Nine-year-old St Albans actor stars in national TV advert

Nine-year-old Jack Meredith, from Marshalswick in St Albans, takes the lead role in Kingsmill’s new £1.5million campaign, Loaf’s Good.

He plays the son in a family setting who describes all the different quirky habits of his mum, dad, sister, brother and pets - before revealing they all eat Kingsmill 50/50 - a part-white, part-wholegrain bread.

The script reads: “My dad’s a bit of a snob and my mum’s the queen of clean.

“My dog wants to be friends with my cat, but my cat’s like ‘nah’.

Jack Meredith. Picture: Jon Meredith (Image: Archant)

“My brother is six foot four, and daft. My sister is five two and a half, and she’s the brain of the family.”

Jack was cast back in November 2017 after numerous auditions, and spent nearly 12 hours filming the 30-second advert.

His dad, Jon Meredith, said: “Acting is just a hobby of his and he started doing various bits and pieces, and someone suggested a local agency for him.

“He got sent to an audition back in November and then he got a call back the following week for a longer audition.”

Jon described the filming day as stressful: “There were 50 people on set, and quite a lot of pressure but he took it in his stride - it’s very full on, I could feel it.

“But I had tears in my eyes when I saw him on set. He did so well.”

The advert will air during primetime television on channels including ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. It launched on February 5.

Jon says there is no pressure on Jack: “It’s just really great and he loves acting but we didn’t have any expectations from it.

“All of this is very hard to get, and what I say is it doesn’t matter if you get them, it’s how you handle yourself when you’re there. So there are no expectations.”

Jon said he and Jack’s mum Natalie are “hugely proud and blown away by how he handled himself”.

Adding: “He was thrilled with himself, really pleased with what he had done.”

Jack attends Wheatfields Junior School on Downes Road.