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
Ross Kemp in Afghanistan Reports in September 2008 that filming of a follow-up series in Afghanistan was underway, and indicated that it as to be a two-part series of 60 minutes each, to be provisionally titled "Ross Kemp: Return To Afghanistan". It was later confirmed that the second series like the first was to be a five-part programme, and was to premiere on Sunday 1 February 2009. In the follow-up series, Kemp is embedded within Delta company of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (5 SCOTS), the 5th battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, deployed to Afghanistan as part of 16th Air Assault Brigade.