NEWCASTLE is once again to be the setting for a gritty crime film, this time starring Stephen Tompkinson as a copper with old fashioned values.

The actor, who appeared in the film Brassed Off but is now best known as vet Danny Trevanion in ITV drama series Wild at Heart, is to play Detective Sergeant Barry Harrigan in the film Harrigan’s Nick.

The screenplay was written by Newcastle writer Arthur McKenzie and inspired by his experiences as a police officer in the city in the 1970s.

Last night Stephen Tompkinson said he had been handed the script last year when he was in the play Faith & Cold Reading at Newcastle’s Live Theatre.

“I thought it was fantastic. I got to meet Arthur, who’s a wonderful, larger-than-life character, and heard that it was based on his memories, and it really grabbed me.

“There was a great part in it that I thought Dawn (Steele, his co-star in Wild at Heart) would be right for and she said she could just about bear to work with me again.”

Dawn Steele is to play fellow officer WPC Bridie Phelan.

Both actors were in Newcastle last night for a meeting about the film before flying off to South Africa to make the seventh series of Wild at Heart.

Stephen said his character in Harrigan’s Nick was “a person who believes in the physical presence of a policeman in his community. He’s been away in the Far East and he comes back to find a lot more red tape and policemen disappearing off the streets.