Singer-songwriter partnership Jon Lilygreen and Jon Maguire – two close friends from Newport in South Wales – team up with Greg Davenport for this utterly charming promo to new single Given Up Giving Up.

Davenport shot the promo over two days in Streatham Common and Kingsbury, London. For the starring role, Greg cast Thomas Harrison – aged 7 – to play the part of an 11 year old “he completely blew us away” says Greg.

“The brief for the video was pretty open but we all agreed we wanted to stay away from a straight-up, ordinary romantic storyline” explains Greg. “I knew a Karate Kid-esque, archetypal plucky-loser turned victorious-winner story would work for the song – and as it’s a genre we’re all so very familiar with I wanted the competition itself to be a little quirky and unexpected.

“So I trawled the internet for the strangest competitions I could find, and after a brief flirtation with Snail Racing (as a kid I kept snails from the garden and bred them in plastic tanks, much to my Mother’s dismay with the continued disappearance of lettuces from the fridge) I eventually settled on Rock, Paper Scissors.

“I thought there would be something inherently funny in a kid training so religiously for a competition that is largely seen as nothing more than blind luck and chance”.

Liygreen & Maguire
Given Up Giving Up (Warner Brothers)
Director: Greg Davenport
Producer: Licia Conn
Production Assistant: Bryony Spencer
Production Company: Epoch Films
Cinematographer: Matthew Taylor
Focus Puller: Emilio Sclappi
Steadicam Op: Andrew Fletcher
Clapper/DIT: Ashley Cutmore
Gaffer: Robert White
Sparks: Matt Vahey, Steve Garay
Production Designer: Merel Graeve
Art Dept Assistant: Hendrik Faller
Costume Designer: Amy Addison
Make-Up: Katie Coward
Editor: Chris Roebuck @ Speade
Colorist: Edwin Metternich @ Framestore
Label: Warner Bros / Rachael Paley
Starring: Thomas Harrison
With: Victoria Allies, Emily Trappen, Max De Montule, Jamie Smith, Huw Sam, Sue Parker Nutley + Seabass the dog.
Special thanks; Thomas & the Harrison family, Jen Herrera @ Las Bandas, Rob, Dave & Claire, Patsy D, Ella Richards, Marc Page, Kingsbury High School, Lucy Jayne Ratcliffe