BUDDING actor Austin Leigh Bretherton has gone from sales to stage in a bid to boost his chosen career.

Austin, 20, of Horning Crescent, Burnley, has given up his full-time job as a sales manager at a call centre in Colne to devote all his time to acting.

It immediately paid dividends when he was one of only 30 from 900 applicants chosen for a place on a three-year course at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London, starting next month. He has signed with an agent in London and in five weeks time will be seen on television in a walk-on part in an episode of Brookside.

Austin said: "It was recorded at Mersey TV in Liverpool and it was pretty exciting stuff, watching the stars doing their job. That's very much the way I want to go, what I want to do."

Austin joked that his mum Irene used to say he was a dreamer but now she fully supports his determined bid to make acting his career. He added: "My family has absolutely no background in drama but I have known for some time that it is really the thing that I want to do."

Austin attended Habergham High School and Sixth Form centre, Burnley, and began his acting career with Manchester Youth Theatre. He will appear in their next production at the Lowry Centre, Salford.