The stunned owners of a child’s play business in Hull have told how they have been given the Hollywood treatment by an award-winning director. Daniel Alexander has made movies which have been shown in cinemas worldwide, TV programmes for Amazon Prime and Sky Arts, and commercials for global brands like Nike and Warner Bros.
Yet he picked a far more surprising setting for his latest production – Hull children’s role play centre Adventure Play Town. Adventure Play Town was launched at the K3 Business Park in Hull three years ago by Sally Garner and Joanne Jarvis, who decided to go into business together after enjoying long careers working with children in schools.
They transformed a unit at the Clough Road business park into a bright and cheery ‘mini town’ where under seven-year-olds could pretend to be whatever they want, in everything from the fire station and police station to the hair salon and supermarket. Ever since, they have welcomed in thousands of youngsters to explore the miniature town’s play areas, which also includes a bistro, jail and vets practice.
Now, three years after first capturing the city’s attention, Adventure Play Town’s founders are celebrating a new milestone – their exclusive collaboration with award-winning film director Daniel. Based in Birmingham, Daniel is a BAFTA Connect filmmaker and award-winning director who has created productions for Amazon Prime Video, ITV, BBC and Sky Arts, as well as the movie Gale which received a worldwide release earlier this year, including 1,000 US cinemas.
He has produced content for TV in the UK and abroad, and has also worked with an array of globally recognised corporations, including NIKE, Fenty Beauty, Gymshark, Warner Bros, Commonwealth Games, Virgin, Timberland and BFI – and he has also won a string of awards from both commercial organisations like Apple and overseas film festivals like the LA Film Festival.
Now, a chance visit to Adventure Play Town by a relative has led to Daniel creating several short films focused on the unique role play centre and the joy it brings to young visitors and their families. Daniel spent a day at the play town earlier this year, and left owners Sally and Joanne stunned when he sent them copies of the mini movies to share as they wish.
Sally said: “At first we thought it was a scam, because why us? But then we did our investigations emailed him separately through his website, asking “did you ring us?” and after all our check-ups we finally found out he wasn’t a scam!
“Honestly, you couldn’t write it. When you see what he’s done – he did the Commonwealth Games handover and he’s done new Disney films that are remakes of horror films, so we still couldn’t believe it. He’s obviously got lots of work with his filmmaking and everything, but he told us that he also wants to support smaller businesses.
“It’s all on the back of his brother coming here a year ago apparently. He’d been for two hours, and was made really welcome, and loved it, and he’d told his brother ‘if ever you’re thinking of anything like that, this is the one to film’ – and we couldn’t believe it at all. We had to pinch ourselves.
“When he came he was the nicest man you could ever meet – it was absolutely lovely. And now he’s given us the films to share.”
Joanne added: “When Hull Live covered our opening three years ago, we were just finding our feet and hoping the local community would embrace our vision. To now be approached directly by an award-winning director for a collaboration is completely surreal.
“It is a massive testament to how much hard work and dedication we have put into our business through these economic challenges, but small businesses like ours still need support from everyone to help us continue to be able to bring families together through creative play.”
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