Derren first met Captain Tonz, a real-life pirate, on The Golden Hinde a few years ago. At the time the only thing they had in common was their love of a new book that had been written by Sam Conniff called Be More Pirate. Derren and Tonz struck up an immediate bond that night and over the next couple of years they worked on a soon-to-be published memoir of Tonz’s extraordinary life at sea which began as a young teenage kid desperate to escape Watford. It would take him all over the world and lead him into all kinds of incredible escapades.

Whenever Derren told anyone about Tonz they found his story fascinating but hard to believe, except James Berg, a marketeer who had also been struck by Tonz’s tales of pirate adventure. He’d been at the launch too. Together they decided that the best way for people to fully appreciate Tonz’s life was to hear it how they heard it, directly, sincerely and powerfully in Tonz’s own words.

Derren and James convinced Tonz to share his story and answer any questions we or anyone else not familiar with decades spent as a real-life pirate might have. So began the Original Pirate Material podcast.

When Derren launched DARE Pictures in 2022, he would tell people about the podcast and the book and immediately there was interest in adapting Tonz’s story for screens big and small. That version of the OPM story is very much underway too…