Sam first demonstrated his considerable talents for inventive, dialogue-free comedy with the short film I Can Never Find The Right Words - set around a game of Scrabble - followed by DIY and Are We Nearly There Yet

In 2011, he directed the promo for his own band Francobollo's I Found A Bike Today (above), featuring a superb performance by Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions, Utopia) as a man who discovers, falls in love with, and marries a bicycle. That was followed, last year, by his second Francobollo video, for Basketball, co-directed with Amer Chadha Patel and starring comedian Kyle Shepherd, and the video for Escapists' Northern Lights.

Sam also directed The Horsemen last year, a comedy short about two men who make up the front and back halves of a racehorse entered in the Grand National. It has become a favourite on the short film festival circuit.

Matthew Fone, MD of Riff Raff Films says: "I saw The Horsemen and suddenly became a walking sales rep for it. I told everyone. Then I thought 'shit I better sign Sam before any one of those other ****ers do'."

Watch Samuel J Bailey showreel here