Sturridge began his career as an actor. He appeared in
Zigger Zagger in 1967 with the
National Youth Theatre, played Markland in
Lindsay Anderson's film
if.... (1968) and portrayed the young
Edward VII in
Edward the Seventh (1975). After directing episodes of
Coronation Street,
Strangers,
World in Action,
Crown Court and
The Spoils of War by his late twenties, he gained international recognition for his work on the eleven-part television adaptation of
Evelyn Waugh's
Brideshead Revisited which won over 17 awards including two Golden Globes and six British Academy awards. He scripted a film version of
J. G. Farrell's
Troubles made for
London Weekend Television in 1988 and directed by
Christopher Morahan. Since then the films Sturridge has directed have included
Runners,
A Handful of Dust,
Where Angels Fear to Tread, and
FairyTale: A True Story, based on the
Cottingley Fairies story which won the BAFTA for Best Children's film 1998. He wrote and directed
Lassie (2005), a remake of Eric Knight's children's story. He also directed the black-and-white segment "
La Forza del Destino" in the anthology film
Aria (1987). Other television work includes
Soft Targets (1982),
A Foreign Field (1985) and ''
Gulliver's Travels'' (1996), which won six Emmys including Best Series and the Royal Television Society's Team award. In 2001, he wrote and directed
Longitude, based on Dava Sobell's best selling life of the clockmaker
John Harrison which won the Banff TV Festival Best Series award, two PAWS awards and five BAFTAs. In 2000, he formed Firstsight Films whose first production was an account of Sir
Ernest Shackleton's
Endurance expedition, which Sturridge wrote and directed. The serial
Shackleton (2002), which starred
Kenneth Branagh, was shot on location in the Arctic. It won the BAFTA for Best Series and Best Costume, and the
Radio Times Audience award for Best Drama 2002, as well as being nominated for seven Primetime Emmys, winning for music and photography. Sturridge also contributed to
Beckett on Film, part of a collaborative effort to film all of
Samuel Beckett's plays with
Anthony Minghella,
Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and
Neil Jordan and
Patricia Rozema. Following Minghella's death in 2009, Sturridge became a director for his final project, the television series ''
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency''. In 2010, he returned to Manchester and
Coronation Street to direct the story of the making of its first episode
The Road to Coronation Street. This television film won both the RTS and BAFTA awards for Best Single Drama 2011 and a gold medal at the New York Film and TV Festival in Las Vegas. In 2011, Sturridge directed a seven-minute short film, "Astonish Me", written by
Stephen Poliakoff to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
World Wildlife Fund. The film was shown in Odeon Cinemas in August 2011 and made available on the WWF website and YouTube. Sturridge's first professional theatre production was a musical version of
Charles Dickens' Hard Times which he co-wrote and directed at the
Belgrade Theatre Coventry; since then, occasional theatre work includes in 1985
The Seagull (also co-translator) with
Vanessa Redgrave,
Natasha Richardson and
Jonathan Pryce, and
Samuel Beckett's
Endgame (2006) with
Kenneth Cranham and
Peter Dinklage which opened at Dublin's Gate Theatre on the centenary of Beckett's 100th birthday, and later transferred to the Barbican. He also directed Handel's
Tolomeo (1998) for Broomhill Opera. In 2007, Sturridge joined the board of the Directors and Producers Rights Society, which, in 2008, widened its responsibilities and changed its name to
Directors UK. The DUK currently has over 4,000 members and represents the creative and economic rights of UK film and television directors, with
Paul Greengrass as president and Sturridge as the elected chair. ==Personal life==