Meet Dexter Ansell, the eight-year-old starring in Christmas on Mistletoe Farm

“I said we’re in the middle of Hyde Park and they said you’ll just have to find a quiet corner. So we did. And he did this live audition with some big, big Hollywood directors in the middle of Hyde Park with thousands of people around and he got the job.”

Dexter has recently returned from filming in Berlin. “It’s top secret. It’s under NDA (non-disclosure agreement), that’s why I can’t say what it is,” he explains matter-of-factly. “It’s going to be in the cinema next year.”

What he can talk about is his role in the family Christmas movie - Christmas on Mistletoe Farm, available to watch now on Netflix.

The film sees a widowed father make a bumpy adjustment to village life after inheriting a farm at Christmastime — while his kids hatch a plan to stay there forever. Dexter plays Buster Cunningham, one of five siblings, and now his affectionate nickname from his pals at school.

“They’re really happy for me,” he says. “They all call me Buster now.”

“I had so much fun filming,” he adds. “There was loads of animals and they were all real so it was really cool.”

Debbie accompanied her son to Banbury in Oxfordshire for the filming process earlier this year. They lived in a hotel for six weeks, whilst Dexter worked on the production with writer and director Debbie Isitt.

“It’s like a real pinch yourself moment when you walk on set and he’s got his own trailer and dressing room and pictures on the wall with these top cast, these incredible actors who are so kind and generous with their time,” mum Debbie says. “It’s very exciting and fun but also we’re really aware of making Dexter grounded.”

The youngster has already had four years of experience in the industry after landing a part in Emmerdale at the age of four.

His grandma took him to an audition for the show, after hearing about a casting through the Leeds-based Scala school of performing arts, which his sister Siena, now 12, was attending.

“The funny thing is he had to learn quite a long script and he didn’t know how to read so I had to teach it to him line by line,” Debbie says.

“This wonderful actress Olivia Bromley played his mum (Dawn Taylor) and she was so kind to him. It was his first job and she really helped him.

“He had quite a few big scenes, one where he had to find a gun and point it at everyone…It was quite a sad story because the character (Lucas Taylor) had been in foster care and eventually went to live with his real mum but he wanted his foster parents, he preferred them. It was quite challenging, was the role.”

Dexter is already building up quite the portfolio. He featured in Sky Max science fiction series The Midwich Cuckoos this year and also has a part in Those Who Remain, a thriller feature film due for release soon.

He and sister Siena also appeared in The News at Five and a Half show at the end of 2020, part of a panel of children reviewing the big stories of the year.

There’s more in the pipeline too, though the family are limited on what they can say. And Dexter’s attitude is enviable. “I try my best and if I don’t get [a part], who cares?,” he says. “At least I tried.”

Just this year, Dexter has started attending the Leeds Grand Youth Theatre and he also takes part in an online weekly drama class.

“But I’d been reluctant to send him to any training,” Debbie explains, “because he started at such a young age and he just seemed to have a natural flair for it. We didn’t really want to change anything because he seemed to just be doing it.”

Looking at Dexter’s family history, it is perhaps not surprising that he’s been drawn to performance arts.

Debbie’s grandfather was on stage and in films, her grandmother a dancer and her mother a star of stage and screen. She is a producer and her husband Jonathan, Dexter’s father, is a singer. He shot to fame on the first ever series of the X-Factor in 2004, coming second place as part of pop-opera group G4.

“It’s a crazy life,” says Debbie. “You have to drop things at the last minute and go to auditions. But it’s fun, we’re used to it, we enjoy it…We’ve always known this way of life really so it feels like an extension of what we’ve always done.”

When Dexter is on set, his school sends him work to complete and he has a tutor to support him through his education.

“He has to do a certain number of hours a week, he can’t fall behind,” Debbie says. “They’re really conscientious about that and I’m really firm with that as well because I would never want him to miss out on schooling.”

It’s important for Dexter too, who when asked what he sees for his future, lists an actor, vet, scientists and an inventor as career paths he is mulling over.

“I think he could go all the way with the acting, I really do,” Debbie says. “Every time he does a job,the director is blown away with him and says how focused he is. It’s his concentration and focus on set for his age and how he commits to the character each and every time.

“He’s played so many different characters now…If he wants to, I do think he could go all the way.

“I know it’s not in your hands when you’re in this industry - it’s down to talent but also down to luck so I would always want him to finish his studies and have something else as a back-up.

“Like he said himself, he might want to be a vet or a scientist, which I would wholeheartedly support but if he wants to do this, then we’re behind him all the way.”

Christmas on Mistletoe Farm is out on Netflix now.