WHATEVER the quality of the acting, a Huntingdon primary school’s Christmas production is sure to be spectacularly lit this year.

Electronics company TheatreCom, which is based at Hinchingbrooke Business Park, borrowed Hinchingbrooke Park School for a day during half-term to make a promotional video to showcase its portable LED stage lighting.

As a quid pro quo, the firm has promised a light fantastic accompaniment to the festive dramatics – which are likely to include the managing director’s four children, who are pupils there.

The video was commissioned to allow potential clients to see a demonstration of the product.

The story features a drama teacher (played by Amy Barrs – who teaches both at Stagecoach theatre school in Huntingdon and at a Peterborough primary school), who is stressed out by putting on a show and ‘hasn’t even thought about the lighting’.

A group of children save the day with the help of a TheatreCom lighting kit. The finale consists of a music and dance routine with some rather dubious scoring from the young judges., according to the MD, Gary Weston.

The film was produced by Stephen Rhodes, who will be a familiar face to viewers of ITV’s This Morning, which he has co-presented the show on more than 100 occasions, , standing in for Richard Madeley. Despite the adage that you should never work with children or animals, Stephen was enthusiastic about the project.

“Having seven young children on the set was a challenge, but nothing compared with the stress of live television,” he said

“The children are great performers, but the moments of true magic were when they forgot the camera was there and acted naturally.”

When the idea of a web video was conceived, it had been planned as a serious product demonstration. Mr Weston explained: “We set out to be informative rather than entertaining. However, once my children and their friends got involved, we threw the script out of the window and let them get on with it. I did laugh out loud when I saw the finished film and it appears from comments on Twitter and Facebook that other people are enjoying it too.”

INFORMATION: The portable stage lighting demonstration can be seen on TheatreCom’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/theatrecom