Michael Sheen writes off £1m of debt for 900 people with his own money

The star did not know the identies of those whose debt he paid off, only where they lived.

The 56-year-old started his own debt acquisition company as part of a Channel 4 show called 'Michael Sheen's Secret Million Pound Giveaway', which airs next week.

The show is aimed at showcasing how banks and finance companies profit from society's most vulnerable people.

Sheen did not know the identities of the 900 people - all based in south Wales - only where they lived and what kind of debt it was.

His new show airs just five months after the closure of Port Talbot's last blast furnace, which devastated families in the area as 2,800 jobs were lost.

Speaking on the BBC's The One Show on Tuesday, Sheen said he was able to set up the debt acquisition company with £100,000 to buy £1m-worth of debt as it had come down in value.

He said that the making of the documentary took far longer than he had expected.

Sheen said: "I thought I would only work on this for a few weeks or a month or something, and it turned into two years, because we had to do it secretly."

The process for setting up the company was so long and complicated that at one point he thought he was not going to be able to do it.

It was after filming in a cafe in his hometown of Port Talbot, right before the steelworks closed, that he was given the boost to keep going.

He said: "The woman who worked at the cafe we were filming in told me the story of the men sitting on every table in tears, who were losing their jobs.

"And I just thought - then, it really hits home, I just thought anything I can do [to help]".

The documentary will air on Channel 4 on March 10th.