WHEN Olympic swimmer Adrian Turner announced his retirement from the sport, he barely drew breath before planning his next move.

The 28-year-old Prestwich star has decided to swap the pool for the stage and will be taking an MA course linked to acting academy RADA at King's College in London.

He will be following in the footsteps of such renowned actors as Ralph Fiennes, Anthony Hopkins and Kenneth Brannagh, who all trained at King's College.

Adrian, who won bronze and silver medals for the 200m and 400m individual medleys at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 and qualified for the Great Britain Olympic team last year, will start the one year course in the autumn.

His father Roger said: "When Adrian told us he was going to RADA it didn't mean that much to us at first but his auntie, who has been involved with acting, told us how important it is so we were really impressed.

"He's always been good at public speaking, and when he went back to his old school to speak in front of the pupils the teachers said it was the best one they had ever had."

The former Parrenthorn High pupil is certainly not afraid to try new things. He left Holy Cross College in Bury to study for a psychology degree at the University of Manchester.

After studying Italian part-time at Bury College he moved to Italy to further his studies. He has now passed his exam and will return to the UK this summer.

His mother Joyce said: "When I first heard about the acting I thought what a funny thing'. But he wanted to act when he was at university but didn't have time with all the swimming."

Adrian has also turned his hand to writing. He helped his former housemate Steven Parry, who won bronze at the Athens Olympics for 200m butterfly, to pen his book Mama Parry's Italian Cookbook.

Steven, originally from Liverpool but living in Prestwich, has also announced his retirement. He is involved with swimming clinics and is also co-writing another book with Adrian about the experiences of parents of swimmers.

Mrs Turner has also remained involved with the sport. She takes promising young swimmers between the ages of nine and 12 from all over the north west to swimming classes at Stonyhurst College in Clitheroe where the search goes on for the swimming stars of the future.