The Director

I have always been an underdog. I grew up in Pontywaun, in the Ebbw Valley. My father worked in a foundry, my mother was a part time waitress. We had no bathroom, no car, and a red tin where my parents slotted fifty pence pieces towards the bills. I left home at sixteen, moved to Cardiff with my punk band to start a record label. I didn't want to be famous. I wanted to encourage other underdogs to step up and make the noise in their heads. We put out many records, ran music festivals and played benefit gigs for about eight years. I then went to media education.

It took me a while to get the confidence and knowledge to announce myself as a writer director, after I left Newport Film School in the Nineties. Since the 'announcement,' I've had thirty years working internationally in high end TV and movies.

My first film, Moon Dogs is about the goodness of rebellion. I warm to working class stories, especially iconoclastic subversive ones. The Rag is a rollicking good tale, based on true events. It takes me back to the muscle memory of the days when we put out our own records, writing the song titles and cryptic messages on the plain white record labels.

The Rag is not just brilliant comedic entertainment, it's also a story where three Merthyr folk start a newspaper to take on the local council, corporate criminals and the Merthyr Express. It warms the heart, it made me laugh out loud. It also brings Merthyr forward as a character in its own right, and is a retelling of (mostly) true events. I want to take Wales to the world, and this version of Wales is one that I support.

The Rag struck me in the head, heart and soul. It will be told in lurid colour with a beautifully composed hand held documentary style energy. The cast will be drawn from the comedy fraternity, with improvised elements to bring a freshness and a messy lifelike quality. As a David V Goliath story it has a classic and definite commercial edge. I relish the challenge of bringing this story to a cinema/streamer near you.