ONE of the stars of Vera, the ITV detective series set and filmed in the North-East, is back directing a feature film.

David Leon plays Sergeant Joe Ashworth, sidekick to Brenda Blethyn’s Vera in the series. Now he’s writer and director of Orthodox, which is filming in and around Newcastle for three weeks.

The feature film is the product of the success of the short film of the same name he wrote and directed and which premiered at the London Film Festival last year.

Leon won the best narrative short award for his film Man And Boy at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, and Screen International’s 2012 Star of Tomorrow.

About two-thirds of the original short will feature in the finished film and all the original Orthodox cast remain attached to the project, including Stephen Graham (who’s also an executive producer), Michael Smiley, Christopher Fairbank and Giacomo Mancin.

“The world that these characters inhabit is so rich it’s always seemed like a natural canvas for a film,” says Leon.

“Benjamin is a man caught between two worlds, the orthodox Jewish community and mainstream life, yet the challenges he faces are much like those that we all have to confront.

“Through the decisions he makes he becomes an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances.”

Ingenious Media has backed the production company through its new Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Previous independent British films the company has backed include Girl With A Pearl Earring, Brick Lane and Vera Drake.