SELF-TAUGHT Bradford film-maker Steve Call is calling the shots as he looks forward to a busy year after winning a television award for a comedy about northern society.

Mr Call is celebrating the success of his ‘Up North’ show, which features two sets of neighbours - one posh family and the other more down to earth.

The former electrician turned to film-making in 2008 after he had to give up his job and was hospitalised with a sore skin condition, triggered by an autoimmune disorder. Last year, the 49-year-old teamed up with actor friend Dean Sills from near Sheffield to fund and produce a pilot show of Up North, which they sent to a new local TV channel in Essex looking for slot-fillers.

The first show looking at real-life northern society was such a hit with viewers that bosses at Essex TV commissioned five more episodes and now want a second series.

Comedian Bernie Clifton, famous for his double act with Oswald the Ostrich, plays the regular part of barman Colin Wood in the show. Scenes were shot around Shipley and in Roberts Park at Saltaire as well as in South Yorkshire, said Mr Call, who was so busy with Up North that he had to put the final editing of his latest feature film Tears In The Dust on hold. But it all paid off because Up North won a platinum award voted by TV Essex viewers last month for reaching 100,000 views.

“It seems they can’t get enough of us Up North! The award was out of the blue, we didn’t even know we had been nominated for it so when it arrived in the post it was a very pleasant surprise,” he said.

At home in Wrose, Mr Call is finally adding the finishing touches to Tears In the Dust, which he hopes to screen in the Spring in Bradford and Sheffield, telling the tale of a software salesman who becomes homeless through no fault of his own. He said: “It’s been a mad busy 2016 and 2017 appears to be even busier but there is more work to be done.”

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