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 according to Kemp, he did consider the Iraq invasion was "a mistake", but believed the British involvement in Afghanistan to be a just war. It took a year to make the series Ross Kemp in Afghanistan In addition to Kemp, the crew consisted of the director a cameraman and sound man with the director doubling as a second cameramen. The crew were embedded with British troops and accompanied the soldiers every single day being "in constant danger" according to Kemp. Of the crew's status in the unit, Kemp commented: "Everyone said, "The soldiers are there to protect you." F*** off!