THE FORCE was with a former lecturer from Weymouth when he painted many of the scenes on the blockbusting new Star Wars film Attack of the Clones.

Michael Guyett, 52, of Buxton Road, used to teach painting and decorating at Weymouth College and the Verne Prison on Portland and has worked on painting scenes for films since he left school in 1966.

He said: "My first film was Oliver! then I did others at Shepperton Studios in London such as Anne of a Thousand Days, Mary Queen of Scots and Scrooge.

"In those days the studio employed you, but I went freelance in 1970.

"I worked on all the Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers then I teamed up with Richard Attenborough for many of his films including Gandhi, Young Winston and A Bridge Too Far."

He has also done television work for series such as Columbo and All Creatures Great and Small as well as work for the rock opera Tommy with The Who.

Michael was living in Surrey but he moved to Weymouth in 1984 and gave up film work for 11 years, lecturing and teaching at Weymouth College and The Verne.

But he kept getting phone calls about film work and in 1995 he went back into films, doing Evita and the Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace as well as Anna and the King in Malaysia and Spy Game in Budapest with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.

In 2000 he was invited to work in Australia for Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones where he was head of department for scenic painting.

He said: "A lot of people think scenic painting is big canvasses and a big brush. In reality it is creating a set, perhaps changing a room to a different purpose and, for Star Wars, creating and painting the vehicles.

"When I was asked to do this for Star Wars, I came up with suggestions and if director George Lucas and designer Gavin Bouquet liked it, that's what we went ahead and did.

"I had eight months doing that at Fox Studios in Sydney and two months in Leavesdon Studios in Watford where they are currently making the new Harry Potter movie.

"The highlight of the Star Wars experience for me was doing the interviews to hire potential painters.

"You wouldn't believe what people would do to get on the film and I had interviewees turning up dressed as fish or even alien women. It was pretty funny."

Michael's latest work has just seen him return from eight months in Thailand for a new Jackie Chan movie called Highbinders.

He said: "One of the funny things with that was the film was shot by a Chinese company and, because things were so much cheaper in the orient, I actually found myself creating sets showing Irish scenes in a studio in Bangkok."

It is a case of like father like son because his son, Andrew, is a scenic painter who has worked on Tomb Raider and who is currently working on the new James Bond movie which has just started filming at Pinewood Studios near London.

Michael's talents were recognised when he was given highly prized tickets to the Leicester Square premier of Attack of the Clones which he went to with wife, Enid, and daughter Georgina, 21, a mortgage adviser at the Halifax in Dorchester.

Michael has to travel tens of thousands of miles for his job but he always keeps in touch with Weymouth through the Dorset Echo website at www.thisisdorset.net.

He said: "I don't lose touch because all I have to do is log on to the Echo website which I think is great."