He’s a businessman, a wrestler, has featured on the credits in a series of films and now he’s working on helping to bring a crew to West Suffolk to shoot a gangster movie.

%image(15297258, type="article-full", alt="Simon der Wolf in his wrestling pose. Picture: SIMON DER WOLF")

Simon Van Der Wolf used to work at the BBC looking after Barbara Windsor and others in the cast of Eastenders along with Mike Reid. He even had a spell driving Chancellor Norman Lamont around for a while.

He said: “I was on the set of Eastenders waiting around and they were trying to do some fight scenes and I got a call to do some work for the show. But then I went back into wrestling.”

From there the 49-year-old, who lives in Bury St Edmunds, got involved in a number of films as a fight co-ordinator under his business name of OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling) including “Tango One” and more recently “Welcome To The Powder Keg” and “Ethel”.

“Tango One” is a crime thriller about how far one man will go to rescue his daughter and save his criminal empire from collapse. Meanwhile, “Welcome To The Powder Keg” tells the story of a man who is struggling to keep up with payments for his mother’s medical treatment. An opportunity comes up to fight in the underground world of no rules bare knuckle fighting that would give him the cash he needs to help his mother … but at what cost?

%image(15297260, type="article-full", alt="Barbara Windsor. Picture PA")

And “Ethel”. which stars Miriam Margolyes and Professor Green and is set to be released in February/March, is a drama about dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease inspired by real events. The story follows Ethel, a vulnerable elderly woman with Alzheimer’s and Jack, a small time drug dealer who needs more money fast. Ethel is an easy target and Jack knows this.

Mr Van Der Wolf launched OVW, a wrestling academy with WWE superstar Al Snow, of which there are 17 round the world, four in the UK, two in Chile, one in Dubai and one in the US with the rest around Europe.

He said: “The brand is now building all around Europe.

“Ethel has been received really, really well. All my wresting techniques have helped me with the fight scenes. I set up the scenes and use people from our academies.

%image(15297262, type="article-full", alt="Professor Green who stars in the short film "Ethel". Picture: ARCHANT")

“We are filming in the Ardennes in January with a supernatural war movie and then we have something coming over here and it’s in development right now. We are looking at venues at the moment.

“It will be an inter gang film and there will be a lot of extras in this one and we’re hoping to come into the Bury St Edmunds area. I am quite excited about it.

“I enjoy doing the movies but it’s very time consuming but I try and chose the best ones to work on,” he added.

%image(15297263, type="article-full", alt="Miriam Margolyes who stars in the short film "Ethel". Picture: ARCHANT")