Philippa Lowthorpe is an English film and television director. She was awarded the Deluxe Director Award at the WFTV Film and Television Awards for the miniseriesThree Girls. She recently directed episodes of the second season of The Crown and the 2020 film Misbehaviour.
Early life and education Philippa Lowthorpe was born in a village near Doncaster, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and grew up in Nettleham, Lincolnshire.
She attended De Aston School in Market Rasen and then went to St Hilda's College, Oxford to study classics.
Career Lowthorpe moved to Bristol to make documentaries for BBC Bristol, including Three Salons at the Seaside and A Skirt Through History, about women's untold stories.
Her award-winning documentaries led her to be invited to write and direct her first drama, Eight Hours from Paris (1997) for George Faber, a film for Screen Two in which real people played themselves, alongside professional actors. This was followed by The Other Boleyn Girl (2003), adapted from the 2001 novel of the same name by Philippa Gregory, for BBC films, shown on BBC 2. In 2006 she directed Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (2006).
She was lead director on the very first series of Call the Midwife. She also directed the first Call the Midwife Christmas Special (2013), for which she won a British Academy Television Craft Award in 2013. A 2013 interview with her appears on the BAFTA website. She also received a British Film Institute award in 2013. She directed Jamaica Inn in 2014.
Her first feature film, Swallows and Amazons (2016), won Grand Prize Feature at New York International Children's Film Festival, and the Youth Jury Award for Best Films4Families Feature at Seattle International Film Festival in 2017.
The BBC mini-series Three Girls (2017), about the Rochdale young child exploitation, reunited her with executive producer Susan Hogg and producer Simon Lewis, with whom she had previously worked on Five Daughters. The series was awarded by BAFTA for best directing in fiction, with writer Nicole Taylor recognised for best writing in a drama series, and Úna Ní Dhonghaíle for best editing in fiction, in 2018. In May 2018 Three Girls was voted Best Mini Series at the BAFTA TV Awards (shared with Nicole Taylor, Susan Hogg, and Simon Lewis). In October 2018 Three Girls a won the Prix Italia (again shared with Nicole Taylor, Susan Hogg and Simon Lewis).
In 2025 Lowthorpe directed the factual drama miniseries based on the imprisonment of a British national in Iran, Prisoner 951.
Filmography Television Documentary series Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes 1992 BBC 40 Minutes Episode "Not at Their Age" 1994A Skirt Through History Episodes "The Experiment" and "A Marriage"
TV movies Year Title Director Writer Producer 1992 Enniskillen: Splendid Hearts 1995 Remember the Family 1997 Eight Hours from Paris 2000 A Childhood 2003 The Other Boleyn Girl 2006Beau Brummell: This Charming Man 2007Sex, the City and Me 2015Cider with Rosie
Miniseries Year Title Director ExecutiveProducer Notes 2010Five Daughters 2014Jamaica Inn 2017Three Girls 2020 The Third Day 3 episodes 2025 Prisoner 951
TV series Year Title Notes 2013-2014 Call the Midwife 5 episodes 2017 The Crown Episodes "Marionettes" and "Vergangenheit" 2022 Willow Episodes "Wildwood" and "Prisoners of Skellin"
Film Documentary film Three Salons at the Seaside (1994) (Also producer)
Short film The Spy Who Caught A Cold (1994) The Gorals Do Bristol (1999)
Feature film Swallows and Amazons (2016) Misbehaviour (2020) H Is for Hawk (2025) (Also writer)
Awards and nominations
Year Association Category Work Result 1995 RTS Programme Awards Best Single Documentary Three Salons at the Seaside 2011 RTS Programme Awards - West of England Best Television Drama Five Daughters Best Director RTS Programme Awards Best Drama Serial Five Daughters 2013 British Academy Television Craft Awards Best Director - Fiction / Entertainment Call the Midwife British Academy Television Awards Radio Times Audience Award Television and Radio Industries Club Awards HD Drama Programme of the Year Christopher Award Television & Cable RTS Programme Awards - West of England Best Director Drama Call the Midwife RTS Programme Awards Best Drama Series Call the Midwife] 2017 Seattle International Film Festival Youth Jury Award for Best Films4Families Feature Swallows and Amazons RTS Programme Awards - West of England Best Director, Drama New York International Children's Film Festival Grand Prize Feature 2017 WFTV Awards The Deluxe Director Award Herself Three Girls 2018 British Academy Television Craft Awards Best Director: Fiction Three Girls British Academy Television Awards Best Mini-Series Broadcasting Press Guild Awards Best Single Drama/Mini-series UK Broadcast Awards Best Drama Series or Serial RTS Programme Awards - West of England Best Television Drama Three Girls Best Director Drama RTS Programme Awards Best Mini-Series Three Girls
Notes 1. Call the Midwife — with Heidi Thomas (writer), Hugh Warren (producer), and Pippa Harris (executive producer) ... — with Heidi Thomas (writer) and Pippa Harris (executive producer) 2. Three Girls — with Nicole Taylor (writer), Simon Lewis (producer), and Susan Hogg (executive producer) 3. Swallows and Amazons — with Andrea Gibb 4. Five Daughters — with Stephen Butchard and Simon Lewis
Honours Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts in recognition of Lowthorpe's contribution to film and television, UWE Bristol.
References
External links
Philippa Lowthorpe — BFI