An entrepeneurial pupil had his film broadcast to Tim Peake on the International Space Station – and was invited to Downing Street to welcome the astronaut home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr8kUqhQD3Y&index=2&list=PLyOHB4V8B-q7LCzqhF57GdmJtIahaMuD9

Jude Rogers, 11, who lives near Priory Park, won the “Into Film” children’s competition for his original animated film imagining what it would be like to live in space.

He met Prime Minister Theresa May and chatted with astronaut Tim Peake at Number 10 last week.

Jude said: “I love space and I love animation – I thought I could put them together.”

“It was amazing meeting Tim Peake – really exciting.”

Jude made his winning film in just two intensive days.

In “Space to Imagine”, the central character, a boy with red hair, wonders what it would be like to live in space, “high above the human race”.

The film’s voiceover asks: “As you head up to the stars, would you get a glimpse of Mars?

“Maybe meet some Martians there?

“They might be blue and have no hair.

“Wonder what it’s like to see earth from the Kepler observatory?

“It must fill you full of awe to see the things that Tim Peake saw.

“When seeing earth from faraway, ‘spectacular,’ I guess he’d say.”

The end credits add: “No Martians were harmed in the process of making this animation.

“But a few plastic roses were completely destroyed.”

Jude taught himself how to make animation when he was six.

He started playing with Lego and was inspired by Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit films and Ray Harryhausen’s work.

Jude initally worked with an iPad and then bought software after he started winning money in film competitions.

The young filmaker creates his animations with a camera in his bedroom, using a wooden set his grandfather made him.

He uses “stop motion animation” where he gradually moves his handmade characters and takes photos.