Janis Pugh’s musical drama Chuck Chuck Baby starts filming in north Wales

Filming is underway on writer/director Janis Pugh’s feature debut, Chuck Chuck Baby, a musical drama led by Louise Brealey (Clique, Sherlock) and Annabel Scholey (The Split, The Salisbury Poisonings). It’s grim, it’s gritty, and the setting is a dead chicken factory in industrial North Wales, which serves as the backdrop to a feel-good love story celebrating female love in all its forms. 

Also joining the cast are Sorcha Cusack (Father Brown, This Way Up), Celyn Jones (The Almond and The Seahorse, Manhunt) and Emily Fairn (The Responder).

Anne Beresford and Andrew Gillman are producing through their label Artemisia Films, alongside Adam Partridge of Delta Pictures and Peggy Cafferty of Play House Studios. Exec producers are Kimberley Warner for Ffilm Cymru Wales, Lizzie Francke for the BFI, Mary Fisher and Max Fisher for MDF, Kathleen Glynn and Lorcan Kavanagh for Play House Studios and Jim Reeve for Great Point Media.  

Chuck Chuck Baby is funded by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales, both awarding National Lottery funding, and BBC Film. It was developed by Ffilm Cymru Wales, the BFI and Artemisia Films.  

Janis Pugh, Writer and Director, said: “I am so proud to be shooting Chuck Chuck Baby. It’s a story of love, but it is also a story that addresses our current political times. It’s a story of barriers and fences and what happens to our world when we shut people out. I want to make the audience sing, laugh and brush away tears…and then hopefully go home and pull down their own fences.” 

Lizzie Francke, Editor at Large of the BFI Film Fund, said: “Janis is a very singular talent with a very distinct, playful vision and we are proud to be supporting her debut feature. Chuck Chuck Baby promises to be a vibrant and original musical that goes large with its emotional top notes but at the same time has the delicately resonant acoustics of the local and personal, depicting an uplifting story of working-class women in North Wales.”

Kimberley Warner of Ffilm Cymru said: “We’re so proud to have helped Janis to bring this film to life. Chuck Chuck Baby is the feature debut of a unique Welsh voice, telling a story inspired by her home town and shooting in the area, offering opportunities to local crew and trainees."