The Welsh actor is rightly indignant as he meets people struggling with debts in his home town … then devises an elaborate ploy to pay them off using his own cash. You can’t help but root for him

In Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, the Welsh actor Michael Sheen – that is how he says people describe him, so I am merely obliging – is putting his own money on the line to expose the world of high-interest debt and credit. Due to the murky issue of reselling debt, Sheen discovers that it may be possible for him to buy £1m’s worth of debt for a relatively paltry £100,000. Over two years, this documentary shows him working towards buying up the debt, which he plans to write off immediately, pulling off what he calls a “heist”.

But this heist is only a framework; Sheen’s Robin Hood act, while impressive, is more of a carrier for the message. The real point of the documentary is to simplify the story of debt, credit and interest rates and to reveal the extent of the problem, particularly in areas with high levels of deprivation.