---
name: "Saul Metzstein"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/saul-metzstein"
fi1m_id: "saul-metzstein"
imdb_id: "nm0582792"
tmdb_id: 1048458
wikidata_id: "Q7427324"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "30 December 1970"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 78
average_as: "director"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-07T20:07:46.790000+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Saul Metzstein

## Identity

Saul Metzstein

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/saul-metzstein
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** saul-metzstein
- **IMDb ID:** nm0582792
- **TMDB ID:** 1048458
- **Wikidata ID:** Q7427324
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Metzstein, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7427324, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0582792/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1048458

Director and producer. Born 30 December 1970 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 30 December 1970, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- **Active:** 1994–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 4 directing, 2 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Ashley Way](https://film.one/person/ashley-way.md), [Colm McCarthy](https://film.one/person/colm-mccarthy.md), [Daniel Nettheim](https://film.one/person/daniel-nettheim.md), [Daniel O'Hara](https://film.one/person/daniel-ohara.md), [James Hawes](https://film.one/person/james-hawes.md)
- **Primetime Emmy Awards:** 1 Emmy (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as director, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 83 (2), 2000s 78 (1), 2010s 75 (2), 2020s 82 (1)
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Crime 3, Mystery 2, Action & Adventure 1, Comedy 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Metzstein, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7427324, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0582792/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1048458

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Slow Horses*](https://film.one/tv/slow-horses.md) (82), [*Ripper Street*](https://film.one/tv/ripper-street.md) (74)
- **AMC+:** [*Doctor Who*](https://film.one/tv/doctor-who-2005.md) (78)
- **Peacock:** [*Brassic*](https://film.one/tv/brassic.md) (76)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Saul Metzstein

> Saul Metzstein is a television director whose name you do not notice, and on *Slow Horses* and *Doctor Who* that is the job done properly. He makes other people's programmes look like themselves; what a Metzstein film looks like is harder to say.

Watch the third season of *Slow Horses* (2023) straight through and try to spot the director. You will not. Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb is the reason the series works, the office is the show, and the thriller plot underneath is ordinary and gets away with it; nobody behind the camera is asking for credit. Metzstein directed all six episodes and has described the task as shooting "a slightly too-long film", which is exactly what it feels like. We watched it without once wondering who was in charge, and on a series whose pleasure is its people rather than its pictures we mean that kindly, though we know it is the kind of kindness directors tire of.

He came in at the bottom, as a runner on *Shallow Grave* and *Trainspotting*, and got out of it quickly. *Late Night Shopping* (2001), a small British comedy-drama, was the debut; *Guy X* (2005) followed, then *Micro Men* (2009) for television, and then, for a stretch, other people's films: second-unit work on *Dredd* (2012), *Suffragette* and *The Snowman*. From there it has been television, and good television: five episodes of *Doctor Who* series 7 (2012–13), including the Christmas special *The Snowmen* and the finale *The Name of the Doctor*, then *Ripper Street*, *The Musketeers*, *Brassic*, and *Slow Horses* for a second full season in 2025. He has made two films with the writer Jack Lothian.

What he is good at is plain from the list. *Doctor Who* changes its setting and its tone every week and its effects budget with them, and a director who can move from a Victorian snowfall to a grounded spy office without the join showing is worth having. He gives actors room and tells them clearly what he thinks, and casts as large as Herron's or Davies's need someone who can do both. He gets a difficult, expensive shoot finished. Our review of *Doctor Who* found peaks as high as anything on television and troughs that were real; a programme like that leans on its directors precisely because they cannot save a bad script and must not get in the way of a good one.

The cost of all this is that there has been no theatrical feature since *Guy X*, and the run of second-unit jobs in between suggests a director who was, for a while, being used rather than heard. Twenty years in television have made him fluent and made him hard to describe. If you want to see what he does, the third season of *Slow Horses* is the place, all six hours, because it is the one thing on his list that is entirely his. We would like to see what he does with ninety minutes and nobody else's furniture.

## Biography

Saul Metzstein is a Scottish film and television director. He was born on 30 December 1970 in Glasgow and is the son of architect Isi Metzstein. He studied architecture at Robinson College, Cambridge, before working in production roles on films including *Shallow Grave* (1994) and *Trainspotting* (1996).

Metzstein directed the feature films *Late Night Shopping* (2001), for which he received the British Academy Scotland New Talent Award for best director in 2002, and *Guy X* (2005). He has directed episodes of series including *Doctor Who* (2012–2013), *Ripper Street* (2014), *The Musketeers* (2014), *Brassic* (2019–2020) and multiple seasons of *Slow Horses* (2023–2025). He has also worked as second unit director on films such as *Dredd* (2012) and *The Snowman* (2017).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, saulmetzstein.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

### Directed (4) — the average rests on these

- *Slow Horses* (2022), Fi1m 82, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/slow-horses.md)
- *Brassic* (2019), Fi1m 76, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/brassic.md)
- *Ripper Street* (2012), Fi1m 74, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/ripper-street.md)
- *Doctor Who* (2005), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/doctor-who-2005.md)

### Produced (2)

- *Trainspotting* (1996), Fi1m 88, Location Assistant — [page](https://film.one/film/trainspotting.md)
- *Shallow Grave* (1994), Fi1m 78, Production Runner — [page](https://film.one/film/shallow-grave.md)

## Complete filmography (29)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Slow Horses* (2022), series, Director — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/slow-horses.md)
- *Brassic* (2019), series, Director — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/brassic.md)
- *Living the Dream* (2017), series, Director
- *The Snowman* (2017), Second Unit Director
- *Suffragette* (2015), Second Unit Director
- *You, Me and the Apocalypse* (2015), series, Director
- *Black Sea* (2014), Second Unit Director
- *Our Zoo* (2014), series, Director
- *The Musketeers* (2014), series, Director
- *Ripper Street* (2012), series, Director — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/ripper-street.md)
- *Doctor Who: The Snowmen* (2012), Second Unit Director, Director
- *Dredd* (2012), Second Unit Director
- *Doctor Who: Pond Life* (2012), Director
- *Pond Life* (2012), series, Director
- *Doctor Who: Good as Gold* (2012), Director
- *Upstairs Downstairs* (2010), series, Director
- *Micro Men* (2009), Director
- *I Shouldn't Be Alive* (2005), series, Director
- *Guy X* (2005), Director
- *Doctor Who* (2005), series, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/doctor-who-2005.md)
- *Late Night Shopping* (2001), Director
- *The Name of This Film Is Dogme95* (2000), Director, Director of Photography
- *Coming Soon* (1999), as Photographer 2
- *Santa / Claws* (1997), Director, Writer
- *Cafe Rendezvous* (1996), Writer, Producer, Director
- *Small Faces* (1996), as Production Runner
- *Trainspotting* (1996), Location Assistant — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/trainspotting.md)
- *Shallow Grave* (1994), as Production Runner — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/shallow-grave.md)
- *The Piper* (1993), Director

## Awards

### Primetime Emmy Awards — 1 won

- 2026: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (won), for *Slow Horses*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/saul-metzstein