He received a Fringe First Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988 for his starring role in Sean Mathias' A Prayer for Wings directed by Dame Joan Plowright.
[9][10] Allen made "On The March With Bobby's Army"[11][12] (BBC–1991) – a 2-hour solo undercover film covering English football supporters at the Italia 90 World Cup.
Allen set up Airstream Films[20] at this time‚ developing a diverse slate of feature projects with his producing partner, Kate McCreery.
After his mainstream success, Allen chose to bow out of Hollywood, so he relocated in 2004 with his young family to the outskirts of Clones, a small town in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, where he designed and built a timber eco-house and became a rare-breed pig farmer.
Allen and playwright/novelist Patrick McCabe were organisers and creative directors of The Flat Lake Literary & Arts Festival[24] which was held annually for five years in County Monaghan, Ireland from 2007 to 2011.
The Flat Lake was a favourite performing venue of Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney, Colm Toibin and other Irish writers.
[30][31] Allen is also developing a Twin Town follow up titled Tin Town, a feature film set in the world of home grown cannabis in Llanelli,[32] and another film titled The Crucible, a period TV series set in 19th Century Merthyr Tydfil during the industrial revolution.
[citation needed] In 2024, Allen is conducting a Q&A tour across Wales from February to April, celebrating the 25th anniversary of cult classic Twin Town.
"If we can alter the perception that the traditional cultural elite is making way for a diverse reflection of our society from which to govern a truly independent Wales, then you can most definitely count me in, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.