AN Oscar nominated actor best-known for his work with director Quentin Tarantino is to star in a TV drama partially set in the North-East.

Reg Keys stood against then Prime Minister Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency in the 2005 General Election.

This week it was announced the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction star Tim Roth is to play Mr Keys, who campaigned on an anti-war ticket after his son was killed in the second Iraq war.

The 90-minute drama, titled Reg, has been written by Jimmy McGovern and is currently being shot in Liverpool.

Lance Corporal Tom Keys was one of six British Red Caps killed when a mob descended on a police station in Majar al-Kabir in June 2003. Ben Hyde, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, and Simon Miller, 21, from Washington, Wearside, were also among the victims.

McGovern told the Radio Times: “They went to a hellhole with 50 rounds each and no radio, that’s why they were killed.

“When they were there on a lie and they are badly equipped and are sent to a hellhole on nothing, it’s tough for a man to take I think.

“I liked that notion of an ordinary man taking on the British Prime Minister. He did it against the odds. He did it in spite of the system not through the system.”

Although Blair comfortable kept his seat in Sedgefield, Mr Keys won 4,252 votes to finish in fourth place, less than 700 votes behind the Liberal Democrats candidate and about 1,700 votes behind the Conservative candidate.