WHEN The King’s Speech scooped four Oscars on Sunday night, it was ‘a childhood dream come true’ for one Weymouth man.

Gareth Unwin, who studied media at Weymouth College, is one of the producers of the award-winning film and was on stage at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood with the film’s cast and crew to collect the golden statue for Best Film.

The production also won a Best Actor award for Colin Firth, Best Director statuette for Tom Hooper and received the Best Screenplay award.

The haul of Oscars is the latest triumph for The King’s Speech, which also won Best Film at the Baftas as well as a Golden Globe for Colin Firth and the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Gareth’s stepmother Anne Unwin said: “We are all absolutely thrilled to bits and so proud. It’s still all a bit weird and surreal and it is a childhood dream come true for Gareth.

Speaking from the family home in Wyke Regis, she said: “I turned on to Sky this morning and saw him being interviewed, holding his Oscar. They asked him about it and he said it was ‘very heavy. It’s getting a bit out of hand’, which I thought was a very Gareth thing to say.”

The King’s Speech is the true-life story of how the unorthodox Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue helped King George VI master his stammer and address the nation at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Made for a relatively paltry £15million, it has been a huge hit across the world Anne stayed up until the early hours of Monday morning watching the Oscars on television and feeling ‘miserable’ because her husband Chris – Gareth’s dad – was out in Hollywood with his daughter Judith Holloway, Gareth’s sister, while she was stuck at home for health reasons.

After the award ceremony, Gareth and his family went on to one of the major post-Oscars parties.

“The absolutely honest truth is that it is my sort of film,” said self-confessed Royalist Anne, who has seen it three times including the British premiere at Leicester Square.