When 13-year-old Richard Hoyle landed his first television role - in ITV's new police drama series Blue Murder - he had to take on the challenge of playing an autistic boy.

Richard, a pupil at Brighouse High School, auditioned for the role back in January and filmed it in Manchester a month later.

He appears in an episode, due to be shown later this month, about a boy whose father is accused of murdering his mistress. Some of Richard's scenes were filmed with Caroline Quentin, who stars as DCI Janine Lewis in the show.

The youngster plays Fergus, a mute autistic boy.

"It was a big challenge," said Richard, who started performing arts and drama lessons three years ago at Idle-based theatre school Stage 84.

"I didn't know much about autism so I had to learn about it, and about the type of autism that Fergus has. He's mute, so I didn't have any lines, but in a way that was more challenging because I had to act through body language.

"Fergus feels alone, he can't communicate with people and I had to act as if I was thinking to myself all the time and seeing everything in shapes."

Once Richard had landed the part he went to London to meet the cast before filming started. His parents were played by Maggie O'Neill and Leeds actor Ralph Ineson, who played David Brent's mate Finchy in BBC's hit sitcom The Office.

"They were really nice, just down-to-earth and friendly," said Richard. "Caroline Quentin was really helpful too. We all went through the script together and talked about the storyline, I learned a lot from them all."

As well as taking on the challenge of playing an autistic boy Richard had to learn a complicated card game. "It's called Circle Patience. Fergus plays it all the time because it's a game he can play on his own," said Richard.

"I hadn't played it before and had to learn it really quickly."

Stage 84 principal Valerie Jackson said: "Richard beat a lot of children at the auditions to that role. The producers were looking for a quiet child with a stillness about them. He's done so well to land such a big part for his first TV role."

Richard's mum Carole said: "He absolutely loved making it, it will be great to see him on TV."

The new series of Blue Murder starts tonight. It follows a two-part pilot screened last year which attracted 8.5 million viewers, making it ITV's most popular short run drama of 2003.

l Blue Murder is on ITV1 on Mondays at 9pm. The episode Richard is in is due to be shown on September 27.