A THURROCK schoolboy has landed a role of a lifetime as he prepares to play the lead character in Billy Elliot the musical.

Gable Hall School student, George Maguire, 13, from Stanford-le-Hope, was amazed to be picked to share the role along with two other boys after competition from more than 3000 hopefuls.

He will take turns to play the lead role in the £5 million production, which opens in London's Victoria Palace theatre next May.

The show is based on director Stephen Daldry's hit film about a boy from a North East mining village who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer.

George said: "It's just unreal because I didn't think I would get this far. When I saw the film I thought, 'I want to do that', but I never thought I would.

"At the first audition, I walked out with a group of boys who had been asked to leave. I was crying my eyes out on the way home. The next morning my mum told me they had been on the phone saying I wasn't meant to leave. I thought she was pulling my leg."

Though not keen on the idea of learning ballet when he first joined a performing arts school 18 months ago, he soon changed his mind and proved he had a talent for it.

The school put him forward for the audition and after breezing through that, he spent the summer living in London with co-stars Liam Mower, 12, from Hull and James Lomas, 14, from Sheffield while they took part in dance workshops. George said of his co-stars: "We've been getting used to each other. So far things have gone brilliantly."

The young star is no stranger to the world of performing arts, getting his first drum kit at the age of six, singing lessons at 11 years old and joining an acting agency.