A 65-year-old man who has written a film starring Harry Potter actor David Sterne needs cash to finish the project.

Terry Comer, from Canonbury Park, penned Don’t Forget Your Hat while putting himself through university in his late 50s but has run out of cash to get the movie finished.

The film, based on the Yorkshire folk song On Ilkla Moor Baht‘at, follows a young man who gets stranded on the Ilkley Moor in the freezing cold after a fight with his girlfriend.

He seeks refuge at an old man’s house, but little does he know that only his beloved and trusty woollen hat will live to tell the tale.

Mr Comer said: “It’s amazing how many poems and nursery rhymes you get are really dark. This one was worms eating a body and ducks eating the worms.

“If it all goes well, this would be the first in a series of films based on nursery rhymes.”

Mr Comer wrote award-winning TV commercials in Australia, New York and Hong Kong until his mother became ill he had came back to Canonbury to look after her.

Not one to rest on his laurels, he did a degree in film and TV, followed by a masters in screenwriting and had started a PHD when his mother’s illness meant he had to take a break from his studies.

He said: “University was fantastic, I would recommend it to anyone regardless of age. I thought ‘I’ve been in advertising all these years what can they teach me?’.

“But you think you know everything until you start learning. Then you realise how little you know.”

This is the first film since finishing higher education and Mr Comer needs to bring in £15,000 to finishing filming, postproduction and marketing.

A fundraising website which has so far brought it almost £5,000, but the deadline for donations in Monday.

He said: “It is a bit of an ask. It’s a gift not an investment, so why should people?

“But having David Sterne in it is quite a big deal and it would be great to get it finished.”

To donate, visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/blueshadowsfilm/dont-forget-your-hat-a-short-film