Introducing Actor, Producer + Ideas Man TJ HERBERT Who Starred in this Summer’s Box Office Sensation THE BROMLEY BOYS

STARRED IN THIS SUMMER’S BOX OFFICE SENSATION THE BROMLEY BOYS ALONGSIDE MARTINE MCCUTCHEON AND ALAN DAVIES

DVD IS OUT ON NOW

It is probably fair to say that versatile actor TJ Herbert is something of an enigma. From Maritime Law student to founder of a successful health drinks company, and producing and starring in this summer’s hit film, the touching, coming of age comedy The Bromley Boys, he is not a man to let the grass grow beneath his feet.

At 25, TJ chose a complete career change from corporate juggernauts and followed his dreams when an opportunity to work as a runner on a film set came along. He got the bug, and... the rest, as they say, is history! After directorial and acting training at the intense and somewhat ‘cult-like’ ARTTS International in North Yorkshire, TJ was singled out as an actor to watch. Once he graduated, he got a few parts here and there, but not one to sit on his hands, TJ decided he should add another string to his bow.

“I had a keen interest in health food so began developing my own health drink called Juice Doctor. I managed to get Steve Redgrave to be the brand Ambassador and for around four years we supplied all the major supermarkets in the UK. But in the end we just didn’t have deep enough pockets to take on the big hitting global brands. This had been a considerable distraction from acting but had taught me a lot about business and fundraising,” he laughs.

Eager to get back to acting, TJ appeared in several films and popular TV series including Media Studies, Blood Money, Perfect Break, Random 11, The Cutting Room, and A Dark Reflection. But he soon realised that the big ‘break’ was only going to come if he made it happen. Enter THE BROMLEY BOYS. TJ takes up the story “The journey in getting The Bromley Boys to the big screen has not been without the odd bump – or should I say, hole in the road. It began after many years as a jobbing actor trying to get a break I decided to take matters into my own hands and created my production company Itchy Fish – a play on itchy feet and the fact I’m a Pisces. My mission statement - for want of a better turn of phrase - was to become the master of my own destiny. If I was going to get a welly up the only way I could see that happening was generating my own material. I’ve always had a love of and enjoyed playing comedic roles so I felt that would be a good place to start. I trotted off to Waterstones in Bromley and was immediately greeted by a poster of Dave Roberts, in his Bromley shirt, arms crossed looking all business – ‘The Bromley Boys: The true story of supporting the worst football team in Britain’. As both a Bromley boy and a keen football fan (Crystal Palace) I was immediately intrigued, and bought the book.”

TJ sat down and read the book from cover to cover and made the immediate decision that this was ‘the one’. After finally tracking down the author – then living in Connecticut – he convinced Roberts to give him the rights for 6 months in order to develop a screenplay. Prior to this, TJ had played a role in a comedy pilot about a lowly non-league football team. The series was never commissioned but it did introduce him to talented writer/director Warren Dudley. “I loved his writing combining football and comedy so it was an easy choice in getting him on board to adapt the book into a screenplay. As it turned out it was the most straightforward part of the process. The author read the screenplay and granted me the rights to start raising the money to make the film – easy peasy – or so I thought....”. And so it began – a project that would take TJ seven years to fulfil.

It’s a far from unfamiliar story to independent filmmakers striving to get their films financed, it’s tough. And in this case, The Bromley Boys was a local story about a tiny football team that wasn’t very good! It soon became obvious that investors couldn’t see past the commercial appeal of the film outside of Bromley FC. But tenacious Herbert remained bullish “Having met many of the characters from the book and listened to their heartfelt stories I knew football fans up and down the country would relate to it. But more importantly I felt it had a wonderful human story that would appeal to a universal audience,” says TJ.

After meeting over 500 potential investors, the film was financed twice before TJ finally got some traction. “Yes, there were times when I doubted myself. But something spurred me on – call it stupidity, call it dogged stubbornness – but I had set my sights on proving the doubters wrong.” And prove them wrong he did. The Bromley Boys had its World Celebrity Premiere at Wembley Stadium in May with over 1000 attendees; it garnered some incredible reviews including a 5-star from The Times’ revered Football writer Henry Winter who said ‘A must-see for any football fan’; Radio Times called it ‘a football nostalgic’s dream’, and TV and radio presenter Vanessa Feltz described it as ‘a beautiful British film’.

The Bromley Boys is out now on DVD and available for digital download.

Born in the East End of London, he was brought up believing that working hard made good things happen. Before acting he had a varied and colourful career which involved studying Maritime Law and a four-year stint at Lloyds of London, and he also travelled around Australia. Being a savvy entrepreneur, TJ even set up his own Legal and Insurance practice looking after the Hungarian Government’s national fleet of vessels, often travelling to Russia. Watch this space. There is a lot more to come from TJ Herbert.

For more information on TJ please visit.

Please see social media links on Instagram: @tjherbertuk, Twitter: @TJHerbertUK and IMDb.