A Bit of Tom Jones

It seems fitting that when I meet up with the two stars of surprise Welsh smash hit comedy A Bit of Tom Jones, it is in a pub. The Northumberland Arms in London’s Goodge Street, to be precise. That rarest of things around these parts - a great local with good staff and a genial governor - The Northo was where Jonny Owen and Roger Evans also came together to film the first episode of another cult smash, the internet comedy Svengali, but more of that later.

A Bit Of Tom Jones has been a surprise hit in Wales, and now it’s coming to a cinema near you. This is a Very Good Thing, as the film is very funny. An irreverent romp with a plot that revolves around an attempt to sell Tom Jones’ severed penis, ABOTJ takes the legend of the sale of a celebrity penis, and smashes it to pieces. When it was released late last year in Wales a veritable firestorm erupted across the country. Spreading from Merthyr, in the Welsh valleys, to the multiplexes of Cardiff, ABOTJ eventually outsold The Fourth Kind and Harry Brown. “And that’s got Michael Caine in it,” writer and director Peter Watkins-Hughes pointed out at the time.

Owen and Evans play Henry and Teddy. Henry is approached by a woman in a pub, who offers him the Welsh singer’s cock. Seeing the opportunity to make some quick cash Henry drafts in the help of his slightly more streetwise and dodgy friend Teddy ‘Shitfingers’. Shenanigans ensue.

The film features a fine cast that also includes the always-brilliant John Henshaw, Torchwood’s Eve Myles, Waterloo Road’s Denise Welch, Matt Berry of Might Boosh and more, and a welcome appearance by soul legend Geno Washington.

The pair have known each other for years. “We first worked together ten years ago on a Welsh TV series called Nuts and Bolts,” Owen says. They played Ritchie and Lip, best friends, in this long-running and hugely popular Welsh soap.

“We met Peter [writer and director Watkins-Hughes] on the set of that,” Evans adds. “He always said he would write a film for us, and to be fair, he’s stuck to his word. Mind you, I think originally it was going to be Errol Flynn's cock with Affleck and Damon in Los Angeles, but he’s ended up with us two in Tredegar.”

After Nuts and Bolts the pair stayed in touch over the years and became good friends. Owen began working on what was to become the internet hit comedy Svengali. The series is written by Dean Cavanagh, author of C4's excellent 2007 comedy drama Wedding Belles and writing partner of Irvine Welsh on the critically lauded Babylon Heights.  Evans was always in mind for the role of Horse, the PR man haunted by the sudden appearance of Owen’s Dixie, a young lad from the valleys with dreams of breaking his band in London.

It is Svengali that really sums up the spirit you feel when you speak to Owen and Evans. Funny, do-it-yourself, highly original and free thinking. Owen basically pulled in favours from people who wanted to be involved in the series, and each episode, once posted on YouTube, saw their audience growing and growing, until the mainstream TV suits could not help but notice and offered Owen a development deal.

“Svengali is now being developed for TV, with full episodes and everything,” Owen says. “It’ll take the story to great new and unexpected, I hope, heights.” Alongside Owen and Evans, Svengali saw Carl Barat, Alan McGee and others making cameos, as well as a truly strong cast, all of who helped out for nothing and pitched in whatever help they could. A grass roots idea given life by people who really believed in it.

It’s this punky ethos that makes A Bit of Tom Jones so good: we’ve got an off-beat story, we want to make it, somehow we’ll get it done. This included everything from blagging helicopters to the writer himself fly-posting the valleys to drum up interest.

“When something is good, people want to help and to be involved,” Owen says. “If the idea is strong enough there is always a way to get it made. You just have to keep on.” Everybody pitched in. Filmed almost entirely in south Wales, local business people clubbed in to raise funds and many of the cast and crew worked for reduced rates. The local police force even provided flashing lights for a police car. “We filmed it just over two years ago,” Evans says. “We thought it would go straight to DVD, but how wrong we were.” The film is now the biggest grossing Welsh independent of all time, just taking over from Twin Town.

The Funniest Film of the Decade? So far, it just might be.

A Bit Of Tom Jones Goes on general release from January 26th

You can watch all six episode of Svengali HERE

A BIT OF TOM JONES - Trailer