Tookey was elected chairman of The Critics' Circle in 1995, but his bid to become vice-president floundered due to the position he took on the 1996 film Crash.
"[4] Tookey wrote a series of critical articles for the Mail regarding the film which saw Jonathan Coe of the New Statesman describe him as "the real architect of the antiCrash campaign".
[8] Tookey called for readers to boycott the products of distributor Sony, and questioned the suitability to the role of the then director of the British Board of Film Classification.
[10] In 2000 Tookey directed and co-produced the musical Hard Times, based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, which opened to mixed reviews at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and closed the same year.
[11] Tookey also witnessed a man bleed to death from a stabbing in 1997, and his reaction troubled him: "It has brought home to me that I have seen so much violence on screen (the latest film is Crash) that I have become desensitised.