Soap addicts will soon have no trouble remembering the smiling face of this youngster.

In a few months time, it will be flashed on screen to millions of viewers across the country at least four evenings a week.

Twelve-year-old Jack Shepherd, from Pudsey, has beaten dozens of young hopefuls to step into the limelight and play the role of David Platt, Gail and Martin Platt's son, walking TV's most famous cobbles in Coronation Street.

But his leap to prospective stardom started just two years ago.

Struggling with his schoolwork, Jack found his forte after attending a summer course at Bradford-based drama school Stage 84 in August 1998. In his first year, he was named as most promising student of 1998 and was presented with an award from the Lord Mayor of Bradford.

School principal and Jack's agent, Valerie Jackson, said she was immediately knocked out with his talent.

"From the first time I saw Jack, I realised he had great potential and star quality," she said.

"I'd gone down to have a look at the children and their progress and got them to do an improvisation and I just thought: 'What a talent'. I'm delighted for him."

Jack's face will already be a familiar face to some.

His previous roles have included Carl Smith in YTV's Where the Heart Is, the This is Personal hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, playing the part of young Christopher Oldfield, and the children's drama Wilmot. Closer to home, he played Bugsy Malone and Just William at Bradford's Alhambra Theatre in 1998 and Kipper in last year's performance of Oliver.

And he has already worked with one member of the Corrie cast -his new on-screen sister Sarah-Louise (Tina O'Brien) who plays a pregnant 13-year-old. The two youngsters starred together in Clocking Off, playing the children of one of the soap's former actresses, Sarah Lancashire.

Jack will replace Thomas Ormson, nine, whose parents decided it was time for him to leave the Street and concentrate on schooling and his first love - football.

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