A knockout producer

COLLECTING your first BAFTA is always going to be an awe-inspiring moment. But when, like producer Mark Herbert, the man handing you the golden trophy is one of your childhood icons it is not surprising if it starts to feel like a dream.

So that is probably why, on BAFTA night, Mark asked his wife to pinch him after receiving his award from Sylvester Stallone, a man he had watched in Rambo and Rocky.

"I was convinced we weren't going to win," he said.

"I was so shocked and picking up the award almost felt like an out-of-body experience especially when Sylvester Stallone told me he loved the film.

"That was just the most surreal moment. I kept saying to my wife: Pinch me - it feels like I shouldn't be here.'"

Mark, who produced This Is England, received a BAFTA for Best British Film at the ceremony earlier this year.

Parents Pauline and Gerald toasted their son's success with neighbours in Portree Drive, Holmes Chapel.

Also watching coverage of the ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London was his eight-year-old daughter, Evie.

His youngest, four-year-old Bethany, was in bed.

Mark had been nominated for Best British Film alongside blockbusters Atonement and The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon, so the last thing he expected was to win.

It came as such a surprise to Mark that he arrived at Covent Garden with his wife Anita, formerly Anita Sarkar of Holmes Chapel, without a winner's speech.

After collecting his BAFTA he spoke to the press and then posed for photographs backstage where Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins was waiting.

Mark added: "I was a bit star struck because Anthony Hopkins is such a legend but he was a lovely person.

"The thing is you know some stars by their on-screen personas so the whole time I was thinking: This is Hannibal Lector!'"

After the ceremony the former Holmes Chapel Comprehensive pupil was taken by limousine to several parties where he mingled with acclaimed directors the Coen brothers and Daniel Day-Lewis, who went on to win an Oscar for his role in There Will Be Blood. This proved to be a fantastic networking opportunity for Mark.

"I've been getting lots of calls from American studios in Hollywood since then - it's a contact business where it matters who you know so it gets easier as you go along," said the former Holmes Chapel Rugby Club player.

After a night of partying, Mark had to leave at 6am to catch a flight to the Berlin Film Festival.

He said the baggage inspectors at Luton Airport were delighted when they found the BAFTA in his flight bag.

"They were all parading round with it," added Mark.

Mark's family had moved from Yorkshire to Selkirk Drive, Holmes Chapel, about 25 years ago. He often visited Knutsford's cinema with friends.

But the schoolboy, whose dad worked at Ilford in Mobberley, was not a film buff.

He was more interested in photography.

After failing his art A-level, he went travelling for two years before deciding to take a film studies degree at Sheffield Hallam University.

"I'd never watched subtitled films, but I started to get into French and Italian cinema and that broadened my thinking," he said.

After university Mark worked as a runner and later became assistant location manager for hit film Brassed Off.

He was then location manager for several films, including the Oscar-nominated Little Voice.

"I got to sit with the director for days and that gave me a massive insight into how a film is made.

"I never had a career plan, I just took it one step at a time," he said.

Seven years ago Mark became friends with Rob Mitchell, of Warp Records Ltd, and helped develop Warp Films.

Sadly, Rob died of cancer, so Mark took on the independent film company.

The producer then helped make director Shane Meadow's Dead Man's Shoes.

Then three years ago he and Shane made This is England - a £2.3 million drama about young skinheads in the early 1980s.

Mark first met Shane after producing Chris Morris's BAFTA-winning short film My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117. His co-star Paddy Considine was good friends with Shane and introduced the pair.

The next film Mark and Shane will work on together is another gritty British thriller called King of the Gypsies, which they will start shooting next summer.

Mark has now not seen This Is England for more than a year as he said it was difficult, even now, to have an objective view about the movie.

"You get almost immune to a film because you get so close to it," he added.

But Mark said he was proud to be producing British films in a world of American titles.

He said: "You make films about what you know - that's what made it work."

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