Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway will air on Channel 4 next week and the documentary sees the acclaimed actor set out to help people who have debt
Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway: Official trailer
Actor Michael Sheen has helped write off a million pounds worth of debt for people in the region where he grew up.
Michael, 56 – who’s previously raised concern over people being “ripped off” by lenders – spent two years working on a “secret” project about the debt and credit industry. His efforts to help people affected by debt will be shown in a documentary that is set to air on Channel 4 next week.
It’s teased that the documentary sees a debt acquisition company set up. Through that, he’s said to have been able to write off £1 million-worth of debt for around 900 people in his home region of South Wales using £100,000 of his own money.
The BAFTA nominee – who’s starred in films like Frost/Nixon (2008) and the Twilight Saga – has shared that he doesn’t know the identity of those he has helped. Michael has said that he wants to “draw attention” to the experiences of people struggling with debt and hopes to raise awareness of “alternatives” to help “make a difference for people”.
A teaser clip for the documentary, Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, shows him sat in a cafe in his hometown of Port Talbot, where its last remaining blast furnace was shut down last year. Addressing job losses in the community, Michael says: “The ladies who work here, before we started filming, told me that tomorrow, it’s the last ship, the last boat load coming into the dock here to deliver stuff to the steelworks. And now they’ve described people sitting in here just crying at these tables. […] So it couldn’t be more real like how much people are hurting.”
Michael spoke about the documentary on the One Show on Tuesday evening. He said: “I didn’t have £100,000 to throw around so I wanted it to be effective. When I realised that I could do this … that I could get £1 million’s worth of debt and just write it off, it seemed like a good thing to do.”
Explaining how it works, he said: “Essentially, people’s debt gets sort of put into bundles and then debt buying companies can buy those bundles. And then they can sell it off to another debt buying company at a lower price. So the debt itself … even though the amount that people owe is still the same … the people who own the debt can sell it for less and less money.”
Michael continued: “So I was able to set up a company and, for £100,000 of my own money, buy £1 million worth of debt cause it had come down in value like that because they find like … they don’t see that there’s as much chance to get the money back or whatever the reason might be. It’s bizarre.”
He later revealed that he “didn’t know” and still doesn’t know the identities of the people whose debt he bought. He shared on the BBC talk show: “I knew where they would live and I knew the kind of debt it was but I would never know who they are and I still don’t know who they are.”
Michael also shared: “The shocking thing is that people have started having to use credit cards, overdrafts to pay for basics. Y’know to pay for necessities rather than luxuries or anything like that. So the debt that I was able to buy included credit card debt, overdrafts, car finance, that kind of stuff.
“So now obviously I can’t know exactly in a granular way what they were spending their money on but I know from talking to people that this is just … people are going through unexpected events like an illness or a washing machine breaks down, or a car, or even just Christmas. And you need some help to get through these times and people were getting into spirals of debt. And once you get [yourself] underwater, it’s very hard to get out again.”
Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway will air Monday night at 9pm on Channel 4.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
