A FILM and television director from Gwent has been nominated for a Bafta Cymru for his work on a hit TV series.

Philip John, 53, who was brought up in Cross Keys and Pontywaun, is up for Best Director in the fiction category for his work on critically-acclaimed supernatural drama Being Human.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) award ceremony will be held in Cardiff on Sunday.

Mr John, who now lives in the capital, has also directed two upcoming episodes of Downton Abbey, due to be screened next month. He has also worked on Ashes to Ashes, Mistresses, Murphy’s Law and Wedding Belles.

He said: “It’s fantastic to get nominated and great for my profile. I have been lucky because I have worked constantly for five or six years. It is the perfect job, no two days are the same.

“I came from a family with not much money, but I always loved film – ever since my dad had a Super 8 camera I was spellbound. But I didn’t have the confidence to do the thing I loved.”

Mr John moved to Cardiff and played bass with punk band Reptile Ranch and later co-founded and ran Z Block Records. But after completing a media foundation course in London, the much-travelled director attended Newport Film School.

“I didn’t even know it existed,” he added. “If I did, I could have saved myself a whole lot of trouble.”

He won awards for two postgraduate short 35mm films, Sister Lulu and Suckerfish, the latter being chosen for showcases in New York and Los Angeles.

He is now working on a few projects, including a possible trilogy of novels by Welsh author Robert Lewis.

“My long-term plan is to get to the States because that’s where all the great stuff comes from,” he added. “I’m a huge Breaking Bad fan.

“I’m a bit of an iconoclast and always have been – I like to stir things up a bit.”

In his category, Mr John will be up against Lee Haven Jones for his work on The Indian Doctor, and Sue Tully who directed the first series of comedy Stella.

The 22nd annual British Academy Cymru Awards will take place at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on September 29.