Ex-Harrogate film director on her "charming" star Tom Hughes

The last time BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Jane Linfoot spent much time in Harrogate was when she was as student at college.She recently returned to the town as the prime focus of a Q&A at the screening of The Incident at the Everyman cinema.Jane Linfoot said: “I had a great time studying in Harrogate. It’s a period in my life I never forget as I met one of my closest friends at college who also happens to be a filmmaker now, too.“I also have some special memories of working in the café at Harrogate Theatre.“In particular I remember making many a hot chocolate for a charming, erudite local resident, the late Herbert Whone.”Directed and written by Jane, The Incident is hauntingly psychological drama about the unravelling of a couple’s relationship after their comfortable life is disrupted by a chance meeting with a troubled teenage girl.Starring Tasha Connor as the latter and Ruta Gedmintas and Tom Hughes as the couple, Jane said Tom was just as charming in real life as he seemed when he played Prince Albert in ITV’s hit drama Victoria earlier this year.She said:”Tom is just as charming off camera as on. What stood out for me was how thoughtful and considerate he was at making Tasha feel comfortable and at ease whilst filming some of the more delicate scenes. She was only 17-years-old when we filmed."Tom takes his work very seriously and always strives to give his best; he is grounded, full of warmth and good humour, which must be due to him being from the North!"Success in the movie industry never comes easy and it’s taken years of making her own acclaimed short films and working on other people’s projects in TV and cinema to get to the point she is now.Jane said: “I had a passion for film, art and music but, to be honest, I had no ambition to become a filmmaker on leaving Harrogate because I never believed it to be something that was within my reach."Film is a notoriously difficult, and furiously competitive industry to break into."But there came a point, having worked for several years in commercials production, when I decided I had to be more courageous and challenge myself to create my own films."Part of her ambition in writing and making The Incident, she says, was to challenge narrative conventions in an emotionally resonant way.I ask her if she’s ever seen one of my favourite films, The Accident made in 1967 by Joseph Losey starring Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker and Jacqueline SassardShe said: “Yes it’s one of my favourites. The Joseph Losey-Harold Pinter partnership has been a big influence on me as a filmmaker.”