Bob Tomson is a multi award winning theatre director with an international reputation garnered over a 40 year career of unprecedented success; a rare opportunity to hear from a master story teller.
Bob Tomson, has been an actor, college and university lecturer in drama, a stage and screen writer, and now divides his time between teaching and as a professional director in FILM/ TV and Theatre.
Originally trained in film and TV, Bob directed and produced Sky One’s top-rated drama series Dream Team and was immediately drafted into the directing team to launch ITV’s innovative film series Night and Day with a brief to bring ground-breaking filming techniques and narrative styles to its first series.
The 26 x 1 hr specials Dream Team (series 4 and 5), which Bob developed, swept the boards at award ceremonies, winning all of the best Drama Series categories at the Indies, the Broadcast Awards and the Cable and Satellite Awards. Two months earlier his six part BBC Drama Series Hero to Zero was nominated for a BAFTA; the 90 minute film version sold to over 15 countries, while the TV series enjoyed an unprecedented second viewing.
In late 2024, he will direct the feature film ‘Bridge’.
TV continuing drama work includes: ITV’s Emmerdale, Night and Day, The Bill & Heartbeat; BBC’s Father Brown & Doctors; SKY TV’s Dream Team, Is Harry On The Boat?; Channel 4’s Brookside; Channel 5’s Family Affairs; and RTE’s Fair City.
Bob found early success in theatre. He ran some of Britain’s leading repertory companies (The Liverpool Everyman, Contact Theatre Company Manchester, Queens Theatre Company, Hornchurch, London) from which many of his productions have toured nationally and won him several Best Director international awards and nominations, including Olivier and Tony Awards.
He has a number of London West End productions to date, including: Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers (winner of every British Musical awards, and third longest running musical of all time); Leslie Bricusse’s Scrooge (London Palladium and Dominion Theatre seasons); Evita (London Dominion and Phoenix Theatres); the 60s musical Dreamboats and Petticoats (Savoy and Playhouse Theatres), nominated for Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards; John Godber’s smash-hit skiing comedy On the Piste (Garrick), Olivier Award nominated for Best Comedy; Dennis Lumborg’s controversial drama One Fine Day (Albery), nominated for Best Regional Play; Karoline Leach’s The Mysterious Mr Love (Comedy Theatre); Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds (London Dominion) and The Glenn Miller Story (London Coliseum).
International productions include: Blood Brothers (Broadway with a Best Director Tony nomination, U.S., Canadian, Australasian tours); Scrooge (U.S. Tour and Tokyo productions); Ghost The Musical (Moscow, Paris, Istanbul and Dubai productions); Evita (Berlin and Turin Opera House productions); The Last Laugh (Tokyo) starring Martin Freeman and Roger Lloyd Pack and The Vortex (Singapore) starring Jane Seymour.
Bob's work with celebrity performers is a treasure trove of anecdotes for his after dinner material or as a keynote conference speaker on the subject of team work.