You would have thought the success of cult hit movie ‘Drive’ had opened doors for Nicolas Winding Refn, but not at the BBC, reports Shortlist, a British entertainment website. According to Refn, he expressed an interest to the UK’s state broadcaster last year about directing some episodes of ‘Dr Who’, a long-running sci-fi series that is one of the BBC’s most profitable exports."

I would have loved to direct ‘Dr Who’ but they didn’t want me — they turned me down last year,” he told the website. Refn then went on to reveal how he also fancied directing another cult British sci-fi series, this time from the late 1970s and early 80s. “Maybe if they revive ‘Blake’s 7’, I could do that,” he said. “I love it. It’s great. That could be fun to update.”

Refn is no stranger to British cinema and television. In 2008 he directed the acclaimed ‘Bronson’, a biopic about a career prisoner who takes pride in being known as ‘Britain’s most dangerous man’, and in 2007 he filmed an episode of ‘Marple’ –  so the BBC’s disinterest is a mystery, indeed, that even St Mary Mead’s finest might have trouble solving.

Although it might have something to do with a live interview Refn gave in September about ‘Drive’ on the BBC’s flagship breakfast programme in which he said: “Violence is very easy to work with because it’s a bit like f**king”.