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
Sam Mitchell (EastEnders) buried Den's body in the Vic cellar and Sam proceeded to blackmail Chrissie and was then framed for Den's murder by Chrissie. The culmination of the plot - which saw Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden return to "EastEnders" as Phil and Grant to exonerate Sam - signified the departure of Kim Medcalf, who opted to leave the serial in 2005. Medcalf's final scenes aired on 17 November 2005. Westbrook returned to the show in 2009 in part of a shock storyline. Speaking of her comeback, she said, "I'm really happy to be coming back, it feels just like coming home.