I WENT to see a new film set in Flintshire - and thought it was absolutely brilliant.
Musical rom-com Chuck Chuck Baby was released in cinemas on Friday - and has already been met with great acclaim.
The film is centred on a group of women who work together at a chicken factory in Flintshire. Director Janis Pugh, who hails from Flint, worked at the chicken factory in Deeside - from which she took much of the inspiration for the film.
As a synopsis, the film's leading character Helen (Louise Brealey, Sherlock) lives a miserable life - her only solace found in the raucous and affectionate banter with her friends at the chicken factory.
She resides in her dead baby's room of the house she shares with her odious husband, Gary (Celyn Jones), his 20-year-old scouse girlfriend, Amy (Emily Fairn, The Responder), the couple's newborn, and Gary’s bedridden mother, Gwen (Sorcha Cusack) - whom Helen sees as the mother she never had.
Helen's life, however, changes when her childhood crush, Jo (Annabel Scholey, The Sixth Commandment) returns home. Unbeknown to Helen, she was also Jo's childhood sweetheart - she had even written her a love-letter, which was torn to shreds by her abusive father. But the pair had never even uttered a word to each other before. They cautiously flirt their way toward consummating the love they failed to declare two decades earlier.
What follows is an endearing, funny and heartwarming tale of working class female friendship. With its setting in a chicken factory, the word plucky aptly describes it. Filmed on a low budget across just 26 days, it is an exceptional result. At Storyhouse in Chester where I saw it, there was constant raucous laughter from members of the audience - many of whom were quietly singing along to many of the film's toe-tapping tunes.
Chuck Chuck Baby is worth seeing which ever part of the country you're from, but the film being set locally adds extra zest.
Several locations across Flintshire are featured; including Llanerch y mor Dock in Mostyn (where the iconic Duke of Lancaster ship is featured), Dock Road in Connah's Quay, Halkyn Mountain (at Pentre Halkyn), Talacre Beach and the Jubilee (Blue) Bridge in Deeside.
Helen's house (where much of the film is featured) is set on New Roskell Square in Flint. There is even a moment when a factory worker lists Ysbyty Glan Clwyd as one of the places she's visited outside of Flint.
Chuck Chuck Baby was given four out of five stars by both The Guardian and The Observer, and was BBC critic Mark Kermode's film of the week. The film is richly deserving of these reviews, and I would definitely recommend going to see it. The characterisation is excellent, and Annabel Scholey and Louise Brearley thrive in their roles.
Janis Pugh told me she is "overwhelmed" at the response to the film - and she deserves so much credit.
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