The unshakeable happiness of a four-year-old red head is proving a video hit a week after My Tram Experience video put a less favourable light on the borough.

School Portrait, filmed at Shirley Performing Arts School, has been viewed more than 500,000 times in less than a week after it was placed on video sharing site Vimeo by producer Michael Berliner and director Nick Scott.

The two-minute film, which cost just £200 to make features a heartless photographer wiping the smiles from a group of young pupils for their portraits by discussing topics like rising house prices, tuition fees and global warming.

But he meets his match with one little girl whose grin is immovable.

Mr Berliner, who lives in Herne Hill, South London, said: “I make a lot of short films for festivals and that can be great in getting you noticed but sometimes it is better to get it out to a wider audience and just enjoy the fact people like your work.”

He said the pair picked Shirley Performing Arts College after they responded so enthusiastically over the summer.

He said: “Staff were particularly friendly and the kids were fantastic. We filmed the whole thing in just a day.”

Last week the less savoury video of a woman with a young child shouting racist abuse at fellow tram users in the borough went viral and has since been watch more than nine million times.

Mr Berliner, who began making films with his dad’s camcorder aged nine, said: “I did see My Tram Experience. I hope this works as the perfect antidote and show Croydon in a better light."