Former Essex uni student is now a top film director

6:00am Thursday 26th July 2012 in FeaturesBy Neil D'Arcy-Jones

On set – David Yates with Daniel Radcliffe on the Harry Potter set

HE’S one of the biggest film directors in the world and David Yates says his time as Essex University was a key influence on his career.
David, who directed the final four Harry Potter films has now come back to his old university to pick up an honorary degree.
Rather than do film, he studied politics at the Wivenhoe Park campus in the late Eighties, but while there he began planting the seeds for a film career which would see him direct one of the biggest film franchise in history.
“It was only by a complete stroke of luck that I got here,” he says modestly. “I used to skive off college all the time so never expected to go to university at all.
“When my A-Level results came in, my teacher was as bemused as I was. He said ‘I don’t know how you did that, but you better think about going to university’.
“I remember looking around to see what was available and saw Essex.
“I had a real aptitude for politics and this place was exceptional at the time,” he smiles.
But while he flexed his political theories in the lecture theatres, outside he was making films.
Born in Lancashire, David’s interest in film started from a very early age when his mother gave him a Super 8mm camera.
At Essex he continued his passion making documentaries on a number of different subjects.
While at Essex he launched the university’s Film and Video Production Society, expecting to be inundated with hundreds of like-minded film-makers.
“There were five of us in the end,” he laughs.
After graduating, David got a job in Tie Rack as “the worst salesman in the world”, but a year later began working on his first serious short film, When I Was a Girl.
It picked up a number of awards on the film festival circuit and got him a place at the prestigious National film and Television School.
“If I was to look back at what my big break was, that film was it,” Daivd admits. “We were coming into a recession then and jobs were very tricky to come by, but that film opened a lot of doors for me.”
Starting off directing episodes of the Bill, he soon built up a reputation as one of the most exciting new directors in British television.
He explains: “Because I was doing good work, the great scripts just kept on coming.”
Those included Bafta award-winning The Way We Live Now with David Suchet; State of Play with John Simm and James McAvoy and Channel 4’s Sex/Traffic which picked up eight Baftas.
So when Warner Bros were looking for a new director to take over the Harry Potter series of films, they picked Yates.
“I had a great time doing it,” David says. “Everyone was brilliant, right from the start. I was pretty lucky to have a great cast already in place and an excellent support crew.”
After completing the back to back filming of the last two Deathly Hallows films, David took a well-earned rest.
Now he’s back and as busy as ever, with a number of projects on the go, the most exciting of which is a feature film version of Doctor Who.
“I’m so excited about it,” he grins.
David is also working on a trilogy about Al Capone and a possible adaptation of the JP Donleavy novel, The Fairy Tale of New York.
His next movie will be a re-make of Jason and the Argonauts.
“I’m making Jason cool,” he beams. “This is the young Jason long before he gets his hands on the Golden Fleece.
“It’s about how a young man becomes a leader. Jason has to prove he’s a leader of men while the Argonauts are these bunch of villains.”