A FILM produced and directed by a BAFTA award-winning former Hereford Cathedral School pupil will be shown at the Courtyard Theatre this week.

Maiden, the latest film from Alex Holmes, is the inspirational, against-all-odds story of the first all-female crew to take part in the Whitbread Round The World yacht race, sailing's toughest endurance race.

Considered to be an exclusively masculine event, the female crew of the Maiden, skippered by 24-year-old Tracy Edwards, were derided by their male competitors, written off by sponsors and ridiculed in the press, who at one stage described them as "a tin full of tarts".

But in spite of it all, they went on to prove themselves the equal of men, finishing second in their class in the 1989 race.

The Hereford-raised director's credits include Dunkirk, a three-part World War Two mini series for which he was awarded a BAFTA, Paula and Stop at Nothing, the shocking story of how cyclist Lance Armstrong duped the world.

He is currently abroad directing a new drama series for Netflix.

Maiden will be shown at the Hereford theatre on May 13, 15 and 20.

For more information and for tickets, visit https://www.courtyard.org.uk/events/maiden-12a/