Expert expat: Producer and children's screenwriter Tim Bain, London

THE EXPAT

It’s producer and children’s screenwriter Tim Bain’s second time round as an Australian expat in London. Tim’s latest kids’ TV show Kangaroo Beach (ABC Kids and iView) is modelled on his childhood on the Victorian surf coast. See timbain.com

SEE

Russia Dock Woodland is a huge sprawling park with forests, playgrounds and great picnic spots and runs right up to the Thames. Short, stubby Stave Hill can be climbed very quickly, but offers an incredible view of Canary Wharf on one side and the City of London on the other. There is a children's farm (Surrey Docks Farm) and in the forest the kids go nuts for the squirrels, and the foxes are so tame, they come right up to you.

DO

Secret Cinema offers an "immersive cinema experience" celebrating a different film or TV show each year and invites everyone to dress up as a character from the film and enter that world, with roaming actors, missions to complete and interactive (not e) games, finished with a showing of the film and live scenes performed by actors. I've been to BladeRunner, Back to the Future, and my first, The Empires Strikes Back, where you walked on the desert sands of Tatooine and into the cantina bar scene from the original Star Wars. They're doing Bridgerton this year. See secretcinema.org

EAT

The Mayflower is a beautiful, 17th-century pirate pub on the Thames in nearby Rotherhithe; I think actual pirates drank there, and it's where the Pilgrim Fathers' ship moored in 1620 before sailing to the US. It's got paintings and displays from the age of pirates, and the kids love all the genuine pirate and seafaring. We love it because the food is gourmet pub eating, and the staff are kind enough to offer us sips of various ales. See mayflowerpub.co.uk