David Morrissey

At 59 years old, David Morrissey has this physical status:

David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. At the age of 18, Morrissey was cast in the television series One Summer (1983), and subsequently attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre for four years.

Throughout the 1990s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though he also played Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Christopher Finzi in Hilary and Jackie (1998).

He then had roles in Some Voices (2000) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003) and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003).

The former earned him a Best Actor nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter won him a Best Actor award from the Royal Television Society.In the years following those films, Morrissey had roles in The Reaping (2007), Sense and Sensibility (2008), Red Riding (2009), Nowhere Boy (2009), and Centurion (2010).

He also produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne (2010).

Morrissey returned to the stage in 2008 for a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and played the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011.

He then starred in the British crime film Blitz, playing a morally dubious reporter in contact with the eponymous cop killer.

The following year, he began portraying The Governor in the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of the AMC horror-drama series The Walking Dead. The British Film Institute describes Morrissey as being considered "one of the most versatile English actors of his generation", and he is noted for his meticulous preparation for and research into the roles he plays.

He has directed short films and the television dramas Sweet Revenge (2001) and Passer By (2004).

His feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Edge Hill University in July 2016.

He has been married to novelist Esther Freud since 2006; they have three children together and reside in London.

Early life

David Mark Morrissey was born in the Kensington area of Liverpool on 21 June 1964, the son of Littlewoods employee Joan and cobbler Joe Morrissey. He has two older brothers named Tony and Paul, and an older sister named Karen. The family lived at 45 Seldon Street in Kensington. Decades later, as part of National Museums Liverpool's Eight Hundred Lives project, Morrissey wrote that the house had been in his family since at least 1900. His grandmother had been married there and his mother was born there. In 1971, the family moved to a larger and more modern house on the new estates at Knotty Ash, while Seldon Street was later demolished.

Morrissey was greatly interested in film, television, and Gene Kelly musicals as a child. He decided to become an actor after seeing a broadcast of Kes on television. At St Margaret Mary's Primary School, he was encouraged by a teacher named Miss Keller, who cast him as the Scarecrow in a school production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz when he was 11 years old. Keller left the school soon after, leaving him without encouragement. His secondary school, De La Salle School, had no drama classes and made him think that the fear of bullying often dissuaded pupils from participating in lessons. On the advice of a cousin, he joined the Everyman Youth Theatre. For the first couple of weeks, he was quite shy and did not join in with the workshops. When he eventually participated, he ended up appearing in their production of Fighting Chance, a play about the 1981 riots in Liverpool.

By the age of 14, Morrissey was one of two youth theatre members who sat on the board of the Everyman Theatre. Ian Hart (with whom he has been friends since the age of five) was one of his contemporaries, as were Mark and Stephen McGann, as well as Cathy Tyson. He became friends with the McGann brothers, who introduced him to their brother Paul when the latter was on a break from his studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). When Morrissey was 15 years old, his father developed a terminal blood disorder. He was ill for some time and eventually died of a haemorrhage at the age of 54 in the family home. After leaving school at the age of 16, Morrissey joined a Wolverhampton theatre company, where he worked on sets and costumes.

Personal life

Morrissey married his girlfriend of over 13 years, novelist Esther Freud, in a ceremony on Southwold Pier on 12 August 2006. They were introduced to each other by actor Danny Webb. They have a daughter named Anna and two sons named Albie and Gene. Through Esther, Morrissey is the brother-in-law of fashion designer Bella Freud, son-in-law of painter Lucian Freud, and great-grandson-in-law of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. He and his family split their time between homes in North London and Walberswick, Suffolk. Morrissey and Freud had separated by 2020.

He is a lifelong supporter of his hometown football team Liverpool FC and the Labour Party. In 2014, he was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to an open letter in The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in that year's referendum on the issue.

