A YOUNG actor has been taken under the wing of one of Britain's best known playwrights to complete an acting scholarship and take part in a major production.

Iain Winstanley, a former performing arts student at Accrington and Rossendale College, was chosen after Sir Alan Ayckbourn, famous for plays such as Bedroom Farce, conducted a nationwide search for two budding stars.

The scholarship involves one-on-one training with Sir Alan and Iain is currently in rehearsals with some of the theatre world's best known actors for a revival production of A Chorus of Disapproval, one of the playwright's best known plays.

The new initiative has been set up to give young people who want to carve out a career in acting a broad range of experience in a professional theatre.

Iain, 20, of Prunella Drive, Darwen, said: "When I first found out, I was out of this world. I could not believe how I had ended up working with Sir Alan. It is fantastic.

"I play a chorus part in the production but just to be sitting in rehearsals and mixing with the cast and dealing with proper professional staff is brilliant.

"I was told I was chosen because Sir Alan picked up on my Lancashire accent. He had heard me talking after a production and liked the fact I was not talking about theatre like everyone else but about my home town, which he thought was really natural."

Iain has been studying at Scarborough's Yorkshire Coast College and his talents were spotted by Sir Alan after appearing in a production of Where I Come From at The Stephen Jospeph Theatre, where Sir Alan is artistic director. Iain's proud father Raymond, who has three other sons, said: "I think he has been heading for this for a while.

"We knew he had something special but when he did phone to tell us it was out of the blue. He has done very well and I am very proud of him."

Sir Alan Ayckbourn said: "It's an exciting scheme, I hope, for them and certainly exciting for us"