Dai bradley biography of william hill

Dai has been working on an autobiography but says he has no plans to publish it for a few years. He says: "I sometimes get a little insecure about writing because, in my age group, a lot of kids when they left school did not have any qualifications behind them, and because of the whole snowballing effect of Kes I didn't stay on to take any examinations. I went to a Secondary Modern school but I felt the opportunity [provided by Kes] was there and I should grasp it instead of waiting eight or nine months. I look upon life and experience as my kind of education so in travel, in reading - I do enjoy reading - in my work, in meeting people and taking whatever opportunities that come along, if they appeal of course, that's what life is about...If that spark of life that makes one want to explore and discover and learn and share is destroyed then there's no point in continuing."

When Dai was chosen by Ken Loach for the part of Billy he had done some acting at school and in panto but he had thoughts of becoming a professional footballer. As an actor he managed to play with some of his heroes including Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Chalrton. He says: "In a lot of ways some of my dreams came true and I knew for a fact I would not join my father down the coalmines - my father was a collier. Apparently my teachers at school thought I would fit in quite well in a bank but that didn't really appeal."

Dai has no regrets about the choice he made at school: "There've been extraordinary experiences, not only through work but in my personal life..." He talks about his love for world music and modern jazz, particularly the work of Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, and concludes: "This would not have happened if it hadn't been for Kes. I wouldn't haven't got involved in South American music and jazz, I don't think."

Barry Hines, who wrote the book A Kestrel For A Knave on which Kes was based, had been a teacher at Dai's school although their time there did not coincide with Dai's. Ken Loach had originally wanted to film an earlier Hines novel, The Blinder, in which a young boy is taken on by Huddersfield Town. However, Barry Hines had already started working on a story which he believed was more realistic. Dai comments: "It was somewhat based, I think, on his brother Richard who amongst the three of us was the real falconer. We trained three falcons for the film named Freeman, Hardy and Willis - you might remember the shoeshop of that name. I trained Hardy, Richard trained Freeman and Willis was trained by Barry. Willis was rather schizophrenic so we had to let him go back to the wild. Next time you'll see the film, you'll notice Freeman and Hardy have two different flying styles. If you see the kestrel flying quite high above and sweeping down at an angle you'll know it's Hardy, and if you see a kestrae coming directly at you at eye level then you'll know it's Freeman."

He still believes Kes paints an accurate picture of the South Yorkshire of his childhood: "It wasn't my life. Billy didn't have much in common with me and he didn't get on well at school. I enjoyed school. I had a very good relationship with many of my teachers and I enjoyed football. Billy knew about the training of birds. I knew nothing about birds whatsoever and I've discovered it doesn't just relate to such communities. I've had African-Caribbean people come up to me and, with eyes watering, have said Kes was one of the most wonderful films they had ever seen so it's a cross-cultural film which has surprised me and in some respects I'm really kind of thrilled by that."

Dai thinks his home town has changed tremendously in the intervening years: "I saw on the BBC's Look North programme a few days ago that communities are still struggling to get over the demise of the coal mining industry. The centre of Barnsley has changed since I was a boy...We had a wonderful open-air market but that's now partly indoors, and I hear if this new architectural plan of linking Liverpool with Hull goes ahead the architect wants to convert Barnsley into a Tuscan town. That could be quite interesting. I wish it would do more to cling on to its past, to clean up the old buildings because the modern ones have no character...I'm hoping the Council will retain the history of my home town but I'm not sure that it will."

Kes has surely ensured that Dai Bradley himself has a place in that history but with Asylum he finds himself in a film which is perhaps just as relevant for its time.