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Career

Morrissey auditioned for One Summer, Willy Russell's television series about two Liverpool boys who ran away to Wales in 1980. Russell had been attached to the Everyman for many years, and Morrissey had seen him when he was working behind the bar across the street from the theater, but the two had never met. Morrissey went to at least eight auditions, and in one, she read for Billy, Icky opposite Paul McGann, who was reading for Billy. McGann, five years older than Morrissey, felt he was too old to be playing Billy and stepped back from the role, leaving the role to Morrissey. Spencer Leigh appeared in Icky and Ian Hart's supporting role as Rabbit. Russell had a professional disagreement with director Gordon Fleming and producer Keith Richardson over the casting of 18-year-old Morrissey and Leigh; he believed that older actors' empathy would be lost if casting older actors. Russell's name was subsequently stripped from the original broadcast's credits. Morrissey and his cousins went travelling in Kenya after filming One Summer for five months. One Summer was being broadcast in the United Kingdom, and he was dealing with the first act of being recognised in public.

Morrissey had intended to study at RADA in London but his coworkers at the Everyman suggested against doing so because he already had his Equity card. James Hazeldine, his One Summer co-star, told him otherwise, and he went to London for a year. While here, he became homesick and did not like the way RADA was converting him into a "bland actor." On a return to Liverpool, he told Paul McGann's mother that he was considering leaving the college. McGann recalled him in London and told him that he had been through the same homesickness period when he first went to RADA. Morrissey continued his studies at RADA and graduated on December 1st 1985.

Morrissey spent a year at RADA and returned to Liverpool to compete in WCPC at the Liverpool Playhouse. He performed Le Cid and Twelfth Night with Cheek by Jowl and spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), mostly with director Deborah Warner for whom he portrayed the Bastard in King John in 1988. He saw the role as a learning opportunity as he had often wondered at RADA if he'd ever have the opportunity to perform in classical theatre. His results have been dubbed "the most controversial characterization of the production," according to The Daily Telegraph and Independent analysts, but The Financial Times has a positive view. Nicholas de Jongh wrote in The Guardian, "The Bastard, who has the most intricate syntax in early Shakespeare, defeats David Morrissey." His slurred, often unintelligible diction aids in the deflatation of the Bastard, but his bawling rhetoric tends to be more sham than sarcastic discourse." Morrissey appeared on National television for a brief period (1990). Michael Billington lauded his performance's unkempt enthusiasm. He lived on the White City housing estate, where he and his flatmates were the most common victims of burglary.

In an Anglia Television adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play Cause Célèbre, Morrissey's second television appearance appeared in 1987 as George Bowman, who's obsession with his employer and lover Alma Rattenbury (Helen Mirren) leads him to murder her husband. Morrissey met director John Madden for the first time in the 1980s. In his 1990 film The Widowmaker, Madden was looking for an actor who would play an ordinary man who turns out to be a mass murderer. Morrissey knew he was right for the role in his first appearance. Morrissey appeared in Theseus ("Theseus and the Minotaur") in a Madden episode (1991) and as Little John in Robin Hood (1991). The cinema debut of Robin Hood compared to that of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Kevin Costner, the former, was in charge of the title role and had a box office crash, and Morrissey's version was forgotten. After being introduced, Morrissey was out of work in film and television for eight months. He appeared as a leading role as a CID officer in the BBC television drama Clubland (1991), and eventually became a leading role as a CID officer. When his appendix burst his artery, he barely recovered from the role a week before. Morrissey did an excellent job with a flat in Crouch End that he had just bought, but he had to stretch while still in stitches.

His participation in The Widowmaker resulted in him being praised and playing many obsessive character roles; he appeared in Black and Blue, Between the Lines and Out of the Blue, and soldier Andy McNab's Soldier Andy McNab (1996). In the second series of Bowker's Out of the Blue, Morrissey met screenwriter Peter Bowker when he played Detective Sergeant Jim Llewyn. In the six-part ITV series Finney, Gerry Birch played customs officer Gerry Birch in the first series of The Knock and Stephen Finney. Morrissey played the part in Stormy on Monday in Finney, New Zealand's Mike Figgis, 1988). He was the first choice for the role and had to learn to play double bass.

