RUFUS Hound says ‘Chester is the spiritual home’ of a comic movie written by Frodsham screenwriter Tim Firth in which he stars.

Rufus plays brother and best man to groom Tim, portrayed by Robert Webb, in The Wedding Video, which offers a cynical slant on the multi-million pound wedding industry.

Many scenes are being shot in Chester including by the river, at the races and in the city centre.

The action centres around a family’s desire to impress their contemporaries by laying on the best Cheshire wedding for daughter Saskia, played by rising star Lucy Punch, that money can buy.

Rufus explains how his character’s well intentioned efforts undermine the pretentiousness of the occasion, with comedic effect.

He said: “I’m the best man and brother of the bloke getting married played by Robert Webb, who’s obviously much funnier than I am.

“I’m off travelling, he’s met a girl and he phones and asks if I will be his best man so I come home and my gift to him, as well as being best man and doing all the preparations, is to make the video for the wedding and hilarity ensues.”

In real life, Rufus’s own wedding was somewhat unconventional. He and bride Beth tied the knot at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas while friends and family watched the live streamed video on-line at home, wearing hats and raising a glass around their computers.

Later Rufus, who would love to perform at Chester’s new Laugh Inn comedy club, hosted a party for their loved ones in the UK and ‘put all the money behind the bar’ that would otherwise have gone on table decorations.

Writer Tim Firth, who lives on the edge of Delamere Forest, said: “We saw loads and loads of people for the role, established young actors, but Rufus blew us away.

“Not only did he carry off the comedy but he was hugely honest in his performance.”

Tim had been trying to write a wedding comedy set in Cheshire on and off for eight years, highlighting the enormous pressure on couples to shell out for ‘ridiculous amounts of crap’.

But it was a chat with Nigel Cole who directed blockbuster Calendar Girls, which Tim also wrote, that crystallised his ideas.

“He had been turned down by a film company and we were sat in a cafe all morose and he said ‘I wish I could just buy a camera for a couple of thousand quid and shoot it myself’. I thought ‘Oh my God, that’s it, that’s what the movie is’ – a wedding video shot by the best man.”

Mother of the bride Alex, played by Harriet Walter, sets the tone because having married into money she must keep up appearances with respect to her daughter’s special day.

“She feels she’s got to conform to the standard of her peers,” says Tim, who adds that grandma is played by legendary comic actress Miriam Margolyes.

Tim, who is once again working in partnership with director Nigel Cole, says his financial backers funded the successful Inbetweeners Movie, and he is optimistic The Wedding Video will be shown at cinemas next summer.