Acting was the ideal escape route for Jody Latham, even if it meant playing a down-at-heel hero from a Manchester housing estate in C4's Shameless. Steve Pratt reports.

JODY Latham loves where he comes from, Burnley and Nelson in Lancashire, but believes that acting is his way out of there. "I've had no professional training apart from youth theatre. I felt I wanted more out of life. I want to get out of here and get a taste of the real world," he says.

C4's new series Shameless may well open those doors for him. Already Paul Abbott's exuberant drama about a family living on a Manchester estate is being touted as the best series of the year.

Latham, who celebrated his 21st birthday last week, has an extra responsibility. The story of Gallagher family life is semi-autobiographical and the young actor is playing the Abbott character, Philip (or Lip as he's known).

Acting for six years, Latham previously appeared in another hit Abbott series, BBC1's Clocking Off. He has no idea if the writer had anything to do with him being cast in Shameless. "We did nine auditions, and Paul never attended them," he recalls.

Towards the end of the audition process, he was paired off with other young actors being considered to play the Gallagher brothers. Eventually he and Gerard Kearns were cast - and then swapped roles, with Latham as Lip and Kearns playing younger gay brother Ian.

He can spot similarities between him and Lip. "It's the whole story really - the fact that Paul has based it on his life growing up so close to where I did, and on friends who've been in certain situations," he explains.

"It reminded me of my life. Lip is very intelligent and likes to use his talents in school to get himself away from the estate. He doesn't think he's better than everyone else, he just wants something better and bigger opportunities."

Like Lip, Latham wanted to be an architect until he was 12 or 13. The acting began because of problems at school. "I wasn't doing too well," he admits. "My academic skills weren't a problem, but I was a lad, a boyo, and got into bits of troubles and fights.

"I wouldn't accept the authority of the teachers, and was on the verge of being kicked out of school. Mum and dad told me to start doing some after school activities, and then they'd let me do what I wanted to do. I wasn't into football or sport, so I went for acting."

Within a matter of months, he'd been spotted by an agent and appeared in Cops, Coronation Street and Holby City. Best of all was being chosen as one of the leads in Dominic Savage's TV film When I Was 12, which won a Bafta award.

"That was an amazing opportunity at that age to be trusted to do a role like that," he says.

Family and friends saw the first episode of Shameless on a big screen in a bar in his home town. "I'm over the moon with, just chuffed to be part of it," says Latham proudly.

"Lip is essentially Paul Abbott as a child. That gives me that extra bit of proudness because it's Paul's story. He's a genius. As far as scriptwriters are concerned, he's the man."

Latham's happy to add his name to the growing list of writers and actors from Burnley. They include Sir Ian McKellen, Lee Ingleby and John Simm. The latter starred in Abbott's State Of Play on BBC1 last year and is seen as a role model by the young actor. "He's from the next town and I've watched his career in things like The Lakes and Human Traffic," he says.

"One day I was coming back from an audition in London that had gone poo. I was 16 or 17 and thinking it wasn't going to work out for me. Then I read an interview with John Simm in a magazine in which he said if you have any ambition you have to try to get out of Nelson or you'll end up married with two kids. That made me decide not to give up my career acting.

"He's an inspiration. He's a very good friend of Paul's and I'm sure everyone tells him I'm always raving on about him."

The recognition that appearing in such a high profile TV series as Shameless won't be anything new, although he has been "embarrassed" to see his face plastered on big posters for the programme.

"A lot of people know me as being a local actor. I get that everywhere. People are really pleased for me. People my mum's age say, 'you've done really well'. It's been 100 per cent positive feedback."

As for the hardest part of making Shameless, he says it would have been the gay kissing if he'd continued playing Ian. "I can't even say showing my bum because I don't mind getting my clothes off," he says. "The worst thing was getting up very early for four-and-a-half months. I don't usually see much before dinner time, but I was picked up at seven every morning."

He's also enjoyed the fruits of his labours by spending the money he earned from Shameless. "What makes me happy is making family and friends happy, and if that involves me spending my cash, I don't care. Everyone got a treat out of it. I went mad and spent the lot."

* Shameless: Tuesday, C4, 10pm

Published: 22/01/2004