THE wives of some of the most powerful men in the British film industry have teamed up to produce a series of dramas and comedies highlighting environmental threats facing the world and, in particular, its children.

The short films, which will be shown mainly on the internet, avoid the earnest style of Al Gore’s documentary on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth. They will underline how children stand to be affected most by global warming. One planned film will involve some of the cast of St Trinian’s, the recent comedy about a girls’ school.

The husbands of the environmental film-makers include the head of Ealing Studios and the producer and scriptwriter of The Queen, which won an Oscar for Dame Helen Mirren in the title role in 2006.

The issues they intend to deal with range from airport expansion to saving energy and the proposed building of a coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.

The emphasis on entertainment may prove persuasive. “Comedy can be a better way of attracting attention to the issue than shock tactics,” said Christina Robert, co-founder of Bright Green Films, who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years. She is married to Barnaby Thompson, head of Ealing Studios and producer of last year’s St Trinian’s film.

The cast of that movie will be used to remind people to turn off lights. “We plan to use the girls from the film since that should work two ways,” said Robert. “First, they are youngsters; and second, comedy is a good way of drawing in viewers.”

The cast of St Trinian’s includes the Hollywood actress Mischa Barton and Rupert Ever-ett, who plays the headmistress. The eco-film-makers have held discussions with Oliver Parker, director of St Trinian’s.

One of the productions – about the proposed expansion of Heathrow – has already been made. When I Grow Up runs to just 90 seconds and uses children with a backdrop of aeroplanes flying over their heads.

“Most of us involved are mothers with youngish children who are really concerned at the government’s failure to take action on aviation,” said Rebecca Frayn, who made the film. Since being posted on YouTube it has had thousands of hits.

Frayn, a successful television documentary-maker and daughter of the writer Michael Frayn, is married to Andy Harries, producer of The Queen and of the Bafta-winning Prime Suspect television dramas.

The idea of putting children at the heart of most of the films came from Lila Morgan, wife of Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen and the play Frost/Nixon.

“A couple of years ago I’d come up with an idea about how it is children who can change their parents’ attitudes,” said Morgan, who used to make advertisements when she lived in her native Austria. “I talked to some television companies. Nothing came of it then, but when I raised it with Christina and Rebecca we realised we could apply it to these green films.”

The film-makers are also working with Eski Thomas, a screenwriter and long-time envi-ronmental campaigner, who is married to Jeremy Thomas, producer of The Last Emperor, the 1987 film that won nine Oscars.

Robert’s partner at Bright Green Films is Lesley Cavendish, who is married to Jonathan Cavendish, producer of the Bridget Jones movies and last year’s Eliz-abeth: The Golden Age.

When I Grow Up was commissioned for the eco-campaigning organisation Enough’s Enough, run by Peter Myers. He has already commissioned a short film from Bright Green about the planned coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Medway, Kent. The station is predicted to emit as much as 10m tons of carbon dioxide a year, which is at odds with the government’s avowed target for cutting emissions.

“We’re going to use comedy in this film,” said Robert. “Comedy in the sense that this planned coal-fired station is absurd. So it’s comedy of the absurd. It could be something like ‘The future’s dark; it’s coal’.”

The green film-makers are cooperating with a new campaign group, We Can (Climate Action Now). With a website set up last week and coordinated by the former ITN journalist Jennifer Nadel, it is organising a vigil of mothers and children outside the House of Commons on May 20 to protest about Heathrow.

“We have been deluded into thinking that simply not buying a plastic bag will help the environment hugely,” said Nadel. “It might make us feel good, but it is giving us a false sense of security. We must go much, much further and very, very quickly.”

THE WIVES’ CLUB

■ Eski Thomas is a screenwriter of the fi lm All The Little Animals and married to Jeremy Thomas, producer of The Last Emperor and Crash.

■ Christina Robert has worked in fi lms for 25 years and is wife of Barnaby Thompson, fi lm producer and head of Ealing Studios.

■ Lila Morgan used to make commercials and her husband is Peter Morgan, writer of The Queen, The Deal, Longford and the play Frost/Nixon

■ Lesley Cavendish has worked in fi lms and is married to Jonathan Cavendish, producer of Bridget Jones

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