A YOUNG stage star has got his big break months after he was dealt a double blow.

Elliot Allinson, 11, has landed a role in the West End production of Oliver!

The youngster, from Middleton Tyas, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, travels to London about twice a week to perform as one of Fagin’s gang in front of hundreds of people at the Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane.

It has been a remarkable turnaround for Elliot, whose grandfather, Eric, died in December within days of the youngster being told his auditions for a part in the Billy Elliot stage show had been unsuccessful.

But Elliot managed to focus for his successful Oliver! auditions, and now has his sights set on the part of the Artful Dodger.

He said: “I have done about 12 performances now.

“It is hard work getting up early in the morning and not getting home until 2am some nights.

“But when I am getting on stage and doing a good job, and at the end when everyone is clapping and enjoying themselves, it makes me enjoy it.”

Elliot is the latest prospect to emerge from the Stagecoach theatre schools, which operate in Darlington and Yarm, near Stockton.

Trudy Hindmarch, at Stagecoach Darlington, where Elliot attends, said she was stunned by Elliot’s ability to handle the problems that had come his way.

She said: “He’s fab, so switched-on and enthusiastic.

He lifts everyone else in the group and I’m not surprised to see him doing so well.”

Elliot’s mother, Susan, has pledged her support to The Northern Echo’s Keep the Region Flying campaign, which aims to restore flight links between the North-East and London.

Elliot began his West End role on the day airline bmi ended its Heathrow flights from Durham Tees Valley Airport.

It means she has to escort Elliot to the theatre and back every time he makes the trip to London, at her own expense.

She said: “I support the campaign 100 per cent.

“He would have been chaperoned on the aircraft, but instead we have to travel with him, which his expenses do not cover. It is completely worthwhile, but it would have been so much easier had there been flights available to London instead.”