'I'm glad I was laughed off stage'

David Parfitt knew he'd made the right decision to abandon acting on the set of producing partner Kenneth Branagh's film of Henry V. Cast in a cameo role as a messenger, he arrived on location to be greeted by loud laughter from Branagh, who was directing as well as starring. He laughed so hard he was forced to leave the set.

"My part didn't make it past the first cut of the film," recalls Sunderland-born Parfitt. "My revenge was to leave my name on the credits. Then one of the critics muddled me up with someone else and gave me a good review, even though I never appeared on screen."

The experience was confirmation that the former child actor had made the right decision to move behind the camera. He moved from playing Wendy Craig's small screen son to forming and running a successful theatre company with Branagh, to the Oscar-winning producer of Shakespeare In Love.

The success of that movie could have opened doors in Hollywood. Instead, the day after the awards ceremony he flew back to this country. "One of the natural things would've been to try and get a deal in the States, and live there," he admits. "But the morning after the Oscars, I went to the beach with our new baby, then got a plane and came home. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, but staying didn't seem appealing at the time. I was arrogant enough to think I could come back and do exactly what I wanted to do."

Rather than wheeling and dealing in Los Angeles, he operates his company Trademark from offices above a theatre in the heart of London. This week he's seen the opening in cinemas of his latest film as a producer, an adaptation of Dodie Smith's novel I Capture The Castle.

Making Henry V, which followed successful stage tours by Renaissance, changed his life. Until then, he imagined he'd be spending his life in the theatre. Henry took away the mystery of film-making and made him less scared of it.

"When we realised it was achievable, we began planning more films," he says. "I've never known if I do it right. All I know is from having worked as a producer. I've always had a fascination for the technical side. As an actor, I've seen it from the other side."

Parfitt began acting as a youngster, a result of academic failure rather than any great ambition. His father was a shopkeeper in Sunderland, but his mother had trained as an actress, although never worked in the business professionally.

Seeing their son come bottom of the year at grammar school made his parents look around for ways to improve his prospects. He'd only ever said he'd like to be an actor in the same way boys say they want to be train drivers or pop stars, but his parents suggested stage school in London. "They couldn't afford the fees, but were told I could go on a term's trial and if I got work I could pay my own fees," he recalls.

In his second term, he won a leading role in the Wendy Craig TV comedy And Mother Makes Three, and then its successor And Mother Makes Five.

"That took me to 16. I came out with three O-levels, which wasn't going to be useful in any other career. I kept acting, although the romance and glamour were gone," he says.

"I talked about being a studio cameraman for TV and, by my early 20s, I realised I was going to look for a way on the other side of the camera."

During a stage production of Another Country, he got chatting to co-star Kenneth Branagh and they decided to form their own theatre company. Renaissance, which toured successfully for several years, was born and Parfitt retired from acting - apart from his ill-fated Henry V cameo - in favour of the role of producer.

"Luckily I found this niche in producing. It covers the creative side, because I'm working on scripts, and I'm involved in filming, standing by the camera," he says.

"You get a little bit of everything. You don't cast a movie but have influence over casting. You don't write scripts but put in notes. It gives you fingers in all sorts of pies. I think it's the best job."

Despite being a grammar school drop-out, he's made his mark educationally in the North-East - being made an honorary graduate of the University of Sunderland after Shakespeare In Love. As a thank you, he arranged a charity premiere of I Capture The Castle to raise funds for projects including a new Media Centre, complete with its own cinema.

Two things delayed him working on with a new project after Shakespeare In Love. First, he spend a year on the road promoting the film. Then, he was brought in to work as a consultant on Gangs Of New York, the $100m Scorsese movie made at studios in Rome.

'It was the biggest thing they'd attempted and they were very nervous. They wanted as many friends there to see it went their way," explains Parfitt, who admits there was a certain amount of suspicion from others about his role at first. "I went out for one month, and every time I said I thought I'd done my job, they said, 'can you stay?'.

"I was commuting back and forth for eight months. I was there every day and saw fantastic things being shot, but didn't have any creative input. It was frustrating in a way - all responsibility and no power. My involvement stopped on the last day of shooting. I saw an assembly of the film before I left Rome, and didn't see another frame until the premiere."

As soon as he returned home, he began preparing I Capture The Castle, the story of a 17-year-old girl finding romance when a young American takes over the castle where she lives with her eccentric family. The film stars newcomer Romola Garai together with Tara Fitzgerald and Bill Nighy.

Various directors and writers worked on the project over six years of development. When he first became involved Parfitt read the novel with some trepidation, worried it was "more of a girls' book".

He was glad to be proved wrong. "It's a beautiful book about falling in love and growing up, and things that happen to us all. After reading it, I was terribly keen to make the film," he says.

"Financially, it was a real struggle. I sometimes think it's a bigger struggle on the smaller films because you want to cast people who are right. You can fill with some British all-stars, and some Americans in this case, but it's not the sort of names that attract big money."

He's now in pre-production on First Daughter, the tale of a US President's offspring on the loose in Europe. American pop star Mandy Moore is set to star.

Another project will bring him back to his roots. Parfitt bought the screen rights to Peter Straughan's play Noir after seeing the Northern Stage/Live Theatre production at Newcastle Playhouse last year. If it's made into a film, he hopes to be able to film it on location in Newcastle, where the tale of the Tyneside underworld is set.

l I Capture The Castle (PG) is now showing in cinemas.