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“A lot of people said Caerphilly was rough – I’m from north London – Caerphilly is not rough,” so said TV actor and impersonator Terry Mynott.

Having relocated to the area during the pandemic, the star of BBC’s Motherland and Channel 4’s The Mimic, not to mention Bob the Builder, is effusive in his praise for Caerphilly and Wales.

“Every time my friends visit, they cannot help but realise the huge castle – it is spectacular,” he added.

“Wales is magnificent. I was in London yesterday and as soon as I drove back over the bridge I thought ‘lush’.”

The pandemic was the catalyst for Terry’s move to Wales from Brighton, with lockdown wreaking havoc on the creative industries.

He explained: “A friend of mine moved down here and I started visiting and fell in love with it.”

And it is from a garden shed studio here in Caerphilly that Terry’s latest project has taken shape.

Written with Cardiff-based stand-up comedian and friend Col Howarth, Moonkarta is a ten-episode epic fantasy adventure podcast series aimed squarely at the family.

Its central character Splott, and a band of unlikely friends, embark on a tale of good vs evil, courage and friendship, and a race to restore balance to a world that is under threat from dark forces.

Voicing all of the characters and creating all of the sound effects, it is clear the series is a passion project for Terry.

“My girlfriend said to me ‘you should do a kids podcast’ and I instantly hated the idea. When I calmed down, I thought it might not be a bad idea – but it has to be digestible for everybody.

“I sat and I thought, listened to a couple of other podcasts and they were all the same – ‘how big is elephant poo?’

“How about making a podcast that if the adults were to listen to it, they didn’t want to chuck themselves out of the car?”

Taking inspiration from 1980s classics such as Fraggle Rock and the performances of Les Dawson, Terry said Moonkarta is not afraid of letting things go over children’s heads, or of patronising them.

“We decided to make something for everybody – and to make a big adventure.”

Part one of Moonkarta’s first series was released in December, with the remainder dropped on St David’s Day.

Its initial release garnered praise from The Guardian, which compared its surrealism to The Mighty Boosh, and was featured as one of its podcasts of the week.

The Radio Times described Terry’s performance as “reminiscent of Rik Mayall, Tom Baker and Paul O’Grady”.

On his creative partnership with Col, Terry said: “We were both looking to start new creative projects when we decided to put our heads together.

“We wanted to write an original story which drew on Col’s talent as a writer and my acting and voice work.”

He added: “It’s taken us about a year to write and about four months to make. We’ve mapped out until season three and we’ve written it like you would a book with a big story arc.”

Terry and Col are now busy scripting the second series.

Moonkarta is available on all podcast channels including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon. For more information and to listen, visit www.moonkarta.com.