shows how high turned down an offer to work on the James Bond film . He was otherwise engaged, working on .
You're doing pretty well when the two biggest film franchises in history are vying for your services. And yet Mally remains down to earth: still living in Carlisle, still suffering at Brunton Park, still telling students in the city that they too can achieve what might seem impossible.
It's 20 years since Mally, 45, took his first steps in this world. While at Cumbria Institute of the Arts, now part of the University of Cumbria, he was making a student film in the Lake District. He encountered the crew of BBC drama and asked for a job.
Mally is a friendly, quietly persuasive chap. Perhaps it's no surprise that he was taken on. He left his degree course and began a career which would send him around the world.
There were seven years in TV, finding locations for series including , and
The last 13 years have been spent mainly in films. Mally is now managing locations rather than finding them.
His involvement with James Bond began 10 years ago in Panama with .
In 2012 he was location manager of the unit which shot jaw-dropping opening sequence in Turkey. Ensuring this spectacular car, motorbike and train chase went to plan involved deploying 130 security guards along a stretch of track and managing the transport of 30 equipment-crammed trucks.
It's a long way, in every sense, from Foxes Café Lounge on Abbey Street, Carlisle, where Mally talks about his career between sips of latte.
These days his working life can see him managing a team of up to 30 people. "There are three or four location managers under me," he says. "I just have to make sure nothing slips through the net. Go through it with them that we have all the necessary permissions, all the contracts are done, health and safety.
"It's usually 12-hour days, five or six days a week. The shoot is usually about 12 to 18 weeks. Prep can be five months to a year. It's a lot to do with permissions. Put in for road closures. And we do a lot of environmental studies now. We bring in specialists like ornithologists, get data on the site, satisfy the powers that be that we're not going to disrupt the environment."
When shooting begins it's often a question of whether humans are going to disrupt filming. "There's always people walking into shot. Unless you've got a full road closure you can only ask the public to help you. If they choose not to, they choose not to. You've got to let them get on with their daily lives.
" was the most complex shoot. The public wander across the train tracks as part of their normal daily business. We had two vehicles on the road alongside as well.
"When I first started you had older guys on the crew telling you not to have blinkers on to what goes on around you. Now I'm one of those guys. It’s about respecting the public and not having the view that this film is all that matters.
"Good manners are so important. Common sense is a lot of it. Location manager is classed as an unskilled job. To me it's one of the most skilled jobs. You're negotiator, diplomat, accountant.
"Essentially, you need to mould whoever you're talking to into the way you think. Lord of the manor or a homeless man in the street, you try to treat everyone the same."
The calibre of production he now works on means Mally often receives a helping hand from the authorities.
Edinburgh's Royal Mile was closed to accommodate last year. And if there's the chance of a plane interrupting a shoot? "We've phoned airports before. Sometimes they're really good. The jobs I'm on now, we put in no-fly zones."
Film is not all glamour, of course. Mally has little interaction with the stars, and is too discreet to say much about them anyway.
"It's a day's work for everyone. You kind of give each other that respect they deserve and that freedom to work. It doesn't really faze me anymore. The only time I've been starstruck was Clint Eastwood [while working on , a film directed by Eastwood in 2009].
"He just had this aura. He's amazing. We were working on a street in south London. A lot of noise was coming out of a hairdresser. He just took it on himself to go in there: 'Ladies - we're doing some filming. Would you mind keeping the noise down?' They lost their minds! 'It's Clint Eastwood!'"
Another brush with celebrity came European premiere of with his wife Rachael and their daughter Leila, 15.
"We were in one of the boxes, four or five boxes down from Princes Harry and William. We went to the after-party. I had a pair of checked Vivienne Westwood trousers on. This lady walked by and said 'I really like your trousers.' It was Rita Ora! That's my first red-carpet premiere. It was really good to share that with Rachael and Leila."
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Mally was supervising location manager on , and its predecessor . These occupied him for two and a half years in locations including Iceland, South America... and Derwentwater.
Its presence in , as the backdrop to a spaceship battle, came after Mally suggested it. "We only shot there for a couple of days," he says. "We managed to keep it secret. To give too much away spoils the reveal in the film.
There was a little bit of pride in getting Cumbria into ."
Pride too in the h 2012. This was awarded for outstanding contribution to the film and television industry.
There were clearly no hard feelings for leaving his course all those years ago, which he did with the blessing of his tutors.
"I try and talk to students whenever I get free time, at the university and GCSE students at secondary schools. I'm from Carlisle. That doesn't mean you can't achieve what you want to. I'm the case in point. They see that I'm just like them."
It didn't always feel this way. "Carlisle wasn't the easiest place to grow up. We were one of five Chinese families, growing up in the 70s. You were always up against it. Racism is the wrong word... kids can be brutal. If you look a little bit different to them they're going to seize on that. Once you're accepted it's fine."
He tells students that they don't necessarily have to leave Cumbria to succeed.
on't feel that you have to leave Cumbria to get to where you want to go.' I've had probably the best grounding ever, coming from Cumbria.
"Cumbria teaches you not to take things for granted. You get out what you put in. That's in the Cumbrian spirit. We're not a county of freeloaders. Film and TV is hard work. You can do what you want in life. You've got to put the effort in."
Seeing the finished product makes this effort worthwhile, his name in the credits showing the part Mally played in this union of art and graft.
The excitement is still there all the time. I don't know how I would cope if I had a nine to five. There's times when you get tired. You run on adrenaline a lot of the time.
I try and keep myself down to earth. I still live in Stanwix and travel home at weekends. I'm still tormented by the football every week.
"I was away for six months on . That was tough. You see your kid's grown up that much. That's one regret. Leila is nearly 16. Last year she came out and did work experience on [Scottish historical drama] with the costume department. I don't know whether she wants to pursue it. She seemed to enjoy it. They said she was very good."
Daniel Craig in Skyfall
"I've just done a production manager's course. I would like to go into that in a few years. That would put me in charge of the whole production, not just the location side."
007 to the county?
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