Respect: Make Mischief Night A Thing of the Past!

This year I was asked to produce a DVD video to be released in the South Liverpool senior schools, following the tragic death of Daniel Baxendale last year on 30th October - the night referred to as 'mischief night' - Daniel's family and friends wanted to do something to try and prevent what happened to Daniel from happening again.

I was asked by the Reverend Andrew Colmer, the Vicar of the All Souls Church on Mather Avenue near to where Daniel was killed and incidentially my home sending church, to put this together, so with Andrew's help we filmed Inspector Ian Mason from Merseyside Police, Megan, one of Daniel's friends and his mother Dianne, I produced this video, warning of the dangers and consequences of a bit of fun on mischief night. The message is to 'lay mischief night to rest' - out of respect not only for the loss suffered by the Baxendale family, but also for those who have been victims of damage and anti-social behaviour in previous years.

At the point of writing this the video has been watched 636 times on YouTube, originally placed on by Merseyside Police via their own website (not quite what I was expecting!), and another 113 times on linked websites. We produced nearly 400 DVDs and following the Police involvement seen at nearly every school in Liverpool and viewed by thousands of children and teenagers. I was grateful to Steven Abrams for commercially duplicating the DVD at short notice while I was away on holiday. I am also grateful to Calumet and Holden's for lending me the green screen equipment I needed for this project.

I am told that the statistics for Liverpool showed a massive decrease of incidents on Mischief Night, so it looks if the DVD and other actions have made a significant difference this year!

Finally I am so grateful for the support I have received from Andrew Lancel, a cast member of "The Bill", in the making of this project, he was truly amazing and a charming guy!

Copies of the DVD can be obtained by contacting me direct.

God bless, Phil