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My spec dark comedy feature script Hurricane Betty started out as I'm sure many great ideas for a film do – with a drunken, almost unbelievable dinner party anecdote. A friend-of-mine shared his childhood memory of a journey to France that turned into a farcical road trip. That night lying in bed wired on espresso martinis, I fell in and out of dreamtime, all the while I was living out the story as a film. I knew then I had to write the script and from there on in, the words have just rolled onto the page. I’ve been obsessed with road movies since I watched a mild-mannered commuter stuck behind a wheel in Spielberg’s surreal cult road movie Duel. All my favourite films seems to involve a car journey at some point; The Straight Story, Little Miss Sunshine, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Wild at Heart… I could go on and on!  Nothing beats the adventure of a road trip. Travelling seems to draw out the best and worst in people, and in my opinion a car i

If I’m offered a drink, I’m looking around for a snack. I simply hate knocking back the booze on an empty stomach.  Why in England is a measly bag of crisps or pork scratchings deemed an extravagance? For  me  the perfect bar crawl involves eating and drinking in equal measure. Which is why my heart and stomach fell so deeply for Bilbao, a city that embraces the art of picoteo or ‘bar crawling with intent to snack’.  For foodies that hate to share their carefully sought out culinary treats, pintxos win hands-down. These tasty bite-sized mouthfuls on sticks or bread topped with anything from crispy seafood to tortilla de patatas hit the spot every time.   Although you can find good pintxos anywhere in Bilbao, one of the most atmospheric places to wander is the busy narrow old town streets of the Casco Viejo . Commonly known as ‘ Siete Calles ’ or ‘Zazpi Kaleak’ in Basque, these seven streets formed the original medieval town and it’s here you can sample some of the best pintxos