INDUSTRY GUESTS 2026

Daragh Carville is a playwright and screenwriter, best known for co-creating and writing the ITV crime drama The Bay. First broadcast on ITV in 2019, The Bay has been sold to over 130 countries worldwide.

Daragh’s other TV credits include Being Human (BBC3, 2013), 6 Degrees (BBC NI, 2013/15) and The Smoke (Kudos/Sky One, 2014). His films are Middletown (dir. Brian Kirk, 2006) and Cherrybomb (dir. Lisa Barros d’Sa / Glen Leyburn, 2008.) Work for radio includes Regenerations (BBC Radio 3, 2001), which was nominated for the Richard Imison Award, and Dracula (Radio 4, 2003) starring Michael Fassbender.

Daragh Carville has won both the Stewart Parker and the Meyer Whitworth awards for playwriting and has twice been nominated as Best Writer in the Irish Film and TV Awards. He teaches Scriptwriting at Birkbeck, University of London.

Passionate filmmaker Chris Jones has dedicated his career to watching, making, and helping others create exceptional cinema. Most recently, he directed Splinter Unit on Paramount's "Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning" parts 1 and 2, and executive produced "The Enfield Poltergeist" for Apple TV+. His early career featured action thriller "The Runner," serial killer thriller "White Angel," and paranormal horror "Urban Ghost Story." Chris's award-winning short "Gone Fishing" was Oscar-shortlisted.

Beyond filmmaking, Chris co-created The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series (Bloomsbury), now spanning eight books. He founded the London Screenwriters Festival, attracting over 1,000 professional screenwriters globally each year, and established Create50, a groundbreaking crowd-creation platform. His crowd-created feature "50 Kisses" entered the Guinness Book of Records for most screenwriters on a single film.

Roger Ashton-Griffiths is a distinguished British character actor, screenwriter, and film director, best known for his role as Mace Tyrell in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011-2019). Born in Hertfordshire, he read music at Lancaster University, graduating in 1978, and began his career as a singer with English National Opera at the London Coliseum.

He has appeared in numerous high-profile films, including Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002), Roman Polanski's Pirates (1986), Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), A Knight's Tale (2001), The Lobster (2015), and Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010). His television work includes The Tudors (2007-2010), Doctor Who (2005-), Father Brown (2013-), and Coronation Street (1960-).

Roger holds an MA in Fine Art from the University of East London (2003) and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia (2016).

Mark Gill is an Oscar and BAFTA nominated director and screenwriter whose Oscar-nominated short "The Voorman Problem" (2013), starring Martin Freeman and Tom Hollander, earned him recognition at the 86th Academy Awards.

His latest film "Ravens" won the Marquee Film Audience Award at Austin Film Festival and received glowing reviews from Variety and Screen Daily. "Ravens" stars 2025 Golden Globe winner Asano Tadanobu (Shōgun) in this darkly surreal Japanese-language love story about iconic photographer Masahisa Fukase. The film was selected for prestigious festivals including Tokyo International and Hong Kong International.

Mark's debut feature "England Is Mine" was the closing gala film at Edinburgh Film Festival 2017, nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best Film.

Peter Bowker is a BAFTA and RTS Award-winning British screenwriter acclaimed for richly human television dramas.

After early work on Casualty, Medics and Peak Practice, his breakthrough came with Blackpool (2004), followed by A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005), Viva Blackpool (2006), the BAFTA-winning Occupation (2009), Desperate Romantics (2009) and Wuthering Heights (2009). Notable biographical works include Eric & Ernie (2011), celebrating comedy legends Morecambe and Wise, and the RTS-winning Marvellous (2014), alongside series such as Monroe (2011–2012), From There to Here (2014) and Capital (2015). His acclaimed series The A Word (2016–2020), its spin-off Ralph & Katie (2022), and World on Fire (2019–present) demonstrate his narrative range.

Following a sell-out run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024, Paul’s play, The Last Laugh played at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End in 2025 where it received incredible, 5-star reviews.  The play also ran in the prestigious Brits Off Broadway season in New York, before starting a major UK tour.  The Last Laugh will tour again nationally in 2026 and there is talk of a feature film... watch this space… 

In a previous career, Paul was a TV presenter and hosted shows such as The Disney Club, Don’t Try This At Home with Davina McCall, Wheel of Fortune, Stash the Cash and the BAFTA nominated Dear Mr Barker. 

He has directed several award-winning short films including The Last Laugh and The Choice, which have played at major film festivals around the world.

Will Thacker is a screenwriter, author and playwright. He is the co-writer of the feature film "England Is Mine", released worldwide from 2017-2019. 

Will has won awards for his screenwriting including Best Short Film at the Shanghai Film Festival 2014. He is the author of two novels, Charm Offensive (2014) and Lingua Franca (2016), both published by Legend Press. Will's first play The Bot (2024) has been performed in London, Liverpool and Sydney, and won 'Best Comedic Support' at the Liverpool Fringe. 

Will has a BA in English Literature with Creative Writing from Lancaster University and a Creative Writing MA from the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing.

Christine trained at Rose Bruford College and began her career as a drama teacher before joining the Dukes' T.I.E company, creating devised shows and touring Lancashire schools. She also worked with Coventry Belgrade and the Women's Theatre Group, a touring company commissioning new writing.

Her plays "Best Girl," "Race for Life," and "Kin" have been performed at prestigious venues including the Dukes, Pleasance Edinburgh, Hull Truck, Theatr Clwyd, and HOME Manchester. Christine became an Honorary Patron of the Dukes in 2014.

She continues her diverse career across theatre, television, and radio, and will appear in the premiere of "A Pineapple" by Olivia Mace this spring at the Dukes and other major venues.

Mark Brennan is Festival Liaison and a Strategist at Festival Formula, an agency that specialise in creating film festival strategies for short films. He is also the Festival Director of the BIFA-qualifying Exit 6 Film Festival, an active filmmaker/screenwriter, and most recently has joined the writing team at the BIFA-qualifying short film platform Directors Notes.

Byron is a working-class, neurodivergent writer, performer, and broadcaster working across poetry, theatre, radio, television, and film. Recognised as one of the BBC Poetry Season’s New Talent Choices, he has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Battersea Arts Centre, Southbank Centre, the BBC, Channel 4, and the British Film Institute, where he is developing his debut feature film. He has written and presented acclaimed BBC Radio 4 documentaries on poverty, class, and mental health, and contributed to the BBC series Skint, where his episode was described by The Guardian as “blistering” and the series’ standout. He is also the founder of Disco Neurotico, a company producing neurodivergent-inclusive club events across Europe.