Meet film-maker Sarah Day who has performed in Calendar Girls and whose latest work is an emotive response to Sarah Everard murder

She was handed five easy-to-read scripts, taking home The Tortoise and The Hare to read that night. “I cast my friends, got the costumes and then directed them,” the now 28-year-old recalls. “I played the squirrel, I had one line. We did it in ‘show and tell’ and from then on, I was hooked.”

She didn’t know it then but it was a defining moment for Sarah, who is now developing her career as a professional film-maker and musical theatre performer.

Today, she runs Day By Day Productions, a company that works with actors and film-makers to bring their ideas alive on screen.

When she first launched it in 2016, her focus was on creating showreels, enabling actors to demonstrate their talents, but she has since branched out, and now also writes scripts on behalf of clients as well as producing her own original short films.

Her latest - Vigilant - was created in response to the murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens and explores the fear of attack that many women feel as they go about their daily lives.

“I live in London now and I’m sure it happens everywhere but especially in London, every week at least you get a notification on your phone saying that another woman has gone missing or that another body has been found,” she says.

“The Sarah Everard case really struck me. I remember being sat on my sofa watching clips of the vigil that happened for her...I couldn’t understand why a peaceful vigil for a woman who lost her life in such a horrific way went so violent.”

Motivated by anger and upset, Sarah wrote the film in a night, unable to sleep. Within a month, she’d cast it, sorted the costumes and completed the filming. Now, she’s entering the production into a series of film festivals.

“I never made this with the intention of winning anything. I just love film making itself, but I’m putting it into festivals because I think it’s a really important story,” she says.

“It’s not really about an attack itself, it’s about the fear that women have everyday when they just walk down the streets. I’ve had a lot of male friends who have watched it who have gone ‘I get it now’.

“They’ve never had to think twice, whereas I never walk home from the tube in London anymore if it’s dark, I always get a taxi. I send my taxi reg and everything to my partner. You always have to think ahead as a woman and even if you do, you’re still not necessarily safe.

“I’m getting emotional thinking about it. It makes me so angry. So the film is to raise awareness and to try and get people to take this seriously and understand what the fear is actually like.”

Sarah knew from an early age that she wanted a career that encompassed her love of drama. “It was either that or I wanted to be in the Olympics doing the 200 metre sprint,” she says.

“I loved that and did it for the county and then everyone grew, apart from me - I’m only five foot so I didn’t stand much of a chance after that so I thought it’s going to have to be drama.”

Born in Colchester, Sarah moved to Harrogate as a child, and from the age of eight, attended Knaresborough School of Speech and Drama.

“I remember going into Year 2 and it said drama on the timetable and I had never even seen that word before. I was like what on earth is drama? “I found out it was lots of playing games and creating stories and I thought it was the best thing ever. I was totally hooked and wanted to do more and more of it.”

By the age of ten, she was writing to casting directors in the capital about child roles. “But mum wanted me to focus on my schooling education first,” she says, “and I’m thankful for that.”

Still, as soon as her A-Levels were in the bag, she headed to London where she undertook a degree in musical theatre at ArtsEd performing arts school.

“I remember walking in the first day and you literally feel like you’re in Fame. You have someone sliding down the banisters and someone pirouetting in the corner and a scene going on in another room. It was amazing and a great feeling to be part of so many opportunities.”

In her third year of training, Sarah and her coursemates focused in more detail on screen acting. “I got the bug,” she says. “I thought TV and film was just so much fun.”

When she graduated in 2015, she began producing actors’ showreels. Now she writes around 200 showreel scripts every year, covering genres from crime to comedy and fantasy to period drama.

Her first original film, which she describes as an experimental project - “I made lots of mistakes but that was good as I learnt so much from it” - was produced around four years ago.

Her second, Mind=Full, was shortlisted for a mental health awareness prize at the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Research in Film Awards and raised money for the Industry Minds charity to support creatives in the arts and provide them with counselling. Vigilant is her third.

Before the films, Sarah made her first appearances on the professional stage, performing in Singin’ in the Rain at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Annie Get Your Gun at the Union Theatre in London.

When she graduated from ArtsEd, where she now teaches dance and drama on Saturdays, she also became part of the original cast for The Girls musical, as it was called then, which follows the story of Yorkshire’s calendar girls.

“I couldn’t believe I was in a show with women who were musical theatre legends,” she says. “Just sitting in rehearsals and watching them was like a masterclass. It was an amazing experience. To be working on a brand new musical with Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, you couldn’t ask for anything better for one of your first jobs.”

She has not ruled out doing more musical theatre, but nowadays Sarah’s focus is on carving a career in the film and TV world.

“My dream would be to be sat on my sofa on a Sunday night ready to watch the new big drama that everyone’s been talking about and I know what happens in it,” she says, “because I played a part in that, whether it’s as an actor, as a writer, as a runner. I just want to be part of the film world in whatever capacity because I just think it’s so special.”

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you'll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.