North-East celebrity couple Jill Halfpenny and Craig Conway spare a thought for the actors of tomorrow.

AS a founder member of Newcastle's Northern Stage ensemble actor Craig Conway is well aware of the importance of supporting new young talent. His Gateshead fiancee Jill Halfpenny started her acting career at the age of six and joined BBC1's Byker Grove at the age of 13 as Nicola Dobson. Having just announced a wedding to be fitted in next year between TV and film roles and a panto run of Jack & The Beanstalk at Newcastle's Theatre Royal, the couple turned their thoughts to youngsters setting out on the same precarious route to stardom.

Craig agreed to host the annual National Theatre's Shell Connections celebration of youth theatre which will feature nine schools and performing arts groups between Friday and Sunday. Craig says of the three-day event, featuring hour-long plays commissioned for young people: "This is a chance to promote young performers and new writing and it's connecting theatres all over the country. It's a real chance for Newcastle Theatre Royal (which is hosting the event) to promote new talent and new writing.

"What's great is that there's tickets for the public to come along and witness some stars of the future. There's a real good old mix of children and those up to the age of 18."

Jill, who has joined the likes of Ant and Dec and Donna Air in achieving fame through Tyneside-filmed Byker Grove, adds: "Byker was a fantastic outlet for children as far as TV goes so I hope now that the BBC has announced that Byker is being stopped that youngsters don't think 'oh no, there's nothing left'. There has always been the theatre, so children shouldn't be afraid about going along to watch as much as they can.

"There are so many young kids interested in performing that Newcastle would really benefit from having a national youth theatre like they have in Manchester."

The groups appearing at Newcastle are: Newcastle College Performance Academy (two groups), Dipton's Theatre Cap-A-Pie and schools from Stockton's (Ian Ramsey CofE), Shotton, Wickham, Nunthorpe, Stokesley and South Shields (St Wilfrid's RC). The event opens at 6pm on Friday and runs from 10.30am on Saturday and noon on Sunday. Feather Boy on Friday features lyrics by Don Black and music by Debbie Wiseman. With six scripts to choose from, Stokesley School are the only group taking on TV and theatre funnyman Ken Campbell's co-scripted odyssey School Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Watch out for them on Sunday.

* As the Theatre Royal 'goes dark' between July and October for a £4 million refurbishment, heartening news came this week that Jill and Craig's name on the panto cast list has helped push ticket sales for the Dec 11-Janury 20 run to 37,000 - meaning almost half the seats for the show are gone already.

* Jill is destined to wear an X-Men-style outfit "like Halle Berry's Storm" to transform her into the panto character Mother Nature.

* Craig is playing the Giant's henchman Snot Gobbler in the panto but has a rival attraction on TV over Christmas. He's playing the character Chickenwire in an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's book Hogfather to be shown on Sky. "I can't wait to see it on the telly," he laughs.

* In the autumn Craig stars as guest baddie Jason Eagley who seems to have the upper hand over fellow Geordie Robson Green's character Prof Hill in ITV1's popular Wire In The Blood series. Meanwhile, Jill is about to film the follow-up series to BBC1's school drama Waterloo Road.