Actor Dai Bradley, who starred in Kes, has been shooting a film in Bradford based on the ‘Ravenscliffe rat’.

Called Ratzilla, the film was inspired by a ‘monster rat’ said to have been spotted on Ravenscliffe estate in 2010.

Telegraph & Argus reports on alleged sightings of a two-and-a-half foot-long rodent made national headlines. While there was no evidence of the creature, the story inspired film-maker Rad Miller to write and direct a film about a teenage boy who discovers a giant rat.

The cast of Ratzilla includes Charlotte Darley and Alexa Lee from Idle theatre school Stage 84 and youngsters at Low Ash Primary School in Wrose, where some filming took place yesterday. ((THURS JULY 4)) Other locations included the city centre subway, Goit Stock near Wilsden and Golden Acre Park in Bramhope.

The film is produced by youth media production company Pocket Projects, run by Mr Miller, who has recruited film and media graduates as film crew on the four-day shoot.

“It’s a production training exercise, giving young people experience of working on the technical side of film-making,” said Mr Miller, of Yeadon. “It’s a short film which we’ll be pitching to the film industry, with a view to turning it into a feature film.

“I contacted Dai and was honoured when he agreed to be in it. There are parallels with Kes - it’s about a tearaway boy on the outside who befriends an animal - but this is a fantasy adventure based on fear of this mysterious giant creature, which turns out to be not what it seems.”

Mr Bradley, who was 14 when he played Billy Casper in 1969 film Kes, plays ‘the Catman’ in Ratzilla.

“He’s an outsider and feels as much disenfranchised as the boy does,” he said. “I was intruiged by the script, it’s a quirky, on-the-edge tale about the rehabilitation of a boy, and it looks at prejudice and the way children are stigmatised in the same way that Kes did.”

The film is supported by Bradford UNESCO City of Film, which helped with locations. City of Film director David Wilson said “This is a brilliant example of what you can achieve if you put your mind to it. Rad has been working on this project for some time and managing to cast Dai Bradley will undoubtedly give the project a lift.”

In Kes, Dai Bradley gave a memorable performance as a lonely boy stuck in a Yorkshire mining town who finds a baby kestrel. Through training the bird he finds passionate and hope.

During the 2006 Bradford Film Festival the actor was reunited with Kes director Ken Loach, actor Colin Welland, producer Tony Garnett and writer Barry Hines, whose novel A Kestrel for a Knave inspired the film.