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WHEN young actor Lee Ingleby signed up for the BBC series Nature Boy, he didn't quite appreciate how much – or how little – he was letting himself in for.

The four-part drama sees Ingleby as troubled teenager David Witton, who is on a quest to find the father who abandoned him at the age of five.

The pilgrimage takes nature-loving David from his home in Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria, through the north east to the Midlands and finally to the fruit orchards of Kent, taking in a kaleidoscope of child abuse, eco-warfare, GM food, New Labour policies and sexual initiation on the way.

But for Ingleby, who grew up in Nelson, Lancashire, those issue-laden scripts also included scenes that scared him half to death.

"I had to be naked," he reveals, clearly embarrassed. "It was my first time doing nude scenes on screen.

"I was really nervous about taking my clothes off, especially as I would be surrounded by all the crew. I had to keep reminding myself that it was just like going to the doctor's; they have seen it all hundreds of times before."

As it turned out, it wasn't any of the sex scenes that really bothered the 23-year-old Ingleby, but a scene at the very beginning of the series when he has to swim naked in the sea off Barrow.

"When we filmed it it was quite a nice day in April but the sea was freezing, freezing cold. The trouble was that because David is meant to be a boy of nature there could be no toe-testing the water first. I had to run straight in until my head was under.

"It literally took my breath away and I remember thinking, what am I doing here? Why did I take this job?'," he laughs.

"But there were paramedics standing by, as well as people with towels and hot drinks. So, apart from shivering for ages afterwards, I was OK."

Now he is worried about his mum and dad seeing the scenes. "When I told my mum I was going to have to strip off she said, 'Ooh, we're not going to see too much, are we'?

"I just warned her not to look. Also, my dad really hates strong language and David does do a bit of swearing. But they understand about acting and they have been very supportive."

Ingleby may be a relatively new face on screen but his work since leaving the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art two years ago has already marked him out as a name to watch.

He was whisked straight from being an impoverished student on to the lavish set of a major Hollywood movie when he landed a role in the revamped story of Cinderella – Ever After – with Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston.

"I had been living on pasta," he admits with a grin. "Next thing I was in a field in France sitting next to Drew Barrymore who gave me a kiss on the lips and offered me a fag. I was a bit star struck and didn't think I ought to mention either ET or the drug problems.

"I played a funny, odd sort of character, a kind of page who becomes Drew's best friend, the Buttons of the piece really. I really enjoyed doing it. It was a love story with lots of humour and very different from the pantomime version of Cinderella we have all got used to."

Ingleby then played a young heroin addict in the acclaimed BBC Education series Junk, which was later shown on BBC 2.

"The only trouble is that I always seem to be playing people with problems," he says. "It would be nice to have a bit of a laugh. But then I have learned such a lot and doing these really dramatic roles has been great."

Ingleby is full of praise for Brian Wellock, the drama teacher he had at school in Nelson who pushed him towards a career as an actor.

"He did the same for John Simm, who was at the same school and has since starred in The Lakes and Clocking Off," he says.

"He became a friend rather than a teacher. I really respected him and he pushed me to go college and then to drama school."

Now Ingleby has bought his first home in London's Shepherd's Bush and he will soon be seen with Michael York in the British film Borstal Boy, an adaptation of Brendan Behan's semi autobiographical novel.

"I know I've been very lucky," he says. "I have friends I was at drama school with who are still waiting for that first important job to get them going. It has all happened so fast and yet I am still able to live my life with very few people ever recognising me.

"During Nature Boy I did a scene with Joanne Froggatt who was Zoe in Coronation Street. Suddenly she was surrounded by people calling her by her Street name and I thought then how really annoying that must be.

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This page was last updated February 27, 2003

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