Liz Coates A home-grown editing talent's work on one of television's most popular cult comedies has won him a nomination for a top show business award alongside a string of household names.

Liz Coates

A home-grown editing talent's work on one of television's most popular cult comedies has won him a nomination for a top show business award alongside a string of household names.

Bradwell-born Mark Everson, director of series three of BBC Three's The Mighty Boosh, is one of four people shortlisted for a British Academy Television Craft Award (Bafta) in the editing fiction/entertainment category against the people behind Cranford, Five Days and Boy A.

The accolade will be handed out to winners on Sunday, May 11, at London's Dorchester Hotel.

Mr Everson, 32, who has previously been nominated by the Television Society for his work on Peep Show, said he was especially pleased to be associated with the only comedy in the category.

He said his parents, who live in Long Lane, were proud of his achievements and he thanked local people for being “massively supportive” of a seafront-set film he is making with school boy chum Andrew Hill, who had also achieved success in the world of television production.

Mr Everson went to Lynn Grove High School before going on to study in Norwich and Manchester. His big break came following his work editing series four of Peep Show which got him noticed by Boosh director Paul King.

He said: “I was a massive fan of the The Boosh, I absolutely loved it. A lot of it is improvised and the last two episodes of series three were not written by anybody, they just worked it out the night before and nobody does that. They are really really unconventional, there are no extras and Noel Fielding is literally like his character, he can pick up a phone and 30 people will be there almost instantly. Julian Barratt lives round the corner and you just become part of the gang.”

Because of a string of offers he can't refuse the Great Yarmouth-set film he shot with his mate, using his parents' house as a base, has gone on the back burner. The film uses the gaudy seafront strip as a back drop for the main action which traces the lives of skateboarders, stall holders and boy-racers and their under-lit cars, with humour and affection. He said funding was a major hurdle to finishing the film with the Arts Council refusing to fund the final stretch.

Yarmouth's seafront, which mixes modern bright lights with faded Victorian glory, was “really cinematic” he said, with most of the filming taking place over busy holidays. But hamstrung by money and time continuity was a problem, he added, with pubs internally redecorating between shoots, buildings bulldozed and young actors growing up, losing weight and in one case - voices breaking.

He criticised the Arts Council for giving everybody too little and nobody enough, adding that 75pc of projects funded remained unfinished. Meanwhile, he was doing his best to assemble the film, a full length feature called Far East, in the spare bedroom of the home he shares with TV director girlfriend Jenny Byrom in Highbury, London.