Thompson founded World's End Productions and went on to direct documentaries A Sense Of Wonder (Channel Four/RTE), about the Catholic pilgrimages in the West of Ireland, Singing For Your Supper (BBC/RTE), about a busking festival in Clonakilty, Co.Cork, The Thin Blue Line (ITV), about stress in the Police force, and Kiss The Sky, a film about Jimi Hendrix for the South Bank Show, which won a silver medal at the New York Film Festival.
Thompson moved to New York in 1990 to join Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, who had offered him a job running his new movie division.
In 2002, a TV comedy division was started that gave many comedians their first break, including Jimmy Carr, Sharon Horgan, Miranda Hart, Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Paul King, Ben Willbond and Damon Beesley.
The film, starring Everett, Firth, Russell Brand, Gemma Arterton, Paloma Faith and Juno Temple, became one of the top 10 British independent movies in the UK.
He was Executive Producer on the critically acclaimed Maigret Sets a Trap, starring Rowan Atkinson, based on the Georges Simenon novels, which was broadcast by ITV at Easter 2016.
In 2019, he directed and produced Pixie, starring Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy, Daryl McCormack, Colm Meaney, Dylan Moran and Alec Baldwin, which was released by Paramount in the UK and Ireland.