Morrissey appeared in a Tony Marchant drama as Michael Ride in Into the Fire (1996), and the following year appeared in Marchant's BBC series Holding On (1997). Southerns, a crooked tax inspector, was the first of many "people in turmoil" roles for Morrissey, and it earned him a nomination for the Royal Television Society (RTS) Program Award for Best Male Actor next year. He appeared in Our Mutual Friend alongside Paul McGann in 1998. Morrissey wondered if he'd be able to play Eugene Wrayburn as he was a fan of the book, but McGann was denied. Farino had Morrissey in mind to portray schoolmaster Bradley Headstone, a part Morrissey was unwilling to accept until he read the script. He researched the role and realized that the actor was unloved and that his social class motivated his mental instability. His appearance was portrayed as "unprecedented depth to a character" by a Guardian writer who is more commonly depicted as simply another awful Dickens git." In Anand Tucker's Hilary and Jackie's first year, he played Christopher "Kiffer" Finzi. Zoe Williams of The Guardian described his roles in Our Mutual Friend and Hilary and Jackie as his breakthrough roles.

Morrissey returned to theatre in 1999 for the first and final time in nine years to perform Pip and Theo in Three Days of Rain (Robin Lefevre, Donmar Warehouse). He continued to audition for stage parts but ultimately turned them down because he didn't want to be away from his family for long stretches of time. Jane Edwardes' article in Time Out, she wrote that his appearance in Hilary and Jackie as Kiffer inspired his casting as Pip in Three Days of Rain because the characters are similar to each other. Morrissey was attracted to the role because the play began with a long address, and the cast and crew had just two weeks of rehearsal time. He appeared in Some Voices (2000) as Pete, as his next act. Morrissey investigated Pete, a chef, by shadowing the head chef at the Terrace Restaurant in Kensington, London, and chopping vegetables in the kitchen for two hours a day. "An instinctive actor who can use his entire body to convey an inner turbulence," an Independent observer described him as "an instinctive actor who can use his entire body to convey an inner turbulence." Morrissey's next film role as Nazi Captain Weber in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), read Albert Speer's biography and read Gitta Sereny's biography: War with Truth. Morrissey developed a long back story for Weber to flesh out the character, as he did for all of his roles.

In an episode of Paul Abbott's Clocking Off, Morrissey returned to television in 2002 as Franny Rothwell, a factory canteen worker who wants to adopt his dead sister's son. In The Independent, his figure was portrayed as a harbinger of success. In the part-improvised single drama Out of Control, Dave Dewston played tabloid journalist Dave Dewston in the four-part BBC serial Murder, as well as prison officer Mike. He investigated the latter part by shadowing jail officers in a young offenders' facility for a week. In This Little Life, a television drama about a mother who must cope with her 16-week-premature baby, he appeared as Richie MacGregor at the start of 2003. Morrissey researched premature births by consulting with paediatricians at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.

In Paul Abbott's BBC serial State of Play (2004), Morrissey's next big role was as Member of Parliament (MP) Stephen Collins. Morrissey read the scripts for the first three episodes and was eager to read the last three. They weren't finished when he first ordered them, but Abbott informed Collins how Collins' tale came to an end. Morrissey was recommended by his colleague, director Paul Greengrass, to get Collins' job as a politician as well as a politician. Morrissey's contact information was called by State of Play producer Hilary Bevan Jones, who arranged meetings between Morrissey and select committee members Kevin Barron and Fabian Hamilton. Morrissey was educating Morrissey on how commute from a constituency outside London is so difficult. Morrissey was also able to shadow Peter Mandelson around the House of Commons for a fortnight. Mandelson questioned his work as a cabinet minister, but he did not inquire into his personal life. Mandelson demonstrated how politics could "seduce" MPs who have worked extremely hard to get into Parliament.

In the same year, Gordon Brown appeared in Peter Morgan's single drama The Deal (2003) about a pact made between Brown and Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) in 1994. Morrissey discovered that no politicians wanted to talk to him for this fact-based drama, so he turned to journalists Jon Snow and Simon Hoggart. He also travelled to Kirkcaldy, Brown's hometown, and embedded himself in a number of biographies of the man, including Ross Wilson's documentary films on New Labour in the year leading up to the 1997 election. Brown was amusing, approachable, and charming, which were traits he did not recognize in his "public persona." Brown, Morrissey's hair dyed and cured, and he gained 2 stone (28 lb/13 kg) in body weight in six weeks. Stephen Frears wanted to portray a Scottish actor as Brown but was refused by other production staff to cast Morrissey.

