DAWN Collinson talks to the Crosby-born TV director who set Desperate Housewives on the road to success.

AS EVA Longoria's shirt came off and viewer ratings rocketed, Charles McDougall knew he had a massive TV hit on his hands.

Only months earlier, Crosby-born Charles had cast four actresses whose names he barely recognised for principal roles in a new US series.

But an American audience of 22 million tuned in to the pilot episode he directed and Desperate Housewives was on the way to becoming a worldwide phenomenon, making those four women the hottest property on screen.

The show's first season became an instant cult favourite not only in the States but on C4 and its status was confirmed with multiple success at the Emmy awards, TV's equivalent of the Oscars.

One of the coveted statuettes now sits on Charles' desk at his home in California, but the 44-year-old director is typically unassuming about what was, significantly, his creation.

"I cast the housewives, but I regard that as half of my job," he shrugs. "I saw a lot of female actors around the age of 40, which is a career point for many where they get the mother role or the wife role, not the sexy one.

"So a lot of very good actors came in and were desperate, pardon the pun, to get the job because they viewed it as an excellent opportunity.

"To be honest I wasn't that familiar with any of them because I try not to watch television. There are so many police and hospital shows and they're always populated by unfeasibly attractive actors, so I try and stay away from those.

"I didn't even know Teri Hatcher had been in a Bond film. I knew she'd done Superman but that was all."

Charles moved to live in the US after garnering plaudits for his work on C4's Queer As Folk series and Jimmy McGovern's Cracker and Hillsborough. He praises McGovern as one of the top three writers in Britain, and one who he would gladly return home for.