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
EastEnders in popular culture Other Way" by The Streets, and Tippa Irie's 'Complain Neighbour' "EastEnders" is referred to in John Godber's play "Teechers". The drama students, Gail, Salty and Hobby, say that they have acted out a part of "EastEnders", quoting "Hello, Arfur... All right, my love". When "Emmerdale" actor Nick Miles (who plays Jimmy King) starred in a play at the Edinburgh Festival called "Meeting Joe Strummer", his character was from Walford. Miles said in an interview that his character was originally going to be from the village of Emmerdale, but it was changed to Walford for fun. During the 1990s, whilst on