AS people across the country settle back and enjoy the latest adventures of Shaun the Sheep and his friends Vale residents may be surprised to know the producer behind the film is one of their own.

Paul Kewley, who now lives in Bristol, comes from the village of Offenham, near Evesham, where his parents still live.

A former pupil at Offenham First School, Blackminster Middle School and the former Evesham High School Mr Kewley attributes the start of his journey to the silver screen to his Vale education.

"As an 18-year-old at Evesham High I had a careers officer who came into school and asked what I wanted to do," said the 44-year-old. "I was interested in photography and she rang me the next day and I ended up doing some work for a motor racing photography company in Worcester.

"That kind of got me into TV."

After that Mr Kewley headed up north where he worked at Yorkshire TV in Leeds before heading over to LA in America where he studied film production at the University of Southern California.

"I got a scholarship to the university," he said. "I was in the Evesham Journal at the time. For me that was my first foray into film. I ended up staying in LA for about ten years."

And during his time in Hollywood Mr Kewley worked on films including the Scream series, Christmas favourite Elf and Training Day but he remains quiet on which celebrities he's met.

"I have worked on a whole variety of things, quote a lot of horror films, and I learnt the trade through that," he said. "I have worked with lots of people. In Shaun the Sheep you have Omid Djalili and Justin Fletcher.

"About five years ago I got offered the job at Aardman, they were one of the few British film companies that had always interested me.

"Working on animation the obvious differences are the time scales. I love both my interest as a producer is in story telling and the medium is kind of secondary to that.

"I think animation is a really great way of telling great stories and it covers all ages. I love stuff with great characters. In the Shaun the Sheep the Movie Bitzer is my favourite character. He is the guy who is always trying to keep order."

And so far everyone else is enjoying getting to know the characters as they themselves head from the countryside into the big city.

"The reaction has been fantastic," he said. "We have been slightly overwhelmed by the reaction to the film but it's nice people are enjoying it."

Shaun the Sheep the Movie is being screened at cinemas now.