J ames also worked on Torchwood (2006-11), Doctor Who’s first spin-off series. “It was very much the darker elder sibling,” he considers. “The show was a nice opportunity to push things in a more graphic-novel kind of direction.” Cyberwoman (2006), one of the two stories he directed, was written by current showrunner Chris Chibnall, who subsequently became “a good friend and colleague”.
After Doctor Who, James directed Chris’ poignant film script United (2011), about the 1958 air crash that killed eight members of the Manchester United football team. David Tennant, who’d also recently left Doctor Who, starred as assistant manager Jimmy Murphy.