FORGET Coronation Street and EastEnders. Andrew Falvey appears in the soap with the biggest audience in the world and it's not set in Weatherfield or Walford.

Ratings for these rival British soaps lag far behind those of Westway, which boasts an audience of 35 million listeners on the BBC World Service.

Falvey - currently rehearsing for a revival of Pilot Theatre's Lord Of The Flies in York - has been in the cast for seven years playing Ned, who's seen his dad have affairs, his mum leave his dad and Ned himself come out of the closet. "I get fan mail from all over the world. Now I'm getting letters from Sierra Leone asking for pictures of Ned's boyfriend," he says.

The soap, which has recently celebrated its 700th episode, is broadcast in the early hours of the morning on BBC Radio 4 as well as on the World Service. For Falvey, the commitment is four days recording a month, which can usually be fitted around his other acting work.

Until next March, this involves playing Ralph in the touring revival of Lord Of The Flies, Pilot's award-winning production based on William Golding's novel about castaway schoolboys turning native after their plane crashes on a deserted island.

The actor - at 26, the oldest member of the cast - already has two Pilot productions to his credit at York Theatre Royal, a/s/l? age sex location and the stage adaptation of Melvyn Burgess's novel Bloodtide.

He hasn't seen previous Lord Of The Flies productions, although he studied the book for his GCSEs and has always wanted to play Ralph, who becomes the leader on the island. "I can identify with a lot of his characteristics and morals," he explains.

"He's the natural choice for leader. He's aware that people believe in him and gather round him. He has this sensible streak that knows they need to build shelters and light fires in order to be rescued. He's still very much a boy and saying to the hunters, who're going off to hunt pigs, that there's a lot of him that wants to join in and let loose."

He has become used to the energetic, athletic, almost filmic Pilot style of production that calls for stamina and agility as every corner of the multi-level set is covered by the actors. Falvey had never thought of himself as that sort of physical actor until he joined Pilot, but it's something he enjoys now. From what he says, the hour of yoga before rehearsals has been the hardest thing to get used to.

"I think if I was in that situation like Ralph I wouldn't be one who turned into a savage. I would be one who kept a clear head and said, 'We need to be rescued'."

What happens to the boys in Lord Of The Flies hasn't put him off islands. He's thinking about going somewhere nice, maybe an island in Thailand, during the Christmas break from the tour.

Joining Pilot for a/s/l? last year provided a welcome acting role after a lean spell of unemployment. "It kind of changed my year. I was doing a temp job and not enjoying life very much," he says. "I liked doing that play and made some good friends. York is like a second home now."

Falvey owes his playwriting uncle for his introduction to the stage. The first play, a version of Scrooge, saw eight-year-old Andrew performing in his front room in front of an audience of family and friends. The plays continued and after one production, in which his sister was being marked as part of her GCSEs, the teacher suggested Falvey was good enough to make a career as an actor.

Local drama classes led to him attending Sylvia Young's stage school in London for eight years. He was sent for an audition on the first day and got the job - saying "Amazing" in a TV commercial for Shreddies.

The transition to adult acting was tricky until he changed agencies. "You start to question whether it's the right career when you go for a few auditions and get no feedback. Some temp jobs had the possibility of becoming permanent which made me think about continuing acting," he says.

"Then you do a job like Lord Of The Flies, which is special. I'm having such a good time and playing a character I've always wanted to play."

His temp job, for a ticket agency, did have compensations as he worked abroad in Portugal in the box office for Euro 2004 and got to see all the games for nothing.

It's helped keep his feet on the ground. He's seen how other stage school youngsters have reacted badly to a degree of fame. "Seeing how it affected people, I've always wanted to stay as down to earth as possible. I did a TV thing called Johnny And The Dead with Brian Blessed and George Baker when I was in TV magazines and that. When that happens, you have to enjoy it as much as you can. And if I can do things like Lord Of The Flies for however long I want to, I'd be pretty happy."

l The Lord Of The Flies is at York Theatre Royal from next Tuesday to October 2. Tickets (01904) 623568.