Steve Hudson’s interest in outsiders and his emphasis on voices make the move into animation worth following. We rate Cranford highly, with some caution about attributing its warmth and humour to him alone.
Fi1m perspective
In Cranford (2007), the women’s determination to do things properly can be funny without making the women foolish. We rate the series highly for allowing apparently small concerns to matter, even when its genteel community looks a little too comfortable. Heidi Thomas’s adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell gives Eileen Atkins and Judi Dench dialogue that is funny without sounding laboured. We were moved by its attention to genteel poverty and the effort of keeping up appearances when circumstances change.
Hudson moved into directing with the short Goodbye (2004), then wrote and directed his feature debut, True North (2006), with Peter Mullan and Martin Compston. The later move to Stitch Head (2025), his first animated feature, is a substantial change of form. Adapting Guy Bass’s books takes his interest in outsiders into Frankenstein-inspired territory. We would want the humour to make those outsiders interesting as individuals, rather than merely ask us to be kind to them.
His approach to animation begins with voices and comic timing, drawing on his experience as an actor and voice artist. In his own account, “90 percent of comedic timing is sound. Animation starts as a radio play.” We welcome that emphasis, because comic dialogue needs actors who can make a line sound as though it has just occurred to them. It offers a useful point of comparison with Cranford, whose dialogue gives the actors room to be funny without making every exchange sound like a bid for applause.
But Cranford needs a qualification on a page devoted to Hudson: he shares the directing credit with Simon Curtis and was replaced after six weeks. We cannot fairly assign its humour, or its slow opening, to one director on that evidence. Thomas’s writing and Atkins and Dench’s performances are firmer reasons for our enthusiasm than any claim that Hudson has an unmistakable style. Start there for the women, and allow the opening time to settle.
Biography
Steve Hudson is a British director, writer and actor. Born in London on 6 August 1969, he has worked in film and television since the 1990s.
He directed five episodes of the BBC series Cranford (2007) before being replaced, and also directed and wrote the feature True North (2006) and the short Goodbye (2004). Hudson directed and co-wrote the animated feature Stitch Head (2025). He has appeared as an actor in numerous films and series, including Full Metal Jacket (1987) and The Keeper (2018).