His performances in State of Play and The Deal earned him acclaim; he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his role as Collins, but he lost to his co-star Bill Nighy. Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown's former spin doctor, and Tim Allan, Tony Blair's deputy press secretary, lauded his participation in The Deal. In a review that criticized the rest of the film, a BBC News Online writer praised Morrissey's understanding of Brown's physical appearances. Morrissey's debut received the RTS Programme Award for Best Male Actor last year, this time beating Nighy. Morrissey's "the strength of this performance brought the screen to the screen and brought life to life," RTS's Robert Thomas said of him. "It was both credible and convincing." Morrissey did not have to play Brown again in Morgan's third Blair film The Special Relationship, because he did not want to get into the habit of only being Brown for one scene.

After playing in these dramas, Morrissey was keen to play a comedic role. He rejoined Peter Bowker for the BBC One musical serial Blackpool, in which he portrays Blackpool arcade owner Ripley Holden. Bowker remembered Morrissey from Out of the Blue and wanted to bring out the actor's humour and portray him as opposed to stereotype. Morrissey spent four days in Blackpool before filming began, speaking with the locals and finding out how the arcades worked. In The Daily Telegraph, his performance was described as "a delicate blend of barely suppressed danger and vulnerable, boyish charm." According to a public poll published on bbc.co.uk, he was ranked as the second best actor of 2004. Morrissey recalled his role in the one-off sequel Viva Blackpool in 2006. After filming dramatic roles since the initial serial, he was thrilled to revive Ripley.

Morrissey appeared in two high-profile films over the years; when filming the Brian Jones biopic Stoned (2005), he got an interview for psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass, the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 (2006). He was flown to Los Angeles for a one-hour screen test with Sharon Stone. Because of their immediate family ties, the screen test was pushed by an hour and Morrissey's casting in the role was extended by another hour. Morrissey loved the first film and loved the sequel's script. He read up on psychiatry and worked out in a gym for nudity scenes. The film was a box office and a critical failure. The Washington Post criticized Morrissey's character, calling him "overmatched by Stone" and "a sad sack," according to the Seattle Times, who called him "a charisma-challenged non-entity." In the Los Angeles Times, the same Washington Post critic who later wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Morrissey's chemistry with Stone had been harmed, because he was not a film actor. The A.V.'s Nathan Rabin. Morrissey's "the charisma of beige wallpaper" had been shared by the club, and "the designers may have changed him halfway through shooting with a stunning mahogany coat rack, but no one would be able to tell the difference." Morrissey's depressed reviews stunned him, and he briefly considered leaving acting, but instead saw the opportunity as a learning opportunity.

He began working on The Reaping (2006) in Louisiana, in which he played science teacher Doug Blackwell opposite Hilary Swank immediately after filming Basic Instinct 2. The role had been offered to him even in pre-production, and he travelled to Baton Rouge on Monday after Basic Instinct 2 wrapped. He was chosen because he was a fan of Swank and Hopkins' film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), and he preferred the Reaping script over the horror aspect. After a week of filming, production had to be halted when Hurricane Katrina struck the state. He found the shooting schedule difficult, particularly during three weeks of night filming and a scene in which his character is attacked by a plague of locusts, the bulk of which were computer-generated in post-production, but some were real on film. The Reaping was first released in 2007 and did poorly in theaters. Morrissey, despite the failures of both films, was grateful that they welcomed him to more film offers from Hollywood.

Morrissey appeared in The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) in New Zealand in March 2006. Danny Brogan, the father of a boy in Cape Wrath, an Ecoss Films series about a family being relocated on a witness protection scheme to a spooky village, was on display. In September 2006, he committed to the seven-part series and filmed the film until the end of the year. He enjoyed working on the character's back story as it debunk the audience's hopes. In 2007, the show was broadcast in Britain and America. He appeared in Andrew Davies' serial Sense and Sensibility in the following year. When he first read the script in 2007, he was uncertain if British television needed another Jane Austen adaptation, but he did get more screen time to the male characters in the 1995 film version. In The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, appeared as Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. He compared Norfolk to bassist Lemmy from Motörhead and researched the role by reading history books and literature from the 16th century.

