WHEN Coronation Street first hit the TV screens, David Ross was a young wannabe treading the boards with Blackburn Drama Club.

His talent was spotted by a member of the Moorey family, well known herbalists in the town for over 50 years, and from that unusual beginning his career has blossomed.

Apart from his role in "The Street" as Vera Duckworth's lover Les Fontaine, David has enjoyed considerable success on stage and TV. But, as he told reporter ANDREW BELLARD, it has not all been plain sailing and David is very definitely a graduate of the school of hard knocks.

DAVID Ross was just 18 when he joined Barrow-in-Furness Repertory Company, having got an audition on the recommendation of Frank Moorey.

It was a move that would take David, Blackburn born and bred, all over the country plying his trade in provincial theatres.

He is now a household "face" -- if not name -- with appearances in The Bill, Roger Roger, Casualty, London's Burning and all the Alan Bleasdale productions, including Boys From The Black Stuff and GBH.

He has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Tom Wilkinson, the dance teacher in the hugely successful film The Full Monty, and Richard Briers and had to teach Maureen Lipman how to speak with a Blackburn accent when they starred in Jack Rosenthal's Cold Enough for Snow.

But David is the first to admit that fame and fortune have not come easy and recognises the enormous support he received from friends and family in the early years.

At one time David had to quit the theatre because he could not afford to feed himself. He went from being a starving actor in Manchester to working as a furniture delivery person for his old friend Michael Ellis, who still has business interests in Blackburn. "I simply was not earning enough to live and Michael was good enough to find me work which helped get me back on my feet," said David.

Michael Ellis again came to the rescue when David was working in theatre in Manchester and the engine of his van blew up on his way in.

"Michael kindly paid for the engine to be replaced, which I could not have afforded at the time, and I was able to continue," said David.

"I received a great deal of support from family and friends at a time when making ends meet was the only aim."

Another act of kindness etched on David's memory came from Alan Bleasdale himself. David was touring Australia in the late 1980s with a production of one of the great playwright's dramas.

"I could not afford to bring my then wife and our two children over and when Alan heard about it he paid for them out of his own pocket," said David. "He is a very strong family man and that was something which I will never forget."

David worked extensively in theatres in Manchester, Oldham, Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool during the 80s and made a handful of appearances in the West End. There were occasional TV parts but he feels his career only really took off when he was invited to join the National Theatre in 1990.

"It is all about having your work seen and the National was the place to be," said David. "You can be doing marvellous work in Oldham and Sheffield but if no one in the business sees you it does not help your career."

David took over the role of Ratty in Wind in the Willows from Richard Briers in 1991 and that hugely successful production provided another springboard to his career.

David was the original Kryton in Red Dwarf, a role he had to give up because recording clashed with his theatre commitments at the Old Vic. "You could say fate intervened but I didn't want to spend all that time in all that make-up anyway," said David. "Robert Llewelyn has since gone on to make over 200 appearances as Kryton but I did go back to the show once and played an electric toaster."

Parts such as Mr Bumble in Alan Bleasdale's adaptation of the Dickens classic, Oliver Twist and Baz the postman in Roger Roger -- a new series is planned -- have established David as one of our best-known TV actors. He is now in the position where people approach him with projects and his early days as a struggling young thespian seem a million miles away.

"When I set out I never really thought I would achieve anything and so everything I have achieved feels like a bonus," said David, who has remained loyal to his Blackburn roots despite his star status. He regularly returned to the town to visit his mother Clarice, who died in November aged 91, and will be spending Christmas with his girlfriend Janet Steele, who owns Compliments hairdressers in Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, as well as teaching hairdressing at Accrington and Rossendale College.

The Christmas break will be very welcome for David who, as well as the new series of Roger Roger, will soon be working on a new six-part Alan Bleasdale drama Running Scared. He is also working on a comedy special with Lee Evans, a murder mystery series for the BBC and will next be seen on our screens at Easter when the BBC show a Victorian drama entitled Station Jim, also starring Prunella Scales and Timothy West.

As if being intimate with Vera Duckworth on a pool table was not enough claim to fame for one man, the career and renown of David Ross seem set to continue in the ascendancy.