Ben Pickering

Two years later he produced and starred in the low-budget gangster thriller 'Tragic Irony'. Made on 16mm for just £6,000 and a cross between 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Shallow Grave', it took a sideswipe at the seedier side of Nineties Britain.

After making his directorial debut with the pilot for docudrama series 'How To Get Away With Murder', Ben stepped back from the film industry to read Politics at Swansea University, getting to the final year of a PhD on the European Union and even running for the UK Parliament before returning to his first love, film.

In 2009 he produced the 35mm short 'Beached' in conjunction with The London Film School. The short screened at the Strasbourg International Film Festival as well as the Short Film Corner at Cannes.

After spending many a weekend at London's Raindance film training courses, he finally took the plunge and directed his first feature, crime thriller 'Two Days in the Smoke'. A re-imaging of his earlier film 'Tragic Irony', the reboot starred Matt di Angelo ('Borgia'), Lili Bordán ('Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome') and Alan Ford ('Snatch'). The London- and Paris-set feature was released in the UK in October 2014 as 'The Smoke' and internationally throughout 2015 as 'London Payback'.

After co-producing Isle of Man heist caper 'Ratted Out' and associate producing psychological thriller 'The Stranger', he returned to the director's chair for the Cornwall-set portmanteau 'Welcome to Curiosity' starring Amrita Acharia ('Game of Thrones'), Richard Blackwood ('Anuvahood') and Stephen Marcus ('Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'). The film is due for release in 2017.