A YOUNG actor has experienced the glamour of seeing himself on the silver screen at a special film premiere.

Darwen’s Iain Winstanley walked the red carpet at Manchester Printworks with Eastenders star Todd Carty and Red Dwarf star’s Norman Lovett after gaining a lead role in the latest project from the British Youth Film Academy.

The initiative has seen over 300 youngsters work with actors to create the family comedy film The School That Roared.

The film tells the tale of a gang of pupils who take their teachers hostage and declare their school an independent country.

Former St Bede's pupil Iain plays Captain Monty, a 15-year-old who thinks he is a 1930s army officer and takes on the British army with a spud cannon.

Iain, 24, was offered an audition through his links with Accrington and Rossendale College, where he studied performing arts.

He said: "Filming took place almost two years ago so I was younger then but it was still very strange to be back in uniform.

"I am just lucky to have such a baby face that I could still pass for 15."

Iain, of Prunella Drive, Darwen, has been a working actor for the past four years.

He trained in Scarborough after winning a scholarship.

This included one-one tuition with Sir Alan Ayckbourn, after the playwright conducted a nationwide search for two budding stars.

Iain, whose father is a cabaret singer, said: "There is something about performing, the processing of becoming a different person by changing my walk, my voice, even the way I sit that I find exciting.

"It was a big decision to go from amateur to professional but I know I made the right choice."

BYFA projects are set up to help give youngsters the chance to try professional film-making.

The School that Roared premiered earlier this month.