Hollywood director Tim Burton found working on new movie Big Fish cathartic, because his leading characters' behaviour mirrored his relationship with his late father.

The 45-year-old - whose girlfriend Helena Bonham-CARTER recently gave birth to a baby boy, BILLY RAY - identified with the father-son relationship that is central to the wacky circus-set film, which was shot just after his dad's demise.

Tim says, "I wasn't very close to my father. But it was still, you know, very heavy when he died.

"And then the script came along and it actually sort of dealt with those issues, so it was an amazing catharsis because you are able to work through those feelings without having to talk to a therapist about it.

"Towards the end when my father got ill I tried to make an attempt at some sort of connection. I didn't get as far as the WILL character in Big Fish and it's a mixed bag of emotions.

"But I think no matter what, if you are close or not close, if a parent is ill it's always a shock and you are even shocked by how much you are shocked by it."

19/01/2004 17:41