A FILM-MAKER is using people and locations from the town where he grew up for a new TV series on subscripton channel Amazon Prime.

Warren Dudley, a former web designer and print worker, has already had success with films including Bromley Boys, released this year and starring Martine McCutcheon and Alan Davies.

And now Warren has got backing from the Newhaven Regeneration Group, founded by his old school friends Mark Beaumont and Graham Precey, who went to Tideway School, now Seahaven Academy.

Bromley Boys was a comedy about football and his new television series, Seaside Town, follows the story of an international player who is sent to Newhaven to help a children’s team and they get “more than they bargained for”.

Warren said he hopes to capture the community feeling in his script, just as he did with Bromley Boys, released earlier this month.

He said: “It opens up America. It’s much easier if your main character is American and seeing Britain through an American’s eyes.

“To put a place on the map you need community spirit not hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“I saw the effect Bromley Boys had on Bromley and thought it would be great to bring that back to my home town.

“This is about the place making effect of Gavin and Stacey and Poldark. But this is bottom up, it starts from the ground and not with a million pounds of funding. Local people are involved in production and its about the mix, they are not brought in in trucks, or people who don’t live here. This is for film-makers around the world to see and say, where is that, I want to make my film there too.”

Warren is using Newhaven Football Club ladies team.

The main character, an American football star, will be played by Hannah Bang Bendz, and filming will be in the last week of August.

Warren is currently scouting for locations and the Newhaven Regeneration Group (NRG) founders Mark Beaumont and Graham Precey will be hoping for a big audience to show the town in its best light.

Graham is a former head of sustainability at Legal & General, who is now chairman for the charity 4Cancer. He said: “NRG have invested more than £20,000 into the film to get it going. The talented local community have then joined us by adding an additional £150,000 worth of gift in kind talent to make this a success. It’s now all about getting it filmed, produced, distributed and enjoyed to get Newhaven on the map as a place to make films.”

Mark owns the business Lanoguard in Newhaven. He is the vice-chairman of Wave Leisure.

Seaside Town will have six, ten-minute-episodes on the internet TV channel Amazon Prime.

Mark envisages large groups of residents getting involved.

Newhaven is well known for its port and ferry service to Dieppe, France, which plays a large part in their local economy. And Graham said he has already been asked by contacts in Normandy if the programme can be dubbed into French.

The NRG partners want to bring worldwide attention to Newhaven, in much the way the BBC show Gavin and Stacey boosted tourism in Barry in South Wales.

The team filmed a trailer for Seaside Town TV a few weeks ago at The Werks studios on Middle Street, Brighton. It gives a taste of how Ms Bang Bendz discovers how she is expecting to visit a European town and is surprised to find it is Newhaven while other players go to Madrid and Porto.

The premiere is planned for October.