Press

BBC - Film Network
13 April 2006
by Adrian Hennigan
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The Baker: Band of Brothers

We pay a visit to the set of Gareth Lewis’ new comedy The Baker, now shooting in South Wales.

The scripted romance between Damian Lewis and Kate Ashfield isn’t the only feelgood event taking place on the set of The Baker. The comedy is the directorial debut of Damian’s younger brother Gareth and was written by Lewis Jr when the two siblings shared a flat in London. “We always had this romantic idea that we should do the film together,” says Damian, between takes at a disused office block on location in Cardiff. “Because he’s my brother I know this sounds biased, but The Baker is funnier than any comedy I’ve read in the last however-many years.”

Damian came to prominence in TV’s 2001 WWII mini-series Band Of Brothers, and the 35-year-old gets to run around with a gun again in The Baker. He plays a hitman, Milo, who tires of his days as an assassin and seeks refuge instead in a sleepy Welsh village (it’s Waking Ned meets Grosse Pointe Blank!). One week into shooting, Damian says it’s been “fun” working with his kid brother. “It helps because there are a few short cuts he uses with me - which sometimes also become short fuses! - and I’m enjoying it tremendously working with him. It is a little bit of a dream come true.”

As well as Kate Ashfield - who plays local vet Rhiannon Jones, from the Welsh village of Gwynfyd - The Baker also co-stars Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Kingdom Of Heaven) as Milo’s nemesis and Michael Gambon as Milo’s mentor.

The Baker is a co-production between Picture Farm (a company co-owned by Damian and Gareth Lewis) and Grandville Pictures; Grandville’s producers, Dan Shepherd and Justin Williams, are aiming for a spring 2007 UK cinema release. “It’s been a long journey to get to this stage,” admits director Gareth Lewis, “so to anybody who’s thinking of giving up after a year… don’t! Keep going, it’s worth it.”

Watch the video to see what’s cooking in The Baker.