“When I started watching… I expected a film about toxic masculinity. I must have missed something. Instead I found a film about love, friendship and a desperate longing to feel something – even if it’s pain. The story is about being an outsider as a man in Wales and the search to feel connected.” Ian Smith, founder of Helpu, the men’s mental health and suicide prevention initiative for Wales, for BUZZ magazine.

The Road of Excess follows Welsh TV personality Mat Pritchard, once the hard-living star of MTV’s cult series Dirty Sanchez.

Determined to fight his demons, he traded one addiction for another: endurance sport. Ultra-triathlons, extreme cycling, long-distance swims — each challenge bigger than the last, each pushing him further from his past but never closer to peace. 

In 2020, he set his sights on his most extreme test yet: rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Fifty days at sea, two hours rowing on, two hours off, with nothing but his thoughts and the open water. 

Through candid interviews with his mother, closest friends, and former co-stars, The Road of Excess explores Matt’s rise and fall and his relentless search for balance. 

It is both an unflinching portrait of addiction and a moving meditation on resilience, redemption, and the endless human drive to endure. 

Director: Jamie Jones (grew up in Cardiff; studied in Swansea) 

Cast: Mathew Pritchard, Mike Locke, Lee Dainton 

Released on Friday 10 October 2025 to mark World Mental Health Day

Christian Patterson is a Swansea-born stage and screen (most recently Mickey 17) actor, just back on home turf after appearing in the acclaimed new production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre alongside Adrian Lester.