Morrissey performed in the Almeida Theatre's British premiere of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Castle from November 2008 to January 2009. Terry, one of two brothers who had been abused as a child, appeared alongside Steven Mackintosh and Kira Sternbach. He was chosen because he liked LaBute's previous play, The Mercy Seat (2002). After accepting the role, he researched the character by reading case studies of adults who were sexually assaulted as children. He learned how they coped with their abuse and incorporated those feelings into his writing. During rehearsals, he was also able to speak with LaBute but he was hesitant to ask him specifically how to play Terry. Morrissey's was the best performance "as the blue-collar older brother" with uncannily revealing deep sadness, harm, and forgiveness that finally light up this dim, flawed play, according to Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph. Morrissey's behaviour was "a bit stiff, almost as if he was waiting for his cues rather than responding immediately to their commands," according to Benedict Nightingale of The Times, but the actor became more impressive as the game progressed. He appeared alongside Blackpool co-star David Tennant in "The Next Doctor," the 2008 Christmas special of Doctor Who, portraying a man who believes he is the Doctor after his mind is altered by alien technology. Morrissey had been invited to appear in the series before but had to decline due to other commitments. He approached the role as if it were any other dramatic role, and was heavily influenced by William Hartnell's performance, Patrick Troughton, and Tom Baker. Secrecy surrounded Morrissey's role in the film; before the show, his character was simply described as "the other Doctor." Morrissey's resignation as a lead actor sparked rumors that after Tennant's departure, and in October 2008 he was deemed a favorite of bookmakers. He was delighted that the episode was a "decoy" for the fact that actor Matt Smith had been chosen for the role of the Eleventh Doctor. He told entertainment website Digital Spy in September 2009 that if asked, he would gladly return to the show.

In Red Riding, the Channel 4 version of David Peace's Red Riding books, Morrissey appeared as corrupt police detective Maurice Jobson in March 2009. Morrissey already knew the film producers, enjoyed reading the script, and had either worked with his co-stars on other projects or wanted to work with them. He liked the flaws in the Jobson character and that he differs from conventional vigilante police officers depicted on television. Morrissey said of Jobson, "I think he sets out to be a good cop, he tries to do his work well, but he soon finds that being a 'bit' corrupt means being a 'bit' pregnant. You're either a member or not." The Broadcasting Press Guild praised him for his work as Best Actor nominees. Morrissey appeared in the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy (2009) at the end of the year. Morrissey, a self-confessed "Beatles geek," loved being able to be part of Lennon's childhood film.

Morrissey appeared on television all through 2010. In the BBC single drama Mrs Mandela, he appeared as Theunis Swanepoel, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's interrogator. The Guardian and Independent critics praised his work. Colonel John Arbuthnot appeared in both BBC One's Two Days, Mal Craig, stalking suspect Jan Falkowski in U Be Dead, and a stalker in Agatha Christie's Poirot version of Murder on the Orient Express in the following months. Murray Devlin appeared in The Field of Blood in 2011 and 2013.

Morrissey returned to a weekly television presence in Thorne, a six-part television series based on Mark Billingham's books Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat. Morrissey searched the Internet for more details after reading Lifeless during his time filming The Water Horse in New Zealand. Billingham said in an interview in which he said he preferred Morrissey to play Thorne if a screen adaptation were ever made. Morrissey arranged a meeting with Billingham and the twosome began developing the TV series as he returned to the United Kingdom. Morrissey shadowed officers in the Metropolitan Police's murder unit during their shifts to learn about their careers. He discovered that the officers were undervalued in their jobs, and he brought their emotions into the story. On October 10, Sky first aired the series. Morrissey was given permission for the role; Andrea Mullaney of The Scotsman said, "Morrissey is never less than watchable, and he brings a brooding presence to the role of Thorne." "Authentic as the phlegmatic, low-key Thorne," Adam Sweeting of The Arts Desk described him as "authentic as the phlegmatic, low-key Thorne."

Morrissey appeared as Robert Carne in South Riding and appeared in the Lionsgate crime drama series Blitz in 2011. In May 2011, he returned to the Everyman Theatre to play the eponymous king in Macbeth. Morrissey explored the role of criminologists in order to draw parallels with true-life serial murderers, as well as Macbeth's identity as a war hero and his childless friendship with Lady Macbeth. Laura Davis of the Liverpool Daily Post praised Morrissey's appearance in the Liverpool Daily News "[shifting] from straight-spined statesman to a fervent slayer." Clare Brenan of The Observer paid similar praise, but Morrissey's vocal inflections were often "flat and rushed." Morrissey, who appeared in Shakespeare's productions, appeared in a BBC Two performance of Richard II in July 2012.

