Shane Meadows

Born: 26 December 1972
Where: Nottingham, England

While he flirted with the wrong side of the law as a teenager, Shane found his calling when he borrowed a camcorder and started filming his friends in short films.

After producing some 30 shorts, he was tapped to helm the TV documentary The Gy

In 1996 Shane wrote, produced, directed, edited and co-starred in the 60-minute film Small Time, about a group of twenty-somethings who survive by petty theft and their girlfriends who pass the time watching TV.

Later that year, the Toronto Film Festival featured a retrospective look at Shane's work and his short "Where's the Money, Ronnie!" went on to win an award in the short category.

Producer Stephen Woolley was impressed enough to approach him about producing a feature and Bob Hoskins soon joined the director in signing on.

The result was the acclaimed TwentyFourSeven, shot in black and white, and focussing on the efforts of a man who tries to rescue the wanton youths of a town by opening a boxing club.

Shane then signed a two-year, two-picture deal with the newly formed Company Pictures and went on to direct A Room For Romeo Brass, which screened at Cannes among other film festivals and saw a cameo appearance from Hoskins.

His next project Once Upon A Time In The Midlands was humorously tagged as "a tinned spaghetti western" and saw him take on the considerable comic talents of Ricky Tomlinson and Kathy Burke.