Sharks in Colwyn Bay was inspired by the huge increase in predatory money-lending since the Covid pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. The BBC reports that by December 2020, nine million people had to borrow more money than usual. The idea of someone fighting back after being backed into a corner was alluring, especially with a character who’s previously so in denial about the danger he faces.

We wanted to pull the rug out from the audience, luring them in with something light before revealing the sadness underneath. Dick as a character is not exactly on the knife’s edge of this societal problem. As someone who inherited a business from his father, he always has the option to sell up and move on. But to do that would be to admit he’s failed. I like the conflict that generates, where you’ve got a systemic problem intersecting with a personal one: there’s broad economic pressures at play, but Dick bears some responsibility for his predicament. That kind of character allows us to wheel this Trojan Horse of a serious issue into a more lighthearted film.

Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast (2000) was a big inspiration. I love the idea of taking that sort of conflict but plucking the protagonist from something more like a Coen Brothers feature, such as Fargo (1996), someone who’s totally clueless and in over his head. The series Better Call Saul (2015-2022) was also a big inspiration for the tone, with its sad clown of a central character.

Putting the camera operator in the bin was a highlight. I had to ask so sheepishly if we could put her in there but she was so up for it. We built a little ramp inside so when Dick threw a wet fish in it wouldn’t hit her. It always gave us a laugh, walking from the monitor to the bins just to see crew hiding in there.
Another was shooting the beach scene at low tide. The tide up there can come in and out really quickly. With every shot we ran further back to try and beat the tide. Maybe ten minutes after we finished shooting, that whole location was underwater.