Patrick Kielty's new film Ballywalter premieres in Belfast

Kielty plays Shane, who enrols on a stand-up comedy course to help get his life back on track after his marriage breaks down

A new film starring County Down-born comedian and presenter Patrick Kielty had its world premiere in Belfast on Thursday.

The drama Ballywalter was shot on a number of locations on the Ards Peninsula and in Belfast.

Kielty has acted on stage before but this is his first feature-film role.

"Weirdly, I didn't think it was real. When you get to my stage, you're not really expecting to be offered the lead in a movie," he told BBC Radio Ulster.

"It's been one of the most amazing adventures that I've had."

However, the comic said he was very much out of his comfort zone and was feeling very anxious ahead of the premiere.

"I've never been more nervous about anything in my life," Kielty said.

"The idea of not being in control... the fact that I'm going to be in the audience, actually watching this, not being able to do anything about it - terrifying."

Ballywalter, which also stars Dubliner Seána Kerslake, is directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah and is the opening film of the 2022 Belfast Film Festival.

Locations featured in the film include Belfast's Great Victoria Street, the Sunflower Pub, the Ulster Sports Club and the Empire Music Hall on Botanic Avenue.

The Empire was where Kielty began his stand-up comedy career in the 1990s.

Stand-up comedy also features in the plot of Ballywalter, which was shot in December 2020 and January 2021.

Can comedy heal?

Kielty plays Shane, who is struggling after the breakdown of his marriage and tries to get his life back on track by enrolling on a 12-week stand-up comedy course.

He lives on the main street in Ballywalter on the Ards Peninsula, right beside the Irish Sea, and must take a taxi to Belfast to go to the course every Friday.

Actor Seána Kerslake stars with Patrick Kielty in Ballywalter

"When comedy is at its best, it's a kind of healing," the course tutor tells Shane and the other students.

Shane's taxi driver each week is cynical 20-something Eileen - played by Kerslake - who is disillusioned and unsure of her future after returning to Belfast from London.

Both are living in quiet despair, but as Eileen and Shane share the weekly 25-mile journey between Ballywalter and Belfast they find out more about each other and their friendship develops.

"Well, [did you] make anyone laugh?" Eileen asks Shane on one early journey.

"Not yet," Shane replies.

On a later journey, Eileen questions Shane about why he has taken up comedy.

"I don't know," he replies. "Challenge, do something that scares you, dance like no-one's watching you, etcetera - that's what the head doctors say."

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Kielty praised the "amazing cast" and described his young co-star as "brilliant".

"She never came out of character the whole time, so the first time that I heard Seána's Dublin accent was whenever we actually wrapped, which was very, very bizarre," he said.

"She's playing a girl from east Belfast who has hit on hard times; moves back from London and her life is falling apart.

"She ends up driving her boyfriend's taxi and she ends up picking up my character, Shane, who's hiding out in Ballywalter - he's got a secret.

"And it's sort of the story of two broken people that are hiding and, whenever they are thrown together on a series of journeys, can they actually maybe help put each other together again?"

Kielty added that her character is much funnier than Shane the trainee stand-up comic and admits his co-star "steals the show".

"This is Seána Kerslake's movie and I am just happy to be her wing man on this," he said.

Political world 'letting Northern Ireland down'

Kielty recently told the US film and TV website Deadline that Shane and Eileen's relationship reflected a lot about Northern Ireland.

"There are so many moments where we haven't been led and we've had to lead ourselves," he told Deadline.

"A lot of that is at the heart of the film, which is about two people on their own who have to do it for themselves, and whether they can help themselves through it.

"In Northern Ireland today, people are surviving because of their relationships and friendships," he added.

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"They're making their own future because no-one's actually helping them; no-one's actually leading them and the political world is letting them down," he said.

"This is a story of two people that actually didn't think they were going to make it, and ended up finding each other and realising that maybe they could," he added.

Kielty is married to TV personality Cat Deeley

Although Kielty is best known as a comedian and presenter, he has also made a number of documentaries.

They include My Dad, the Peace Deal and Me, about his father's murder by loyalist paramilitaries in 1988 and the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement.

Ballywalter was written by the Belfast-born screenwriter Stacey Gregg whose previous film - the thriller Here Alone - received impressive reviews.

"For a long time as a screenwriter, it was incredibly hard to make material about Northern Ireland if it wasn't explicitly about the Troubles," she said,

"Now we are finally entering a really exciting period where people are ready to hear more of a diversity of voices."

Director Prasanna Puwanarajah, pictured with cinematographer Federico Cesca, plays ex-BBC reporter Martin Bashir in the new Netflix series of The Crown

The film marks Prasanna Puwanarajah's directing debut.

He is also a writer and actor who has appeared in a number of TV dramas and is set to play the former BBC reporter Martin Bashir in the new Netflix series of The Crown.

The premiere of Ballywalter takes place at Cineworld in Belfast on Thursday.

The Belfast Film Festival runs from 3 November to 12 November.