Most children want to stay up past their bedtime so they can play computer games all night long or not miss out on a family party, but Jack Rosecroft had a different obsession - secret cinema. The 35-year-old from Harrow used to stay up watching films and now he has turned his passion into a profession and is gearing up to see his film, Honey, screened at the British Film Institute (BFI).

He says: “Honey is my second film - it is only 30 minutes long but I am hoping that having it screened at the BFI will enable me to network with some of the well-known directors in the industry and perhaps one day be able to work with them on a feature length film.

“This film is a thriller about two brothers and their destructive relationships. It is a zero-budget film and essentially it’s about a honey-trap. While one brother doesn’t realise he is getting caught in a honey-trap, the other is having nightmares about one, and soon they find a dark secret from the past catching up with them.”

Jack tells me the locations in the film are all local too.

“We used a graveyard behind Harrow Leisure Centre and a beauty salon called Through The Looking Glass in Sudbury Town.”

Jack, who wrote the script for the film in three days after attending a one night course at Raindance, explains that the inspiration for the storyline came from events in his life.

“I don’t have a younger brother but I do have two younger cousins, who I am very protective of. I am actually very close to my family and even my girlfriend thought it was weird just how close we are and that’s where the characters of the two brothers came from.”

The former Brunel University graduate, who went on to train as an actor at ArtsEd, goes on to say: “Growing up we didn’t have a lot of money, but we were always close. When my parents started giving me pocket money, I used to save it so I could go to the cinema. Otherwise I used to stay up past my bedtime to watch films.

“My father, who was politics journalist, used to say to me when he caught me watching films during the night - ‘if you’re going to stay up and watch films you may as well make notes on them’. I think that was so that I didn’t just watch them like a zombie.

“I used to watch all sorts, from The Godfather to Batman to Kung Fu films with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I think Batman was one of my favourite films as a kid - Tim Burton did a fantastic job and it just blew me away.”

Jack, who used to be a semi-professional fighter during his twenties, claims that his all time favourite film now has to be The Godfather and directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Bond director Martin Campbell have been inspirational to him.

But it’s not just film directors that Jack looks up to, authors such as Harper Lee, Shakespeare, Graham Greene and George Orwell have also been an influence on his work which is no surprise since he worked at Waterstones bookshop in Harrow for eight-years before becoming a filmmaker full time.

He says: “I loved working in Harrow. The people were always so friendly and I used love talking to people about books and about films. If I got the chance to adapt a book into a feature film it would be Alistair Maclean’s Goodbye California - it’s a brilliant book.”

The avid Liverpool FC supporter, who also teaches English as a foreign language, is hoping that through networking at the screening of his latest film, he will be able to pitch the idea of turning Maclean’s novel into a film and hopefully go on to collaborate with well-known film directors.

Jack’s film Honey will be screened at the BFI on Friday.