Londoner Dan Ritchie leaves his calling card with Cannes debut

A London actor has made his Cannes debut in a short film co-starring former Bond girl Carey Lowell.

Dan Ritchie, 26, who only left Oxford School of Drama 18 months ago, was asked to take part in The Cause by its writer, Stuart Thomas, whom he had worked with before.

The 13-minute work, a mother-son drama on the dangers of political fanaticism in the modern world, was filmed in a warehouse in Southwark last July and screened in the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival.

“I’m new to the business and this was my first year in Cannes and I had a great experience and met a lot of really useful people. I’m hoping it will be a calling card,” Ritchie said as he headed home last night. He has been already offered the lead in another short film to be shot before Christmas.

He said Lowell, 53, who starred with Timothy Dalton in 1989’s Licence to Kill, had been “lovely to work with and really generous as an actor — we became very close friends”.