Bradford screenwriter Dean Cavanagh has stuck two fingers up to the establishment and gone back to basics for a punk approach to television which he hopes will inspire the next generation.

Dean, 41, who was born in Allerton, is a regular writing partner with controversial author Irvine Welsh, and the pair have just completed work on their latest venture, a one-off ‘mockumentary’ about the world of professional darts in South Wales.

But instead of waiting for the big TV networks to approve, finance and produce their script, Cavanagh and Welsh set up their own company Dust Films, raised the money themselves, and had the first rough edit in the can within two months.

“We’d still be waiting for the first response from the big networks if we’d decided to sell the concept to them the traditional way,” said Dean.

The 90-minute film, Good Arrows, has been snapped up by ITV who will be showing it on their digital channel ITV4 in January. Because Cavanagh and Welsh, in the guise of Dust Films, retain control over the film, it will get a simultaneous DVD release and has already been sold to territories in the USA and Canada.

Dean, whose last big venture was the darkly-comic revenge drama Wedding Belles, shown last year on Channel 4 (and dubbed by one national newspaper “the sickest TV drama ever!” – before they’d even seen it) said he and Welsh, author of the cult classic Trainspotting and latest novel, Crime, decided to go back to basics after becoming disillusioned with the corporate mindset in British television.

Dean, who lives with his family in Cottingley, says: “People are finding new ways to get their media, be it from satellite channels or on the internet, and we wanted to tap into that. It would be quite easy to just sell our scripts and sit back and take the money, but we wanted to look at a new way of doing things, to retain control over our work.”

The “new way” of doing things is actually a rather old way – a punk rock ethic where the creators do it themselves and don’t compromise their artistic vision in the face of corporate moneymen.

“I don’t want to sound too worthy,” grinned Dean. “But it does seem to be what a lot of people are doing. There’s a big tradition of doing things independently and raising the money yourself in the States, and we’re hearing that more and more people are doing it over here.”

Good Arrows was filmed in Merthyr Tydfil, a post-industrial town in south Wales which has suffered a lot of decline in recent years. Cavanagh and Welsh could have taken advantage of the burgeoning television scene a stone’s throw away in Cardiff (home of Doctor Who, Torchwood and the new Beeb Saturday drama Merlin) but decided to keep the production at grassroots level.

Dean said: “We did the right thing, and the people of Merthyr respected and appreciated that, because we roped them in to be involved. I don’t want to sound worthy again, but there might be kids in Merthyr who now realise it’s okay for people like them to want to make films or television.”

Shameless star Jonathan Owens plays Andy “The Arrows” Sampson, a former professional darts celeb gone to seed. Filmed as a fly-on-the-wall documentary, it shows Andy and his wife Big Sheila in an increasingly desperate light.

Dave Fewings, controller of ITV4 adds: “Good Arrows is the perfect match for ITV4 as it has a gritty, comedic tone which will have great appeal for the channel’s male audience. Personally, I am also delighted that writers with the pedigree of Irvine and Dean see ITV4 as the perfect home for the show.”