK and US. In 1990, he directed HRH Prince Charles in The Earth In Balance, the prince's documentary about the challenges facing the global environment, which filmed across the world, including locations such as Hong Kong harbour, to Kennedy Space Center and the Sumatran jungles. The film was to set Hawes on a future that often found him shooting in challenging locations. Other documentary work includes the investigative strand, Inside Story for the BBC, the Emmy Award-nominated Egypt's Golden Empire and the 2003 drama-documentary, Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World, which he both wrote and directed. It used the story of Lawrence's life as a prism through which to study the shaping of the Middle East in a post-9/11 world.

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