‘The Knifeman’ a biography of John Hunter by Wendy Moore
In 2013, I worked on a pilot for AMC loosely based on the life of pioneer surgeon John Hunter – an 18th century Scottish surgeon and one of the most distinguished scientists of his day. Wendy Moore had written a fascinating biography that caught the eye of show-runner Rolin Jones and he created a series around the fictional character John Tattersal (played by Tom Hollander). Tattersal – like Hunter – has a brother who is also in medicine and the tension between the two forms the foundation of the story.
The 40min pilot was filmed in three weeks with exterior locations at Luton Hoo and York, and studio builds at West London Studios. I was supervising art director and ran the York location builds and 2-day shoot while the studio sets were being finished.
I also developed the concept for the dissecting theatre which was built at West London – to date, the single most expensive set I have designed for one day of filming!!
Below are some pics of my own work on the project. Click here for a broader look at all the designs, concepts, drawings and models plus pics from the shoot.
