Cooking with Dads scheme receives National Lottery funding

Descriptor: First we see a purple screen with a silver caption which reads “The National Lottery Good Causes”. We then see various shots of boys playing football, before meeting Phil Vickery, who is the presenter of the piece. He is walking down a residential road.

Phil Vickery: I’m here in Farnham, Surrey, to have a look at a National Lottery funded cooking programme. It’s all about dads, kids, spending time together in the kitchen, and having fun. They’ve recently applied for a National Lottery grant, and do you know what? I’ve got some good news for them.

Descriptor: We now see various shots of fathers and children at a cooking demonstration, wearing the Organic Cookery School-branded aprons.

Phil Vickery: Set up in 2008, the Organic Cookery School’s Cooking With Dad programme aimed to help fathers learn a new skill with their kids.

Descriptor: Phil Vickery now speaks to a father and very young daughter who are attending the course.

Father: I don’t cook much, I, I, I...

Daughter: Mummy does.

Phil Vickery: Mummy does all the cooking, does she?

Descriptor: We now see Phil speaking to another father and daughter who are attending the course.

Phil Vickery: Do you cook at all at home or not?

Father: I like to do a bit of Chinese, ah...

Daughter: But he doesn’t cook.

Descriptor: We now see a continuation of Phil’s interview with the first father and daughter.

Phil Vickery: Is he different to mummy? Does he make more mess than mummy? [The girl giggles and nods emphatically.] Yeah!

Descriptor: We now meet Lucy May, who works for the Organic Cookery School. Lucy explains the originals of the Cooking With Dad project. As Lucy speaks to Phil, we see fathers and daughters cooking together on the project.

Lucy May: Cooking With Dad was a project funded by the Big Lottery. It ended just over a year ago and, um, it’s a project which involved over five hundred dads and their children. We have step dads, um, we have dads who are non-resident with their children, who may struggle to find good things to do with their children on the weekends that they have them. It’s a really important time for the child, sometimes it’s one to one time which never happens in the busy working week.

Descriptor: Once again, we see Phil Vickery speaking to the second father and daughter from earlier in the film. The daughter is adding something from a cup to a mixing bowl.

Phil Vickery: Hang on, do they... [The daughter drops the cup into a mixing bowl.] Just chuck them, chuck them all in.

Father: Sorry, sorry.

Descriptor: We now see Phil interviewing another father and his daughters who are attending the course.

Father: I found the most therapeutic was Saturday morning cooking, and I absolutely love it. It actually brought me and my two girls closer together.

Phil Vickery: Oh, that’s fantastic work, that is. [Phil gives him a friendly pat on the arm.]

Phil Vickery (to one of the daughters): Have you seen him improve?

Daughter: Yeah, a lot.

Phil Vickery: A lot?  So was he not very good before?

Daughter: No. [She laughs.]

Descriptor: We now hear Phil Vickery’s voice narrating, as we see fathers and children cooking together.

Phil Vickery: Although the programme finished more than a year ago, it’s still easy to see just how much the dads and children got out of it. And I can’t wait to give them a bit of a surprise.

Descriptor: We now see Phil address all the fathers, children and staff at the course. The fathers and children are smiling.

Phil Vickery: Well a big thank you from me, great to see people having fun with cooking, it’s about enjoying yourselves, it’s particularly spending time with your dads too. And I’ve got a little bit of a special present for you. [Phil shows them an oversized cheque.] On behalf of the National Lottery and the Big Lottery Fund, I’ve got a cheque for £156,700, so you can continue your fabulous work. [Everyone applauds.]

Descriptor: Once again, we meet Lucy May, who describes what the National Lottery grant means to the organisation as she holds the cheque.

Lucy May: This is so exciting. It means that we can continue the project and expand it to thousands more families. And also, we’re planning to train up the schools and the children’s centres, so that they can actually sustain it when the, when the funding’s ended. So thank you very much. [Everyone applauds again.]

Descriptor: We now see Phil Vickery speaking to one of the fathers at the course.

Father: I really do feel ecstatic, it’s fantastic. I’m so proud and pleased. [Phil puts an arm around his shoulder.]

Descriptor: Now we see Phil with the first girl he interviewed, trying the meal which has been cooked on the course.

Phil Vickery: Happy? [The girl nods and says, "Mmm".] She’s happy, I’m happy. [The girl makes a silly face, then smiles.]