From ‘Doc Martin’ to ‘Doctor Who’: Graduate Charles Jackson's TV career to date

From landing his first job with Doc Martin straight out of university to joining the VFX team for the upcoming series of Doctor Who (starring Ncuti Gatwa), Charles Jackon's journey since graduating from Falmouth University's television degree in 2022 has been quite the ride. 

Charles Jackson landed his first job just weeks after submitting his final project for his degree. Joining the crew of Doc Martin as a floor runner just two months short of the show wrapping for good, Charles even made into the crew photo featured in the Farewell Doc Martin documentary. 

When that job ended, Charles was determined to keep his foot in the door and worked on a variety of projects over the following year. “Despite the strikes, I still tried everything I could with all the contacts I made throughout the year I worked. I've been a part of observational and true crime documentaries, children's television, and German-Cornish romance films. Gradually, things started to fall into place bit by bit and since July 2023 I’ve been super busy!”

It has been a journey for sure. Words cannot describe how pleased I am to be here. Truly a dream come true, to say the least.

A short stint as a cover production runner for Bad Wolf/HBO’s Industry in July then led to a two-week job for Doctor Who. “Once I wrapped on Industry and returned to Cornwall, I thought that would be it for a good while. However, that same week, the Production team at Doctor Who got in touch and said they needed an extra production runner for two weeks, starting the next morning! So, I dropped everything, threw a bunch of stuff into my car, and drove [back up to Cardiff] later that night. Wouldn't you have done the same?”

As can often happen, two weeks became six weeks and Charles found himself fully embedded within the team at Doctor Who. He’d clearly made an impression on the team too; just as his job was coming to an end, he got the call from a Doctor Who executive. “I genuinely had no idea what was next, so I started looking elsewhere for other jobs locally. But a Doctor Who exec soon rang me up and told me that the VFX team needed someone to start asap. VFX is quite the shift from Production/AD, but from what I've heard, it's going to be a blast!  

“It has been a journey for sure; I genuinely thought it would take years to accomplish even just a day's work on Doctor Who, but I guess once you enter this network the world only gets smaller. Words cannot describe how pleased I am to be here. Truly a dream come true, to say the least.”

Hearing about Charles’ successes, Faye, the course leader for Falmouth’s Television & Film Production BA(Hons) degree, said: “Charles exemplifies the ideal journey for our students and graduates, using our industry-ready training and professional on-set etiquette to impress from their first day on a production so that they are often asked back again and again. 

“We also support our students to develop their emotional intelligence and resilience to make them excellent collaborators and creatives. Charles is a great example of this; we are all thrilled for his well-deserved successes.”

Do you share Charles’ dream of working in the busy world of TV and film production? Find out more about our Television & Film Production BA(Hons) degree