Dave Fellows has shaved off his beard to play Dylan Thomas

Dave Fellows has spent the past few years on the UK's stand-up circuit, but will return to acting for the role.

He had worn a beard for 20 years to avoid comparisons with Thomas but he has shaved for An Ugly, Lovely, Night.

It explores a relationship between an American student visiting the city and the ghost of Thomas, who died in 1953.

Fellows, 45, of Briton Ferry, just outside Swansea, said he had been a great fan of Thomas' work in his youth.

"It is something that has stayed with me," he said.

"I have had a beard for 20 years because who wants to look like Thomas? Great man that he was he was no male model.

"I'm looking forward to it very much. I'm getting a bit old for stand-up, which is for younger men, so I'm going back into acting and writing."

Swansea playwright Binda Singh adapted the screenplay from his own play about a student who travels to the city in search of answers to a family riddle.

It is being directed and produced by former Disney man Brian Thomas.

"It's a privately funded film which is being made for television primarily for the United States," he said.

Thomas was raised in Swansea where most of the film is set

"It's the story of a student whose father was born in Swansea and emigrated to the United States.

"He is very much influenced by his father and his father's love of south Wales, and his almost obsessional love for Dylan Thomas and his work.

"We are filming on both sides of the Atlantic, in Texas at Austin University which has the largest collections of Dylan Thomas' writings in the world and then in Swansea.

"The backdrop is Swansea University but we will also be using the seafront and Cwmdonkin (where Thomas grew up)."

Mr Thomas said he hoped to have the film ready for screening in November.

"We have already had expressions of interest from the USA."