Returning to England at the age of fourteen, he attended the Harrow County Grammar School for Boys and completed his education at Oxford University.
He continued working as a professional actor until 1979, when he joined the National Film and Television School as a directing student.
Subsequently, he has worked in both Hollywood and the UK, directing Vice Versa in 1988, and in 1991 - Not Without My Daughter, the adaptation of the controversial best-seller of the same name, which starred Sally Field as Betty Mahmoody.
Four years later came Tom & Viv starring Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson, the story of poet T. S. Eliot's first marriage, nominated for two Academy Awards.
He wrote and directed the documentary Lord Haw-Haw: Portrait of a Fanatic for UK and Irish television, and in 2006, directed the stage version of Mary Kenny's play Allegiance, starring Mel Smith, and produced by Daniel Jewel, at the Edinburgh Festival.