A youngster from Kesgrave will be appearing in a new CBeebies series celebrating first experiences.

Ellis Somers, 4, from Kesgrave will appear on My First – a new series which charts how young children cope with new experiences for the first time – with Ellis appearing in an episode on potty training.

Mum Tara, 35, heard about the project at Home-Start where she works, and wanted to tackle the stigma surrounding potty training after encountering so many families who struggled.

“My daughter was three, now four, and she was going through potty training.

“I see so many parents that are so scared of the prospect of it, which is why I was happy to do it.”

The filming, which took place in August, involved two cameramen charting Ellis’ potty-training journey with mum Tara, alongside Ellis’ older sister Izzy, 10, and 41-year-old dad Paul.

“They were really good, and she did really well,” Mrs Somers added. “They allowed her to dance in front of the camera and play with them – she loved the experience!”

Filmed by MCC Media, the experience crucially aimed to keep the disruption to a minimum, with the company explaining how the process worked beforehand, giving Ellis plenty of breaks to play and allowing the family to see and approve the final edit.

But while filming was mostly contained within their home, Mrs Somers said that a scene involving them shopping at the Boots store in Ipswich left them a little self-conscious.

“We went to Sailmakers and filmed in Boots at was the weirdest thing,” she added. “We filmed from the street and stopped the traffic a bit while walking into Boots – everyone was looking!”

Mark Stuart Bell, assistant producer at MCC Media said: “Ellis was such a superstar to work with; we had loads of fun during filming, and are really grateful that she allowed us to share in such a momentous first experience.

“We can’t thank Tara and Paul enough for all of the hard work they put in that you don’t see on screen.

“Tara is a real credit to Home Start, the wonderful charity who (alongside ERIC) gave us vital assistance in planning the episode, she was patient and selfless and really shared in our vision for the episode – to give other parents and children the confidence to navigate potty training.”

The episode is due to air on March 29.