Paul Seed obituary

Actor and versatile television director who helped shape the influential BBC production of House of Cards

The television drama director Paul Seed, who has died aged 78 of cancer, helped shape some of the most influential British series of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the BBC political thriller House of Cards (1990). His career was defined by intelligence, emotional precision and a rare instinct for performance.

He began his professional life as an actor but transitioned to directing after completing the BBC directors’ course in the late 1970s. Not long afterwards, he was offered his first television drama, Too Late to Talk to Billy, by Graham Reid, for the BBC’s creatively daring drama slot Play for Today. The film, screened in 1982, also marked Kenneth Branagh’s first appearance on television.