How Michael Sheen helped 900 strangers in Secret Million Pound Giveaway

Michael Sheen becomes a modern day Robin Hood in his Channel 4 documentary Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway. But how did the star manage to help 900 strangers in a life-changing act of generosity?

The Good Omens star has shared his wealth with people living in his Welsh hometown of Port Talbot, writing off their debt with his own fortune from acting success.

A Channel 4 documentary about the project aims to “expose how big banks and credit finance companies profit from the most vulnerable in society” – but for hundreds of those who Sheen helped, it meant a fresh start free from debt.

What is Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway?

Frost/Nixon star Sheen will wipe out the debt of 900 strangers in his hometown of Port Talbot by buying £1m of debt with £100,000 of his own money in a documentary that highlights social injustice, financial hardship and the need for the Fair Banking Act.

A Channel 4 programme description says: “In an audacious plot, designed to expose how big banks and credit finance companies profit from the most vulnerable in society, actor and activist Michael Sheen uses £100,000 of his own money to buy £1m of debt belonging to hundreds of people in South Wales – and then writes that debt off.

“As the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit hard working people, Michael takes on the banks, investigates alternative more affordable solutions for borrowing and calls on the government to demand a fairer, more inclusive credit system in the UK.”

The documentary will see Sheen meet with former prime minister Gordon Brown to talk about how to progress with the Fair Banking Act, having thrown his star power behind a campaign to change laws on banking.

Sheen says in the documentary: “Over the two years that I’ve been working on this, I’ve tried to engage with the banks to just start a conversation about this stuff. I’ve tried to talk with the government. And nobody will talk to me, nobody. And so I need someone.”

Brown vows to help him, but as the actor sets about trying to change financial rules on a wider scale, he has already transformed the lives of 900 Port Talbot people by writing off their debt with his own money. Sheen will never know who he has helped because of data protection laws, but each of the people whose debts he bought were contacted to let them know.

How did Michael Sheen clear £1m debt with £100k?

If viewers are wondering how the sums involved add up, simply put, Sheen has chosen to write off debts owed by 900 people.

The debts total £1m, but Sheen has bought them for £100,000 as creditors can sell debt to a new purchaser at a discounted rate, which usually allows the purchaser to chase up the people owing money and charge their own interest.

But Sheen has chosen not to add interest and did not chase the debtors for money either – instead, opting for a life-changing act of cancelling the debt himself by not pursuing payment.

It took nearly two years for Sheen’s company to get the go ahead to buy debt from the Financial Conduct Authority, working with former debt collection company director Roland Roberts. They then had the tricky task of finding someone willing to sell Sheen £1m of debt as Roberts explained that many businesses would not want to draw attention to debt collection work.

Sheen added: “So then the idea of me, with my £100,000 buying a million pounds of people’s debt; that is something that it is a possible thing for me to do.”

Why Michael Sheen wanted to clear 900 strangers’ debts

While some Hollywood stars splurge fortunes on multiple house and the luxuries that fame and success affords them, Sheen made headlines in 2021 when he announced himself as a not-for-profit actor. That means that he ploughs a large amount of his earnings back into charity and community projects.

He had moved back to Port Talbot, where he grew up, after funding the 2019 Homeless World Cup himself. The tournament in Cardiff, which included people from 50 countries, cost £2m to stage but when funding fell through, Sheen decided to pay for it out of his own money rather than see it cancelled.

The star sold homes in Los Angeles and Wales to cover the costs, but has said he is still paying it off now.

Back in 2017, Sheen set up the End High Cost Credit Alliance after being impressed by a similar scheme run by John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show in the US which bought up and cleared $15m medical debt with $60,000.

Sheen says in the documentary: “I want a system that is fair, where those in need can access credit at rates that won’t send them spiralling into further debt. I want to be able to do something which grabs attention, so I can challenge the banks, the politicians, to try and force wider change on the system to make it fairer. I’m prepared to take a massive financial hit myself to try and make it happen. I’m going to make some enemies doing this. There are people doing very well, thank you very much, out of the way things are.”

He also details how his own financial circumstances have changed during the two years he has worked on the debt-clearing project, leaving him worried about whether he could still afford it.

“We’ve been doing this for quite a long time,” he says. “Things have changed for me a lot…I’ve lost family members during this time. I wasn’t sure that we would ever get to this point. It didn’t look like it was going to happen for a long time.

“Financially, things have changed. Ironically, I genuinely am not sure if I can afford to do this. But I’m still going to do it, because I’ve made a commitment.”

He explains: “We’re sitting in a cafe at the moment with the steel works right behind us and the ladies that work here told me that tomorrow is the last ship coming into the dock here to deliver stuff to the steel works. They’ve described people sitting in here just crying at these tables. So it couldn’t be more real…maybe this programme will make a tiny difference, or maybe it won’t, but I can’t walk away from it now.”

Talking to The Guardian about his plan, he said: “I’m not doing it because I want people to think I’m great; I want us to be able to imagine an alternative to this, because this doesn’t work. And in my own little way, I’m trying to create my own alternative. It doesn’t have to be the way it is.”

Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday, 10 March.