A St Albans boy is on the shortlist for a Christmas Day advert.

Sixteen-year-old Ed Fearn is one of the finalists who have auditioned to star in a festive rendition of Deck The Halls for the GoCompare ad.

In his audition, Ed uses sign language which he taught himself in the last few years as he wanted to be able to communicate with people of all backgrounds.

He said: "From a very young age, I’ve been fascinated with adverts. As soon as I heard about the competition, I was very keen to enter. I wasn’t too sure about using my voice since I am not a very confident singer. This made me think of alternative ways of communication I could use and then I thought of sign language. I don’t often use it but the beauty of it is that it is so inclusive."

The teenager said that in recent years he has become more aware of the difficulties that deaf people face after watching the film The Silent Child.