There are few things more disturbing than watching a screen and seeing your own big, ugly face coming out of it.

It happened to me last Thursday, during a press launch for a one-off show that is being staged at the Wyvern Theatre on October 6, when my mug appeared in a film explaining about the man who has inspired the project.

He was a writer who was born in South Marston in 1877, died there in 1930 and, in-between, demonstrated how even a self-educated man from humble origins can teach the world a thing or two.

His name (in case you haven’t already guessed) was Alfred Williams, and he has long been a hero of mine.

Or, as my now grown-up daughter once joked, when she was a teenager: “If Alfred Williams was alive today, he would be your boyfriend.”

A few years ago I got together with a couple of friends (whom I then hardly knew) to form a group called the Alfred Williams Heritage Society, which was a strange thing to do, considering there was already one called The Friends of Alfred Williams, and they had done a great job, over the previous 40 years, of keeping his name alive.

But we felt a new society was required that would go a step further and bring to more people a life story that is compelling and inspiring in so many ways.

Don’t quote me on this, but we also thought that Alfred was (and often still is) unfairly in the shadow of Swindon’s other great writer, Richard Jefferies.

Over the years our little group has worked on a few successful projects that have, indeed, brought Alfred’s story to a wider audience, and I am now delighted that the show at the Wyvern in October will do our job for us.

Organised by Nicky Alberry, the new High Sheriff of Wiltshire, it uses Alfred’s story as the theme for a showcase of Swindon’s finest musical, dancing, acting and filmmaking talents, and features a number of specially commissioned pieces.

As my ugly mug pointed out on screen, Alfred’s story is a metaphor for Swindon’s in that he was a self-made man, multi-talented and under-rated, while Swindon is a self-made town, multi-talented and often under-rated.

We have a habit of hiding our lights under bushels, and are guilty of not always celebrating it when we produce something special, which is why the show is called Uncelebrated Journey.

What I like about it, apart from the Alfred Williams theme, is the positivity surrounding it.

The gifted people involved in it are excited and committed, and genuinely inspired by a man many of them had never previously heard of.

You could be excused for thinking this positivity is rare in Swindon, because there are plenty of people around who have a downer on the old place.

Moans, after all, are cheap.

But whenever people who are properly committed to improving the town get together, there is no shortage of drive and creativity.

If you fancy a ticket, remember that it’s a one-off chance to see some real home-grown talent, including those who have made a national name for themselves and will be coming home, especially for it, so it is likely to sell out. So hurry.

I’ve already bought my tickets: one for me and one for my wife, and if I could guarantee he would turn up, I’d also buy one for the ghost of Alfred Williams.

He would be so proud - not just of his own legacy, but what a town can achieve when its best people put their minds to it.