A Liverpool dad has made a heartwarming John Lewis-style Christmas advert starring his son.
Terry Hawkins came up with the 'Letter for Santa' advert during lockdown and filmed it all at his home in Huyton with his son Ashton in the lead role.
The 33-year-old works as the design and creative lead for a life insurance company and when the firm was unable to film their own advert due to coronavirus restrictions, Terry came up with the concept for just £7.99.
His employer LifeSearch donated the money they would have spent on their Christmas advert to Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity.
Terry told the ECHO: "I'm not a videographer by any standards. I've made videos, podcasts and animations but never a proper, full-production advertising piece, but the response has been so good. We've received some lovely comments and people have even compared it to a John Lewis advert."
The advert describes the year 2020 through a child's eyes as eight-year-old Ashton, named Alfie in the film, writes his letter to Santa.
He reflects on a year of homeschooling, baking, empty shop shelves, PE with Joe Wicks, rainbows in windows, NHS clapping on Thursday and wearing masks. He leaves out mince pies and hot chocolate for Santa alongside a bottle of hand sanitiser.
But all he really wants for Christmas is to make his parents' worries go away and for things to 'go back to normal again'.
Terry said: "It was a chat with my son Ashton which gave me the idea for the advert. The entire ad was storyboarded, filmed, edited and produced in about a month costing £7.99 for the Christmas tree bauble in the closing shot.
"I wanted to capture lockdown from that wonderful, child's vantage point. The innocence of seeing it not as turmoil but as a year-long adventure alongside the sacrifice of wanting to give that adventure up to help out mum and dad."
Eight-year-old Ashton certainly enjoyed having the starring role and has been bitten by the acting bug.
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Dad Terry joked: "He's got a taste for acting now. He hadn't thought about it before and he's adamant that he's going to be famous. The school have been very supportive too, he thought he was a rockstar on his first day back at school after it launched."
