A POULTON writer is making her first splash in the movie world with a film about an elderly mermaid.

Jayne Steel, of Beckdean Avenue, co-wrote the short film Mavis And The Mermaid, starring veteran comedian Eric Sykes and actress Sylvia Syms, which was shot on location in Barrow-in-Furness last week.

Jayne, 38, who teaches creative writing at Lancaster University, explained that Sylvia Syms plays the mermaid who longs to return to the sea, while Sykes is her bygone sweetheart and their go-between is played by a Maryport schoolchild.

"Filming was great fun and I was really pleased when I saw the rushes," said Jayne. "This is my first venture into commercial film - it should be ready for cinema distribution early in the new year." Produced by Barrow-based Shoreline Films, the movie won funding from the Arts Council Film Lottery, London Production Fund, Northern Production Fund, Barrow Borough Council and Cumbria Training and Enterprise Council.

Jayne co-wrote the screenplay with Juliet McKoen, an award-winning experimental film-maker from Ulverston whom she met three years ago after Shoreline Films advertised for writers.

Shoreline has already received funding towards their next screenplay, a feature film called Mermaids and Money Troubles.

Jayne, who is in the midst of completing her PhD on the protrayal of the provisional IRA in British and American films, has also won a place on Carlton TV's screenwriters course, for which she has to produce a three-hour TV drama by March.

"It's all happening at once," she said. "I've never written for TV before so it is a bit daunting but it should be interesting."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.