An aspiring actor from South Africa has chanced upon a route into show business by dancing on the pavement outside London’s best-known toy shop.

Dressed as a friendly elf by the managers of Hamley’s store in Regent Street, Mike Rogers improvised a routine to the piped sound of the seasonal pop classic I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus earlier this month.

Footage of his dance was filmed by a passerby and quickly went viral, sparking interest from theatrical agents. If the incident does not make Rogers’ career, it will certainly provide the plot for a Christmas movie to come.

‘Leading Role they said. West End location they said.’ pic.twitter.com/10xkvpSaLh — Alice Orr-Ewing (@aliceorrewing) December 5, 2018

Speaking to the theatre magazine the Stage, Rogers explained the impact of the video, which has been retweeted under the heading: “Leading role, they said. West End location, they said”, and watched nearly a million times.

“It’s just been amazing. Unreal … I’m still seeing what’s happening with everything at the moment and getting through all the replies.”

The 23-year-old from Cape Town said he had done character work with Hamley’s while he developed his improvisational skills in his spare time. He and his fellow elves had not practised the moves that were filmed, he said.

“That’s why the people behind me in the clip are a little bit off, they were actually following what I was doing in a technique called ‘flock of birds’, where you do a simple movement and the rest follow you.”

Rogers said he was hopeful his elf antics would help him move on to the next level in the entertainment industry.