Dr Lawrence Jackson

Lawrence studied Modern Languages at Oxford University before attending Bournemouth Film School. After working in various crew capacities in the UK film industry for 3 years, he worked for BBC Northern Ireland Drama in-house for 2 years as a Bi-Media Producer. 

As writer-director he has five short films and as producer-director around fifty hours of radio drama and readings to his name. The shorts, shot in locations from Margate to Northern Ireland to Prague to Newcastle, have been screened at the Munich Film Festival, London’s ICA Cinema and on BBC2.

Lawrence's radio work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 4 Extra, in prestigious slots such as Drama on 3, Classic Serial, Afternoon Play and Woman’s Hour. 

He has cast and directed a wide range of actors including David Threlfall, Anne-Marie Duff, Rufus Sewell, Ciaran Hinds, Helen McCrory, Richard E.Grant, David Warner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. His most recent radio credit was the 90-minute BBC Radio 3 supernatural thriller The Strangers' Will written by Sarah Hall and Dominic Power.

Lawrence has also collaborated to develop screen and radio ideas with a variety of writers such as playwright David Rudkin and novelists John Connolly, Sarah Hall and Andrew Martin.

Lawrence's post is teaching and scholarship based. His areas of interest include directing actors, screenwriting and genre storytelling, with particular focus on ghost stories, thrillers and westerns.

In Spring 2022 he completed his PhD, entitled The Pestilence in the Ditch: Landscapes in Contemporary British Film Culture.

Lawrence convenes a variety of modules in screenwriting and filmmaking.

Lawrence would be happy to talk to any students about the practical side of directing actors, screenplay development and realising genre fiction for screen.