Film by Ellesmere Port screenwriter to air on TV

AN AWARD-WINNING film by a screenwriter from Ellesmere Port will be screened on BBC Wales.

Buddha Boy, the brainchild of 50-year-old Gerry Linford, will be broadcast on Thursday, November 29, at 11.20pm.

The movie, which won best film at the BBC Wales awards, is being submitted to several international festivals, including Cannes, and is being considered for a BAFTA Cymru nomination.

The Liverpool John Moores University MA screenwriting student had his script filmed as part of the Made In Wales scheme and the film premiered recently at the Cardiff Millennium Centre at a gala and awards ceremony.

Gerry, of Stanney Lane, Ellesmere Port, wrote the script after seeing an advert from a company called It’s My Shout on a BBC Writers’ Room page asking for scripts from people with Welsh connections.

He said: “I lived in Caernarfon at the time so I sent them a rough outline of Buddha Boy with a few sample pages.

“A few months later I got a call saying it had been selected as one of the six short films being developed under the Made In Wales banner for broadcast on BBC Wales in the autumn. It was even more special because it was the 10th anniversary of It’s My Shout.

“The inspiration for Buddha Boy bizarrely came from the title. The phrase ‘Buddha boy of Bangor’ just came into my head from nowhere, I really can’t explain it, but I thought let’s see what I can do with this.”

The story follows Gwyn, a 16-year-old boy from Carmarthenshire, who lives an isolated life with an eccentric Zen master grandfather. The film highlights the difficulties Gwyn encounters when faced with the modern world and in particular a love interest, Morag.

Gerry had an opportunity to visit the set.

He said: “It was a surreal experience. Seeing characters who had previously only lived in my head physically walking about and speaking the words I had given them was bizarre.

“Writing is a solitary activity, this script was conceived and produced in a tiny bedroom at home and here I was on a vast beach with about 30 people rushing around bringing it to life. It was magical.”