INDUSTRY GUESTS

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.

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.