A FORMER TV star has won an award for his debut venture into film.

Formerly the laid-back DC Paul Riley in police drama The Bill, Gary Grant, 31, of Chase Side, Enfield, won an award for writing and directing the story of an elderly woman with dementia.

The film, one of 13 shortlisted from across the capitla, won the audience’s choice at Film London’s Best of Borough Film Awards on Monday, netting the director £2,000.

The 15-minute piece, called Daisy’s Last Stand, portrays a woman in her 70s with Alzheimer’s who decides to try to rediscover her youth and rejuvenate her social life.

In one scene, the main character Daisy goes out to a pub and starts to fantasise that she is 19 again and is having a romantic dance with a man, but is instead falling over and having to be picked up.

Mr Grant said he decided to turn his hand to making films because he felt, despite his two-year stint on The Bill and appearing in 14 films, his best work was yet to come.

He said: “The film is meant to be about someone taking control of her own destiny. It’s meant to be uplifting but I’ve seen the whole audience crying so we are thinking of taking uplifting off the back of the DVD.

“The lead actress Carole Dance gave such an extraordinary performance that you do really fall in love with her as a woman.”

Much of it was shot in Enfield, with scenes outside The George pub in Enfield Town, with other parts in Cockfosters.

Mr Grant said the film is no longer available to view on the internet as he is planning to launch the film at festivals around the world, beginning with a screening at the Riverside studios, in Crisp Road, in Hammersmith at a date yet to be confirmed.

Mr Grant was awarded funding by the London Borough Film Fund Challenge, a dedicated scheme for short films run by Film London, a film and media agency.