Richard Nockles is a 33-year-old director and quite possibly the luckiest man alive. Not only does his debut feature film, The Other Half, star some of Britain's coolest actors, but the making of it, saw him combine his love for football, travel and filmmaking. It's almost as if he'd written the script himself and, as Graham Stacey finds out, he did!

They say that leisure time is the time you have left over when you've finished work. So then, how is it possible to fly out to Portugal for the summer, spend time with the likes of Vinny Jones and Danny Dyer, take in games at the Euro championships and still claim to be doing anything other than merely having a good time? Richard Nockles seems to have all the answers.

You sound as though you're having a great time ... I want to hear that you were formerly a dustman in Slough...

I grew up in East Molesey, went to school at Wimbledon College, then to Kingston Poly, I even used to go to the old Ritzy's nightclub in Kingston. I remember failing my driving test, losing my virginity and getting suspended from school for stealing explosives from the train tracks, (though not in that order) all within a drunken stumble from Kingsmeadow, where we filmed parts of 'The Other Half.' Not so glamorous I guess.

I'm based up the road in Battersea now. I was living in America for seven years before that though. I've always had an American passport as my mum is a yank, and I was just at that a stage in my life where I had split with my girlfriend and it was a classic case of 'what shall I do next?' So I thought 'why not?' and went there and had a brilliant time.

It was only after I made 'The Other Half' that I decided it was time to come home, and I've not regretted it. I'm glad I came back - having been away for seven years it's easy to forget what a beautiful country England is.

How long have you been making films?

I've been making films for exactly three years - before that I was a furniture designer in San Francisco. It was in America that I taught myself how to edit film and started making short films and documentaries as a hobby. I made a short film, which won an award, and it gave me the confidence to go into filmmaking, full-time. Once you embed yourself in making films it's a massive leap - I had to quit my job and through myself into it. Being a director was never the plan!

Furniture design, sounds about as far removed from movies as you can get…

I studied at art school to be a three dimensional designer and sculpture, so I wanted to make practical sculpture. In 1997, I won the 'Aluminum Imagination Award' for designing the seats on the Jubilee Line, and then I ended up working on Sir Norman Foster's front room. That's really something - I think his front room is something like the size of a football pitch.

How did you get involved in The Other Half?

My old friend and screenwriter, Marlowe Fawcett phoned me in Christmas 2003 with the idea of making a documentary at the Euros in Portugal. We were both aspiring writers and filmmakers and massive football fans, and I'd just won a short film festival in California so was keen to make a full feature. We came up with the script idea very quickly, it seemed perfectly simple: An Englishman (and AFC Wimbledon fan) takes his American bride on her dream honeymoon to Portugal but doesn't tell her it's all so he can slip off and see England play in the football tournament. We wrote the script in three weeks, and sent it out to everyone we knew. It just sort of spiraled out of control from there. We got loads of mates interested in either helping to make it, or investing money in the crazy scheme. We knew we needed a 'star' to get it sold, and at the time I was due to come back to Molesey for my brother's 30th birthday. So two weeks before the flight I sent the script to Vinnie Jones's agent. It was February and we knew we were already too late but just kept on praying. The day before I got on the flight to England I got an email from Vinnie's agent saying he "loved the script, but were we fully funded?" I lied: "Yes, and I'm flying to London to discuss the project with you."

I pretended to fly in for the meeting, got my sister to pretend to be my PA and a mate to be 'the producer'. We met Vinnie's agent in London and signed him that day! After we'd got Vinnie, it must have seemed to everyone that we knew how to make a film, because all the other stars signed up. Suddenly we were off to sunny Portugal.

But Vinnie wasn't the only actor you had approached?

When we were casting the role of an older guy, we sent the script out to several agents - we tried De Niro, Burt Reynolds and George Peppard. Burt's people got back to us, but basically said 'Who the f@@k are you?' And I got a call from George Peppard's agent. He sounded interested and I gave him the whole spiel about how the role was perfect for him and that it would relaunch his career. We had this whole conversation. He told me that George had died two years ago! I decided then and there to go for Vinnie!

And he was keen?

Peter Burrell, Vinnie's agent, looked at the script and liked it. As much as I like to think we pulled the wool over his eyes, I think he knew we were nobodies but realised that it was a good project.

When was it filmed?

The plan was to use the tournament as the backdrop for the movie, and we needed the real fans to be extras in the film. We started filming ten days before the tournament and followed the fans right the way through until the final - we were out in the heat and madness of Portugal for seven long weeks of footie heaven! The screenplay was based on the England matches so we knew we had to be in certain locations at certain times. For Marlowe and I, it was a simple case of just opening the 'rough guide to Portugal', nicking a location from within its enlightened pages and writing a scene. We used the Internet to work out dates and times of all the matches and tried as best we could to predict the security measures that would be in place for the competition.

The Other Half has already won a Best Film award. Can you tell us about that?

The film follows the couple's journey as Mark [Dyer] tries to follow his beloved England team. We traveled all over the country filming everything as we went - the film has beautiful castles, deserted beaches and colourful fans as the tale weaves from the surreal to the dramatic. We made Portugal look amazing so it was not a surprise when 100,000 Portuguese punters voted us 'Best Film' in the Porto film festival. I must admit, it felt really good after all our hard work.

You've been working with stars such as Vinny, Danny and Gillian Kearney, and the film took you to the European Championships in Portugal. Does it get much better than this?

The fact that we didn't have a clue what we were doing but still managed to make a good film is bizarre, and the journey has been hard but it's been amazing!! My favourite memory of the last two years was when I went to the Cannes film festival to flog the film last summer and got invited to a party on the beach full of free champagne, Parisian models and Pele. I spent the entire night talking to Pele about football, quaffing back champagne surrounded by models. I think Vinnie was right, I am a cheeky @@@t!

What have you done since The Other Half?

I made a Dispatches documentary for Channel Four and this summer I'll be working for ITV as a creative producer on their World Cup coverage. Unfortunately, it's studio based so I don't actually get to be there - I'll have to work on that bit! But I came back to the UK to make films and I'm concentrating on writing scripts. For me, it's all about testing yourself and, as a writer and director you get complete quality control over a project. Being a director is difficult because you are constantly asked questions and need to have all the answers, even though the story came from somebody else's imagination. As a writer and director, you can have complete confidence because you know exactly where the story is coming from - there's no umming or argghing.

Do you have any script ideas boiling? God yes, I've got four ideas for feature films - ranging from ludicrously big-budget science fiction to guerilla style comedies! The most important thing for me is to stay true to what I want to achieve. In effect I'm an artist and I want to make films that reflect that.

DVD on rental release on 15 May, and on general sale on 29 May. Tickets for the film premiere can be obtained via Wimbledon Odeon box office.