AN elaborate hoax involving a Monmouth shop has featured in a special radio programme on urban myths.

The spoof was started in 1999 by Stroud architect Danny Sullivan who wanted to raise the profile of a gothic house in the area and hit on the idea of simulating the filming of an angel above the mansion.

He claimed that the idea came to him after purchasing a film canister from the Agincourt antiques shop in Monmouth's Agincourt Square featuring the Angel of Mons - a ghost-like image said to have hovered above the trenches in the First World War.

The story gained creditability when Mr Sullivan later 'sold the movie' to film producer Tony Kaye - also part of the hoax - who was in partnership with Marlon Brando, for £350,000.

The world's media then started to take an interest in the story and devoted pages on it. The hoax was highlighted in Radio 4s The Making of an Urban Myth this week, when Mr Sullivan confessed that it was all a spoof.

He told reporter Chris Morris there was never any film: "But when people asked to see the film I told them it was being restored.

"I chose the antique shop in Monmouth, because if the nature of it - it is a true junk shop! The story was made to stand up because the film producer Tony Kaye told the media that he brought the film from me for $500,000 and that he had secured the interest of Marlon Brando to play a leading role.

"It was fun to see how far you could go with a story like this. I'm an ordinary bloke who made it known that he made a lot of money from the discovery of a £15 reel of film from a Monmouth junk shop. It made an interesting rags to riches story."

Owner of the antique shop John Read Smith said: "I was stunned while listening to the programme to discover that it was all a hoax. We had purchased 400 films following the death of a local film producer, and among the films was a canister with a number of letters securely attached to it, and written on them was the word angel.

"So when the story broke, we weren't surprised that there was a connection with our film and an angel.

" But I'm disappointed that the whole episode was a scam, and as there has been so much publicity, I think there will still be a Hollywood film based on the Angel of Mons."

PICTURED: John Read Smith outside his antiques shop.