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
Tom Banks (EastEnders) Tom Banks (EastEnders) Tom Banks is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", played by Colm Ó Maonlaí from 23 April to 1 November 2002. Introduced in April 2002 as a love interest for Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), producers made the decision to axe the character and he was killed off in November 2002. The character was allegedly popular with female viewers who voted him the eighth sexiest male character to appear in "EastEnders" in a 2005 poll. Tom was a Merchant Marine who was friends with Mark Fowler and Sharon Watts when they were children. He also