Caught in the Act may do a Full Monty for Merthyr

Western Mail

IT COULD do for the Welsh Valleys what The Full Monty did for Sheffield.

A movie about a council in a fictional Welsh town which was shot in and around Merthyr by Little Britain director Matt Lipsey will get its first airing in February at the Berlin International Film Festival.

And in May this year the movie, Caught in the Act, starring Maureen Lipman, ex-Coronation Street star Brian Hibbard and ex-Footballers’ Wives actress Sarah Barrand will make a second appearance, at the Cannes Film Festival.

Caught in the Act, which had the working title, Bridge of Lies, was filmed over seven months in Merthyr Tydfil last summer.

The film is based on a screenplay by Troedyrhiw-born Hollywood actor Steve Speirs.

Steve, who now lives in Brighton, brought a crew from Carnaby International Films in London to his hometown to work with director Matt Lipsey, who has won Bafta awards for directing Little Britain and Barry Welsh is Coming.

The pair picked a previously unknown actress, former Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School teacher, Judith Lewis, 40, to take one of the lead roles in the comedy.

Set in a typical Welsh valley, the film tells the story of a corrupt parish council which has been awarded EU funds to pay for the cultural development of their town.

Instead, they have used the money to fund a host of illicit activities including two new building extensions, one swimming pool, 45 cases of Bollinger and several illicit weekends in Amsterdam.

After a surprise visit from the EU Cultural Commissioner, they are forced to perform the unimaginable task of producing one of the great Shakespearean plays for the most important festival in the European cultural calendar.

Finally, they attempt to produce Macbeth and perform it on stage in the EU Capital of Brussels for a particularly demanding audience of European dignitaries.

Speirs, who was born in Troedyrhiw, has recently appeared in the fantasy movie Eragon and has been in the Pirates of the Caribbean series with Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom.

He said working on his “home patch” had been fantastic and had high hopes Caught in the Act could become a cult success.

Speaking about the project, director Matt Lipsey said, “I met Steve Speirs at a party for the launch of the Steve Coogan film The Parole Officer. I think Rob Brydon introduced us, anyway Steve said he was working on this script and could he show it to me.

“I told him to speak to my agent and the rest is, or soon will be, movie history.”

Lipsey has a successful pedigree, working with Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge), Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Little Britain) and Reeves and Mortimer and Rob Brydon (A Cock & Bull Story).

Matt most recently directed James Nesbitt in a flagship drama series for BBC1, a modern adaptation of the Jekyll & Hyde story.

Locations in Caught in the Act include The Railway pub in Bridge Street in Troedyrhiw, and Pont y Celwydd (aka Bridge of Lies) near Aberfan.

The project has cost around £1m so far.

Steve Speirs said of the film, “As an actor in both low budget films like Babyjuice Express and $100m studio films like Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Pirates of the Caribbean (One and Two), I had a fair idea what was involved. I remember reading a book that said the average time to get a feature film made from concept to realisation is six years which I thought was rubbish. How is it going be that long? But, in fact by the time we made Caught In The Act, it will be six years, which is incredible really.”

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