CAST and crew are halfway through making a major feature film being shot at various locations around Scarborough.

For the past three weeks a disused Victorian prison in Dean Road has been the main location for the gritty Brit-flick called Screwed.

Andrew Shim, who is playing the part of prison officer Jamie and a familiar face from the recent TV series This Is England ‘86, said it was going well.

He said: “It’s been fantastic. Really, really good. I’ve been working with some great actors – some of whom I’ve worked with before.”

And he added that the film was turning out to be good. “The good thing about it is that a film like this has never been done before – the corruption between prison guards and prison inmates,” he said.

He said the film had a realistic feel because it was based on the writer’s real life experience and they were using an authentic location.

“It’s great because it’s an old prison, its very real, and it’s got a weird, eerie, feeling about it,” he said. “To think of how many people have been in here, over the years, and the sort of stuff that’s happened within these walls – it’s scary.”

James D’Arcy, who plays fellow prison officer Sam Norwood, said he was pleased with how the project was progressing.

He said: “You know when you are working on a stinker and it’s not like that. There’s a real positive vibe – it’s just been wonderful.”

And he said that some of the situations portrayed in the film had stayed with him once they were over.

He said: “There were two guys smoking crack in one of the cells – they were fantastic. They were in the cell all glassy eyed and they were so good at that.”

Mr D’Arcy said they also had to deal with someone who had committed suicide in the film and added: “That was really moving and it stayed with me more than I thought it might.

“We’ve had a lot of fights including a full-on prison riot. That was a big day and all the guys who came in as background artists were really fantastic.”

The film is being directed by Reg Traviss and the cast also includes the Football Factory’s Frank Harper, Jamie Foreman from Layer Cake and Noel Clarke – the writer and director of Kidulthood who has also starred in Doctor Who.

It is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by former prison officer Ronnie Thompson. There was a good response to an appeal in the Evening News for people to be extras in the film.

Mark Witherington, the landlord at The Bull in Gristhorpe, spent the last two weeks being a prisoner.

He said: “I’ve found it very interesting and it’s gone down well in the pub.”

His brother-in-law Mick Taylor, from Gristhorpe, also responded to the appeal. He said: “It’s a once in a lifetime experience for some people. It’s nice to see inside the prison.”

From The Scarborough Evening News on Wednesday, October 6, 2010.