Patrick started out as a propman working on the films of Danny Boyle, Terence Davies, Derek Jarman and Bill Forsyth among others. It was while working on Life is Sweet that Mike Leigh encouraged him to become a director.
Using begged and stolen 35mm stock, he made his first short The Last Ten Minutes starring Robert Carlyle. It ran in selected cinemas along with Shallow Grave.
He continued to make award-winning shorts and travelled with them to festivals around the world, while developing movie projects. He then directed The Final Curtain, a feature film for DNA/Universal, starring Peter O’Toole, Aidan Gillen and Adrian Lester.
Patrick also directs television drama. His credits include many episodes of ITV’s noir/cop show Taggart, BBC’s Sea of Souls, Casualty and Waterloo Road.
In Summer 2016 Patrick directed the closing episodes of The Evermoor Chronicles II for Lime/Disney and has also directed 6 episodes of teen drama series The A-List for Kindle/BBC (nominated for a Broadcast Award and International Kidscreen Award 2020).
He directed Tim Roth, Genevieve O’Reilly and Ian Hart in episode two Tin Star: Liverpool (Series 3) for Kudos/Sky which TX’d December 2020. Patrick was nominated for Best Director at the RTS Scotland Awards 2022 for directing the second four-part series of Guilt for Happy Tramp North/Expectation/BBC Scotland.
Patrick’s recent work includes directing all 6 episodes of Happy Valley S3 for Lookout Point Ltd, and all four episodes of Guilt S3 for Happy Tramp North/Expectation/BBC Scotland.
Patrick also directs commercials, specialising in trains and toothpaste…
Patrick Harkins is represented by Frances Arnold