Morrissey appeared on The Walking Dead's third season in 2012. He portrayed The Governor, a major villain from the graphic novel on which the series is based. Morrissey read Rise of the Governor to gain insight into the character and his motivations. He also worked with an accent coach and listened to politicians with Southern accents, including Bill Clinton. He returned to the United States for the fourth season in 2013 and made a cameo appearance in 2015. Morrissey's memoir The Driver, written by Danny Brocklehurst, returned to British television in 2014.

Edge Hill University awarded Morrissey with an honorary doctorate in 2016. He appeared in Hangmen by Martin McDonagh from 10 September to October at the Royal Court Theatre from 10 September to ten. After the abolition of hanging in Great Britain in 1965, Harry Wade, a former hangman, was the play's chronicler.

Morrissey appeared in Julius Caesar at the new Bridge Theatre in January 2018. Inspector Tyador Borll played him in the BBC2 drama The City and the City, which was based on screenwriter Tony Grisoni's book of the same name.

In 2022, he appeared in the Italian horror-fantasy film Dampyr, the first film in the Bonelli Cinematic Universe.

Morrissey developed a filmmaking technique at the Rathbone Theatre Workshop in the early 1980s, a Youth Opportunities Programme that taught school-leavers skills for a year. Morrissey produced short silent films on Super 8, where he was introduced by Bert Byron to American Independent and foreign films for the first time. Although the scheme cost £23.50 per week and barred young people from unemployment insurance, Morrissey recalled in 2009 that many of the participants were simply used as lackeys. He started directing because he was aware that, as an actor, he was coming into a project very late in production and then ending before post-production, and he wanted to see it through to the end. Morrissey has said that he prefers to keep acting and directing separate and that he does not have to worry about what he is doing.

Something for the Weekend (1996), which he wrote and produced, was his first big project. The Barber Shop's name was initially changed to avoid a comparison with another film. A meeting between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII is the subject of his directorial debut, The short A Secret Audience. Bring Me Your Love, Charles Bukowski's short story, was based on a journalist's letter, and actor Ian Hart as a journalist carrying flowers to his wife in a mental hospital. It was shown in front of Some Voices. Bring Me Your Love "holds out a lot of promise" for Morrissey and The Observer reviewer said that it was worth seeing but not as impressive as A Secret Audience. Tubedale Films, a Morrissey company, and his brother Paul and his wife Esther Freud, produced Bring Me Your Love. Morrissey produced Sweet Revenge, a two-part BBC television film starring Paul McGann that received him a BAFTA Award for Best New Director (Fiction). Morrissey was reunited with Tony Marchant in 2004 to direct Passer By, a two-part television film about a man (James Nesbitt) who witnesses an assault on a woman (Emily Bruni), but does nothing to prevent it. After reading the first draft of Marchant's script, Morrissey was brought on board. The script went through five other drafts before being shot over 30 days. Morrissey learned his directorial skills by watching the directors on film and television series in which he appeared; he took the minor role of Tom Keylock in Stoned so he could watch Stephen Woolley at work.

Morrissey was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Liverpool John Moores University in 2007 for her contributions to the performing arts. In the same year, he made his feature debut directing Don't Worry About Me, a film about a London boy falling in love with a Liverpool girl. The film was shot on a budget of £100,000 on location in Liverpool in September and October 2007 and held its world premiere at the 2009 London Film Festival. In The Times, Joseph Galliano wrote that Don't Worry About Me is "a very understated film that looks more like European Art Cinema." The film was broadcast on BBC Two on March 7, 2010 and then the next day on DVD.

Morrissey and Mark Billingham formed Sleepyhead, which produced the Thorne television series in 2009. The company was formerly owned by Morrissey's brother Paul, and was part of Stageel, a production house that was not previously established by him. When Sky decided to broadcast it, the company purchased the rights to adapt the Thorne books and Morrissey was already promoting it to television networks. Morrissey and Tubedale Films were producing two feature films with support from the UK Film Council as of 2010. Morrissey was outraged over the Coalition government's decision to withdraw the UK Film Council because he felt it was a service to first-time filmmakers. In 2011, the British Film Institute took over the organisation's funding role.

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