A schoolboy who wowed millions of viewers on a hit television show is now back with a second series.
Michael Selwood will star in the new series of the Oscar and Michael’s Phineas and Ferb Fan Club Show, which returned to the Disney Channel on Good Friday.
The 11-year-old from Benson, near Wallingford, beat hundreds of other youngsters in auditions for the part last year.
The first series was watched by more than 2.2 million children in the UK.
Michael, who started acting at the age of six at the Thames Valley Drama School in Wallingford, said he jumped at the chance to front another 12 programmes.
He said: “I really enjoy acting. It’s great fun.
“The show is about two boys who are ‘boredom fighters’. They try lots of different things. It’s all about trying to be creative in the summer holidays and doing fun and interesting things in a positive way.
“We have made a time machine, a garden maze, a robot and a volcano.”
He added: “I’ve learned a lot about acting, and other things like graphics and special effects.
“I also know that it takes a lot of people to make a show.
“It’s weird seeing yourself on television, but I feel like I have accomplished something.”
Already an old hand at television, Michael appeared in the Channel 4 drama Long Walk to Finchley, about Margaret Thatcher, has done several short films, been on stage in London in Hecuba, and played in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
He lives with his mother Heather, 44, father Chuck, and 16-year-old brother Dominic.
Mrs Selwood said: “We are really proud. Seeing the edited work was brilliant.
Michael was always a natural actor. He loved putting on plays at home on his own when he was young.”
Michael has now set his sights on Hollywood and says he would love to one day play the ultimate role – James Bond.
Jonathon Boseley, head of UK programming for the channel, said: “Phineas and Ferb has a huge following in the UK, and Oscar and Michael’s Phineas and Ferb Fan Club Show taps into this.
“We’ve added a new dimension this season with a character who resembles Candace from the show, and the storylines are even more imaginative.”
wallingford@oxfordmail.co.uk
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