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Parenting on Female First
TV magician and star of ITV2 series Tricked, Ben Hanlin, has surprised a school in Staines with some messy magical mayhem.
Ben has teamed up with Persil for their new campaign Persil small & mighty to encourage kids to embrace stains.
In a twist from his normal show where his audience consists of celebrities ranging from Kim Kardashian to the TOWIE cast, Hanlin set a new personal best, performing and recording the most live tricks in one day in front of Mr Toms' Year 4 pupils at Riverbridge Primary School, Staines, who had no idea what Ben had planned.
Hanlin performed the series of tricks in different classrooms around the school involving paint, chocolate and lots of mess, before the grand finale which saw the stains magically disappear from the children's clothing, to the amazement of their parents.
Ben and Persil small & mighty created the film in response to findings from Peril's research that revealed Britain is at risk of raising a generation of sedentary 'stainophobes' who don't like dirt and mess (33%) and who believe looking 'cool' is more important than 'having fun outside' (46%).
Working with Play England, Persil has revealed the top seven fun, engaging and possibly messy activities parents should encourage their children to get stuck into to develop kids' creative side - one for every day of the week:
COOKING STAINS: Learn to cook spaghetti in the kitchen with mum and dad
FRUIT SPLASHES: Pick blackcurrants or make fresh fruit smoothies
GRASSY SMUDGES: Play football in the park or roll down hill
MUD SPLATTERS: Make a mud pie in the garden and jumping in muddy puddles
JAMMY SMEARS: Make a jam sandwich picnic for you and your friends
PAINT DROPS: Get creative and paint a picture, make a collage using natural materials and poster paints
WATER MARKS: Find some frogspawn in the spring, have water fights with friends in summer or go sledging in winter
Ben Hanlin said: "Where better to encourage kids to embrace stains, than in Staines! It was great to perform my unique blend of magic on school children. They have so much energy and wonder that they made for a great audience. And of course, they needed no encouragement to get messy! Their mums looked slightly worried when they saw their kids covered in green paint and sticky chocolate but, of course, I cleaned them up in no time, with magic of course…"
Riverbridge Primary School headmistress, Maggie Roberton, said: "It was great having Ben come to the school to film the set of tricks. The children had such an amazing day getting involved and messy. They're all still talking about it now and are thrilled to have played a starring role."
For those who don't have a magician at home though, try a little dose of Persil small & mighty for those toughest stains even in a 60 minute quick wash. Find out more at Persil.co.uk or #persilstainmagic.