Vadim Jean

Vadim has just finished a second series of the TV comedy ‘Porters’ starring Rutger Hauer, Daniel Mays and Sanjeev Bhaskar for Dave.  This followed the success of Henry IX written by British comedy legends Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais starring Sally Phillips, Annette Crosbie and Colin Salmon for UKTV which won the Rose D’Or for best sitcom 2017.

Vadim’s most recent feature film as a director was the independent British feature comedy Breaking the Bank starring Kelsey Grammer, Tamsin Greig, Mathew Horne, John Michael Higgins and Andrew Sachs.  It’s a comedy… about banking.  It was released in UK cinemas by Universal in June 2016 and had its US release through Universal Pictures.

His comedy series, The Rebel for UKTV GOLD starring Simon Callow, Anita Dobson and Bill Paterson aired in July 2016 and returned for a second series in 2017.

He is also in early pre-production on Consider Yourself, the life of Lionel Bart who wrote Oliver!, done as a musical feature film using his own music to tell the story for BBC films.  The film is slated to star Michelle Dockery, Matt Lucas, Jason Issacs, Helen McCrory and Stephen Fry.

He is also a producer of the feature film, The Man Who Invented Christmas, the story of Charles Dickens writing ‘A Christmas Carol’ starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer and Jonathan Pryce, which had a wide release in the US by Bleaker Street and on 300 prints in the UK last Christmas.

In TV Vadim is best known as the writer and director of the multi BAFTA and RTS award winning Terry Pratchett Discworld adaptations for Sky, including The Colour of Magic (Sean Astin, Tim Curry and Jeremy Irons) and Hogfather (Sir David Jason, Joss Ackland and Ian Richardson) which remains the highest rating show on Sky1 of all time.

In 2010 Vadim wrote and directed In the Land of the Free… a feature documentary about a miscarriage of justice in Louisiana narrated by Samuel L Jackson, a co-production between his own company, the Mob and Gold Circle films (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) which was nominated Best Documentary at the London Evening Standard Awards in 2011. 

The follow up documentary Cruel and Unusual which completes the story after 8 years of production, had its cinema release in the US in June 2017.

Vadim made his American feature directorial debut with Jiminy Glick in Lalawood for Gold Circle Films, starring Martin Short as Jiminy Glick from his Comedy Central TV show.   The cast also includes Elizabeth Perkins, Kurt Russell, Steve Martin and Rob Lowe.  The film was selected as the Closing Night Gala premiere at 2004’s Toronto film festival and on its US release, terrific reviews in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and the New York Times.

His first movie, Leon the Pig Farmer went won the Chaplin Award for best feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the International Critics Prize at Venice.

The emotional drama Clockwork Mice starring Ian Hart (Backbeat, Land & Freedom), Art Malik (True Lies), and Nigel Planer (Brazil, The Young Ones) was Vadim’s third film in three years.

In 1998, he directed The Real Howard Spitz starring Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, Cheers) and Amanda Donohoe (The Madness of King George, Liar, Liar). It tells the story of a failed detective novelist who turns to writing children’s books even though he hates kids!

His fifth feature, One More Kiss, is a love story set in the North of England and which gave Gerard Butler his first leading role in a movie. 

His occasional dip of the toe into producing also saw him exec produce Scenes of a Sexual Nature starring Ewan McGregor, Sophie Okenado, Mark Strong and Adrian Lester.

Vadim is also an established commercials director winning Gold at Cannes for his Cancer Research UK campaign and his VW Cuckoo film for DDB Berlin is the most highly awarded VW commercial of all time.

He directed his first play, Cook & Moore – the Afterlife at the Museum of Comedy in 2015 and had so much fun he now insists on proper rehearsals for all his screen work and is itching to do another play.

Fun Stuff

Almost more exciting than anything… he was a finalist in the 2011 University Challenge Christmas Special on BBC2 representing Warwick University and successfully managed not to be told off by Jeremy Paxman on network television for getting an easy question wrong!

He is the creative director of Renaissance Vodka, a brand new English artisan vodka single distilled from sugar beet and Yorkshire water and which has won a Silver Outstanding at the prestigious International Wine & Spirits Competition. It is starting to appear in some of the best bars and restaurants across the UK.

He plays too much 5-aside football, hockey for Tulse Hill and has been selected to play for England in the 2022 Masters indoor hockey World Cup.