Keighley actor Mo Manir banked on not getting muddy as he found himself tip-toeing through a game of rugby.

He was one of five people from West Yorkshire chosen to star in a new Abbey National TV advertisement.

Mo, 41, of Drake Street, Showfield, took part in the filming last week and the ad will be shown in April.

"Five of us were playing rugby in slow motion so we didn't get our clothes dirty. I've never played rugby in my life before this," he says.

Abbey National is making about four commercials featuring people chosen during auditions across the country.

Mo is no stranger to the camera after playing small roles in Where The Heart Is, Brookside and Hollyoaks.

He has now decided to turn down such "walk-on" appearances because they are counting him out of bigger parts.

Mo says producers rarely book actors for a regular role if they have appeared in the same series as cameo characters like doctors.

Father-of-three Mr Manir, pictured right, graduated as a broadcast actor from Bretton Hall College, Wakefield, almost two years ago.

He had appeared as a travel agent in a Crimewatch reconstruction during his three years of study.

Since then Mr Manir has appeared in Channel 4 soaps Brookside and Hollyoaks, and YTV drama Where The Heart Is.

He has also been an extra in programmes such as Dalziel and Pascoe, Emmerdale, Casualty and Clocking Off.

Mr Manir says: "Nine times out of ten I'm a doctor, a policeman or a waiter. It's really nothing big.

"I'm seeking an agency who can put me forward with some proper roles, in programmes like the Bill, Coronation Street, Goodness Gracious Me, where there are a lot of Asian actors.

"There's a definite demand for Asian actors, but there are a lot of people chasing parts. A lot of it is who you know."

Mr Manir reached the last three in auditions to play an Indian takeaway boss in the latest Burger King commercial, but was told the company needed someone "older and fatter".

He also auditioned as the sole Pakistani soldier in the acclaimed new Ridley Scott movie Black Hawk Down.

Mr Manir has wanted to be a professional actor for many years and in the late 1980s appeared in amateur productions with Keighley Playhouse.

After leaving Oakbank School in 1977 he took a textile apprenticeship and later worked as a lorry driver.

He was a special constable in Keighley through most of the 1980s but had to be pensioned off due to back injuries sustained chasing a suspect.

Mr Manir is a community representative for Keighley Single Regeneration Budget and a member of the management committee for Sangat Community Association.