WHEN actor Jack P Shepherd was growing up he thought the world was against him.

"I was a shy child and wouldn't speak to anyone, I used to hide in my bedroom," he says. "It was drama that turned me around."

Jack attended drama lessons at Idle theatre school Stage 84 and aged 12 he landed the role of David Platt in Coronation Street. He has since become one of the soap's biggest stars and was at the centre of its recent live episode, celebrating the 60th anniversary of ITV.

As fiery David Platt, Jack has been involved in some of Corrie's most explosive storylines over the past decade or so, not least pushing his mother, Gail, down the stairs and ending up tied up in a car driven by serial killer Richard Hillman into the Manchester Ship Canal.

Now Jack, 27, is helping other youngsters learn the drama skills that changed his own life. This weekend sees the launch of 13 Performing Arts School, a new theatre school he's setting up in his home town of Pudsey. It follows the success of his Manchester theatre school, set up in 2013, which his six-year-old daughter attends.

"We were looking for a drama school for our little girl and couldn't really find what we wanted so we thought we'd open our own!" said Jack, who has two children with, Nyla and Reuben, with fiancee Lauren Shippey. "We started in Manchester with 13 kids and now we have over 100, it's going really well.

"We run classes in acting, singing and dancing, although they don't have to take all three, and the ages range from three to 17. The older ones do LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) exams and we've had a distinction in every one. Some of them are going on to apply for drama school, with ambitions to work as professional actors, and we're being approached by casting directors for TV work.

"Even if they don't go on to pursue a career in it, drama is great for building confidence, self discipline and motivation in children and teenagers. I remember how much it helped me.

"It's rewarding seeing the kids learn new skills and develop their confidence. You watch them grow. We get parents saying: 'I've got my child back - he talks to me again'."

Jack is hands-on in drama classes. "We're setting up an eight-week course on Saturday, leading up to Christmas, then from January we're run a drama school every Saturday," he says. "I'll be there every week, teaching. It's something I didn't think I'd be able to do but I love it. I like putting them on the spot; throwing in some improvisation and seeing where they go with it.

"We'll put on a show at the end of the course, it gives them experience of performing for an audience."

Jack has been in Coronation Street since 2000 and has won awards including 'Best Villain' at the British Soap Awards, for his portrayal of David.

Now married with two young children, David has settled into domesticity and taken on a responsible parenting role in the wake of wife Kylie's erratic behaviour. But in the dramatic live episode, shown last month, he covered up for Kylie killing bad boy Callum in their living-room, where he'd been attacking David's sister Sarah. Unable to remove the body from the house, David and Kylie buried him beneath the garage extension and watched helplessly as the secret shallow grave was covered with concrete by local builders.

The Platts' united front is on shaky ground, with Sarah becoming increasingly unstable, threatening to go to the police, and letting details slip to concerned local vicar, Billy.

"David's been holding it together but Sarah's all over the place and it's making him panic, and now Kylie's not coping either," says Jack. "Who knows which way it could go? We may well see a return to evil David, he'll have to take the reins and do what it takes to keep him and Kylie together."

Jack enjoyed the live episode, and has now appeared in all three of Corrie's live specials. In the first, celebrating the 40th anniversary in 2000, he was in the opening scene, kicking a football against the Kabin wall.

"I love the live episodes, the adrenaline is pumping and you just go with it," says Jack. "It's nothing like theatre because you're performing for an audience of millions. In this recent one I had one minute and 10 seconds to get from the Platt's back garden to the living-room set for my next scene - I had to leg it across the studio.

"I'm just thankful I didn't make any mistakes. It went really well, we had an amazing reaction. Everyone worked so hard, there was a big party afterwards which we all needed."

* 13 Performing Arts School opens at Fulneck School in Pudsey on Saturday. For more information call 07739 650083.