Tom Hooper worked 10-hour days on "EastEnders", and learned to direct with speed. He was influenced in his early career by the cinematic style of American TV series such as "ER", "NYPD Blue" and "" and tried to work that style into his "EastEnders" episodes; one scene featuring Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) involved a crane shot, which Hooper believes made him infamous among the "EastEnders" production crew. In 1999, Hooper directed two episodes of Granada Television's comedy-drama television series "Cold Feet", which marked his move to bigger-budget productions. There was initially concern at Granada that Hooper might be an unsuitable director for
Sharon Watts Sharon Watts Sharon Mitchell (also Watts and Rickman) is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera "EastEnders", played by Letitia Dean. Sharon is one of "EastEnders" original characters, appearing in the first episode broadcast on 19 February 1985. The character was conceptualised by Tony Holland and Julia Smith, the creators of "EastEnders". Sharon was a teenager when the programme began: the adoptive daughter of Den and Angie Watts. Sharon remained a prominent character into the 1990s due to romantic pairings with brothers Grant (Ross Kemp) and Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden). In a long-running storyline dubbed "Sharongate", Sharon, married