Early life Cumming was born in
Kendal in the county of
Westmorland (now
Cumbria) and lived in
Windermere for the first 19 years of his life. He developed an early interest in music, playing drums in a cabaret duo, jazz trio, punk and post punk bands from the age of 14. He also played bass, guitar and sang lead vocals in several bands between 1976 and 1984. As part of The True Believers, he recorded the single Spider-Man, Spider-Man b/w Spider-Man Meets The Green Goblin at the legendary
Strawberry Studios, in Stockport. His interest in filmmaking started at school in The Lakes School Cine Club, where he made his first films on Super 8. In 2015 Cumming returned to
The Lakes School, one of the first purpose-built comprehensive schools in the UK, to make a short film for the 50th Anniversary entitled 'Across A Lake, Below The Hill'. After a foundation course in Art & Design from
Cumbria College of Art and a degree in Fine Art from The
University of Wolverhampton, he studied for a Master of Arts degree at the
Royal College of Art film school. He graduated, with distinction, in 1987. Whilst at the RCA Cumming made films based on the work of
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.,
John Cage &
Eric Wallace who all gave their blessing to his films. After
Brass Eye, he worked for many years with comedian
Mark Thomas, directing five series of his
Mark Thomas Product series. Cumming worked with
Matt Lucas &
David Williams, directing their BBC series
Rock Profile as well as directing specials for
Bremner, Bird and Fortune,
Jack Dee and
Kevin Eldon. In 2000, Cumming directed the award-winning BBC1 comedy ''
Alistair McGowan's Big Impression and the following year, the Tony Roach sitcom World of Pub'' for BBC 2 starring
Phil Cornwell,
Kevin Eldon &
Peter Serafinowicz. In 2003, for the newly launched BBC 3, Cumming directed the first series of
Three Non Blondes starring
Jocelyn Jee Eisen,
Tameka Empson and
Ninia Benjamin. From 2004 to 2005 he directed 2 series of the BAFTA nominated
Mark Steel Lectures as well as two series of
The Lenny Henry Show From 2007 to 2009 he directed the
Omid Djalili Show for BBC 1, as well as writing material for the series with writing partner
Rich Fulcher. During this period Cumming also directed the pilots for several successful series, including:
T''ouch Me, I'm Karen Taylor,
The Peter Serafinowicz Show & Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle''. Between 2012 and 2015, Cumming was back working with
Matt Berry again directing the pilot and all 18 episodes of the multi award-winning
Toast of London. As well as winning a
Comedy Award and The
Rose d'Or, Berry won the best male comedy performer BAFTA for
Toast Of London, in 2015. The Independent said of the series: "Berry and co deserve to be celebrated, as this is one of the very few genuinely funny comedy series on TV right now" In 2016, Cumming Directed the improvised BBC4 comedy series
Going Forward starring
Jo Brand and
Omid Djalili. a seaside set comedy with a cast including
David Walliams,
Sophie Thompson,
Sanjeev Bhaskar,
Hugh Bonneville,
Simon Bird &
Craig Parkinson. 2022 saw Cumming helm the return of
Matt Berry's Toast in a new series –
Toast of Tinseltown, described by the Guardian as "an incredibly welcome return for one of the best comic creations of the last 10 years".
Filmmaking Cumming has made a number of films for art galleries, exhibiting at the Whitworth Young Contemporaries and the Bracknell, Brighton and Sheffield video festivals. A compilation of his early video artworks is held in the BFI archive and was regularly broadcast on American Cable TV show Here Comes Everybody. His short film
Beachcomber, about the Sellafield nuclear re processing plant and made with artist Kevin Carr, was selected for the Sedition show in 2010, the Sea Change exhibition in 2014, Kevin Carr's memorial retrospective at the Florence Mine gallery in 2019 and the Signal Media curated West Coast Retrospective shows at Barrow (2019) & Whitehaven (2020). In 2017 he made a film to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
Brass Eye.
Oxide Ghosts:The Brass Eye Tapes featured unseen material from the director's personal archive and played to over 100 sold out cinemas all over the UK and Ireland. The shows featured an introduction and Q&A session from Cumming. The film continues to have occasional screenings and Cumming has made it clear that these live events will be the only way to see the film. In 2019 Cumming directed the video for the
George Ezra track "
Pretty Shining People". The promo - featuring a cast of very young record company executives and hipsters - took a gentle swipe at the music business and its marketing of Ezra's image. Cumming's independent film -
King Rocker - in collaboration with comedian & writer
Stewart Lee tells the story of
Robert Lloyd and the ups and downs of his bands of 40 years
The Prefects and
The Nightingales. The feature-length documentary premiered on Sky Arts in February 2021, at the
Sheffield Documentary Festival and was released in cinemas later that year. Cumming & Lee showed the film at various festivals, including Blue Dot & Glastonbury. In 2024 Cumming announced a director's cut of the film. ==References==