The real-life mum of Coronation Street's little David Platt today spoke of her pride at her son's role in the soap story of the year.

Janet Shepherd says the family in Pudsey goes through all the emotions when her 14-year-old son Jack is on-screen. And never more so than last night when Gail finally found out the truth about evil Richard Hillman - watched by children David and Sarah-Louise, played by Tina O'Brien - in an episode which caused a 1,200-megawatt power surge across the country as the huge number of viewers made drinks at the end of the programme.

"It has been a tremendous storyline," said Mrs Shepherd, pictured with Jack."Everyone is talking about it like nothing else. It has been such a big role for Jack.

"To think that when he started we had no idea how big his character would become."

And she reckons her son has learned a lot from actor Brian Capron who plays the evil killer Richard Hillman in the storyline which has gripped the nation.

Mrs Shepherd is constantly on-set at Granada as her son, a former pupil at Idle-based Stage 84, has been at the centre of the unfolding drama in the Platt household - the climax of his three-year stint on the hit show.

"Brian is a joker off-set and a really lovely man who took Jack under his wing a lot," she said. "But on-screen he is the pure professional and becomes this totally convincing complex character. Jack has taped last night's programmes to watch Brian's performance because he reckons he can learn so much from it.

"I am so proud of him. I get involved but not as much as his dad does. If Jack cries, his dad cries. He's hardly stopped these past few months!"

Away from the Street, Jack lives at the family home with elder brother Tom, who is 19, and sister Amy, 17. He attends the Intake Performing Arts centre where former Spice Girl Mel B was an ex-pupil and has a tutor at Coronation Street.

But his mum reckons he owes his career to the starspotters at Stage 84. "They got him motivated and switched on whereas he wasn't finding that at school," she said.

But for now, all eyes in the Shepherd household are on the soap, along with millions of TV viewers.

After this week Richard goes on the run and there's a big climax building up involving the Platt family. The youngsters are bound and gagged as the family people carrier is driven into the canal.

Mrs Shepherd was there for the filming of the dramatic scenes in the water.

"Jack was asked 'Can you swim?' The next thing was this storyline. It's so well done I was wondering, will he survive?"

And for the future?

"So long as he is happy, then I want Jack to carry on. I asked him if he wanted a 'normal' life and he laughed and said no.

"He is very, very happy in Corrie, his acting ability is being pushed to the limit."