Aussie comedy creator Chris Lilley, 39, takes on the starring role of a teenage temptress

IT’S the type of role that many young actors hanker for – a pivotal part in a hotly-tipped new TV series playing opposite an attractive, young starlet.

But for the previously-unknown teenage boy playing the love interest of the titular lead in BBC3’s Ja’mie: Private School Girl, there were some shocks in store.

Primarily, that the “starlet” in question was actually 39-year-old Chris Lilley, the Australian writer and comedian behind cult TV comedies Summer Heights High and Angry Boys.

“The funny thing is that the young guy who plays the boyfriend did his audition and thought he was in a cool new drama series,” explains Lilley, who is also the creator of the mockumentary We Can Be Heroes.

“I’m sure in his mind, he was probably like, ‘I’m probably going to be in some cool show with some cool good-looking girl’. I said (to my colleagues), ‘Can you tell him in the final audition that it’s me playing the girl and get it on camera?’ “His face dropped and went another colour. Then he said he’d still do it and I just thought, ‘Poor guy’.

They have some pretty intimate moments.”

Part of that intimacy sees Ja’mie and her sweetheart snuggling up on a couch under a blanket together, which is “a little weird”, admits Lilley.

While the young actor playing Ja’mie’s crush (Lester Ellis Jr) may be left a little red-faced by some of the scenes, Lilley insists that he too has his fair share of uncomfortable sequences, including a few dance numbers.

“It’s so nerve-racking doing the dancing scenes,”

he says. Thankfully, he had his teenage nieces for inspiration. “I rehearsed the dances privately because I’m really bad at remembering moves,” he adds.

In the six-part series, spoilt Ja’mie’s in her element as she approaches her final few months at the prestigious Hillford Girls Grammar, after enduring the trials of Summer Heights High public school.

The demanding queen bee has set her sights on winning the prestigious Hillford Medal given to the Best Girl in Year 12, and she has some pretty unique catchphrases. “Ja’mie’s invented a way to describe herself which is ‘quiche’, and that basically means more than hot,” he says.

Lilley was surprised by the attention the expression received after the series was shown in Australia.

“You never know which phrases will take off when you’re writing,” he explains, confessing that he had some T-shirts printed with Quiche written on them. “It’s funny because in Australia, that word went crazy and was trending on Twitter, but it was spelt ‘keesh’ as well as ‘quiche’.

“It’s fun to think of people saying ‘quiche’ in the UK. That would be really cool.”

Lilley wasn’t taught alongside girls until his late teens. “I went to a private boys’ school and then the girls came in the last couple of years.”

But those few years proved to be a fertile ground.

“I went to school with a lot of Ja’mies,” he says.

“I’ve been to reunions and they love Ja’mie and think I based her on them.

“They’re completely flattered by recognising themselves. That happens a lot. The girls all want to be Ja’mie because she’s such an awesome person.

She’s a leader, she’s so powerful and she does fun things.”

  • Ja’mie: Private School Girl: Thursday, BBC3, 10pm