Paradise Street

Jayda Pryce, Kaylan Teague, Ben Roberts and Tom Morrison-Rees

Ten Ten's latest film project, the drama series 'Paradise Street' was premiered at the Art House cinema in Crouch End, north London, on Saturday.

The storylines revolve around four children from the same school: Finn (Tom Morrison-Rees), Leyla (Kaylan Teague), Marcus (Ben Roberts) and Siobhan (Jayda Pryce) growing up in very different families.

The dialogue in Paradise Street is very authentic and the situations of the individual children really rings true. Although these films are meant for use in schools, the quality of the writing, production and acting would stand up well on mainstream television.

The excellent young cast were found through a nationwide audition process and they were supporting roles for pupils from St Martin de Porres Primary School in Bounds Green. They attended the screening, along with the adult actors who played their parents. There are also fine performances from Mark Oliver, Liz Garland, Ben Roberts, Georgina Strawson, Laura Jean Clinton and Andy McLeod as the children's parents.

Director-writer Martin O'Brien told ICN: "Paradise Street is an 11-part drama series for schools. It's an ambitious project which we produced with a small team and an even smaller budget! This meant that every single member of the cast and crew had to give 100% - which they did. Filming on location around North London, including a working school, was a challenge but the dedication and talent of our child and adult cast and crew really enabled us to achieve something special. The main cast of children, in particular, had to play characters who were undergoing sensitive experiences related to puberty and they did so with real maturity."

Ten Ten explains in a statement: "The 'Life to the Full' programme will meet the requirements of the new Relationship Education curriculum that becomes statutory for all schools in England from September 2020. Based on A Model Catholic RSE Curriculum produced by the Catholic Education Service, 'Life to the Full' teaches Relationships Education and Health Education within the context of a Christian understanding of human sexuality rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church.

"The programme includes 60 lesson plans, a wide range of multimedia resources, an accompanying programme of prayer and worship, training for teachers and an online parent portal. Ten Ten values highly the role of parents as primary educators of their children, so this online resource aims to enable full integration between home, school and church. It was trialled by just under 100 schools in the summer of 2019 and is now currently available to all schools."

A secondary schools' version of 'Life to the Full' is also currently being rolled out. I'm looking forward to seeing that!

Ten Ten Theatre is an award-winning theatre, film and education company founded by siblings Clare and Martin O'Brien in 2007. Alongside work in primary and secondary schools, the company has developed a significant programme of work in prisons, elderly care homes and in the community.

For more information see: www.tentenresources.co.uk/

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