Hytner displayed an early appetite for risk-taking by spotting Richard Thomas's and Stewart Lee's Jerry Springer (originally developed at tiny experimental venue Battersea Arts Centre in London) and including it in his first season. The ensuing controversy – it was picketed multiple times – hardly did the National much damage: the show was later broadcast by the BBC and it promptly transferred to the West End Photograph: Richard Young /Rex Features
Hytner's own transpositions of Shakespeare to sharply contemporary settings have been a hallmark. His first production as artistic director, with Adrian Lester (centre) as Shakespeare's opportunistic king, was set uncomfortably close to Iraq Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Another change to the previous regime was Hytner's gradual opening-out of the National's artistic policy. The £10 Travelex season tempted in new audiences (and cleverly helped solve the problem of filling the biggest auditorium, the Olivier); plays such as Elmina's Kitchen, written by Kwame Kwei-Armah (pictured), brought a new generation of black actors to the National Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Hytner also invited a new generation of theatremakers into the building, including companies such as Kneehigh. Katie Mitchell, who became an associate director, made waves with her radical reinventions of classic plays, one of which was Chekhov's The Seagull, starring Hattie Morahan and Ben Whishaw (pictured). One critic called it 'bird-brained' Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Hytner's own productions have rarely been as controversial. One of his enduring artistic partnerships has been with playwright Alan Bennett, whose The History Boys made stars of several of its cast (one of which was James Corden) and was made into a film Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Under Hytner's tenure, the National has shown uncanny skill at using its (heavily subsidised) resources to develop projects that have become sure-fire money-spinners. War Horse, a version of Michael Morpurgo's novel staged in collaboration with South African puppet company Handspring, romped off to the West End, to Broadway, and on tours across the globe. In 2012, a delighted Hytner claimed to reporters that his production had been more profitable than Steven Spielberg's movie Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
Despite numerous successes, Hytner's NT – which produces some 20 productions a year – has had its share of flops, many of them in new writing. Tony Harrison's Fram, a literally adventurous study of early polar exploration, was described by a puzzled Evening Standard critic as 'escalatingly bizarre' Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Numerous playwrights have found a congenial home at the National. After debuting with the remarkable Harper Regan, Stockport-born Simon Stephens has since returned with Port (2012) and a hugely successful adaptation of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which is doing big business in the West End Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
The National's enthusiastic pioneering of live cinema broadcasts, NT Live, has made the theatre's work – and that of a select few others – directly available to audiences worldwide. The first season of productions, which included Helen Mirren as Racine's Phèdre in Hytner's own production, reached an estimated 150,000 people in 22 countries and has expanded significantly since Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Hytner's biggest personal hit as a director has been his boisterous production of Richard Bean's farce, a 1950s updating of Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters. After a rampantly successful UK tour, it is currently travelling the world, and is shortly to arrive in Melbourne Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
