Star Wars filmmaker gets freedom of Nuneaton

Filmmaker Gareth Edwards has said it is special to be recognised by his hometown after being given the freedom of Nuneaton.

Edwards - director of Star Wars spinoff Rogue One - receives the honour on Monday along with eight others.

He described his fellow recipients as "genuine heroes of the community".

Adding he felt a bit of a fraud, he said: "I just made some films about spaceships and robots."

The 48-year-old's latest film, The Creator, has been nominated for two Oscars for best sound and visual effects.

Others to receive the freedom of Nuneaton include Poppy Appeal fundraiser Carol Valentine.

Ms Valentine is the mother of Sergeant Simon Valentine, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009.

She was chosen to receive the award by local councillors for her Poppy Appeal efforts but also other work including the Bedworth Armistice Parade.

She said she had been "nominated for a few things" in her time, but it was special that local people had chosen her.

The recipients are to be formally honoured in the town on Monday evening.

Ms Valentine said the prospect of standing alongside an Oscar-nominated Hollywood director did not phase her, but added: "Sadly I'm not a Star Wars fan."

Edwards said his movie career started when on the way home from school in Nuneaton he saw a flier for a film course at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College.

The director, who has a home in America, said returning to the Midlands was a strange experience.

"I love Nuneaton but it's so far away from all that [film career] stuff, the second you come back home, it's like it never happened," he explained.

He said he would be going to collect his award with his mother and sister, adding: "I really miss the sarcasm and everyone always insulting each other and so it's nice to come home and be put in my place by my sister."

He also made the link between his return home and a common theme in movies.

"One of the things you learn when you tell stories is that every story in a movie is essentially, in its simplest form, a character leaving home, going on an adventure and then returning back home hopefully better off," he said.

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