MEETING Des O’Malley there is no doubt that the young actor will be able to portray the youthful exuberance of Danny, Roald Dahl’s pheasant-poaching, eponymous hero of Danny The Champion Of The World.

The 22-year-old from Chorley has already appeared at the Octagon in their gritty production of Bill Norton’s Spring and Port Wine.

The young actor says that Danny The Champion Of The World is a complete contrast to that role.

“Spring And Port Wine was much more of a kitchen sink, realist setting,” he said. “In Danny you need to be a bit more exaggerated to get the story across — there’s a real magical side of it that’s great coming up to Christmas.

“It is set around a father and son who are very poor in the 1950s, but it is also very much a proper ensemble piece with a strong storytelling element and a lot of audience interaction.”

The play features some minor deviations from Dahl’s well-loved novel, but still centres around Danny and his father and their battle against the evil landowner, Mr Hazell.

With the help of Sergeant Samways, Doc Spencer and a bucket load of very special raisins the pair set out to humiliate him once and for all.

“I did read Danny The Champion Of The World when I was in school,” says Des. “It was one of Dahl’s books that I really enjoyed — he was a fantastic storyteller with a great imagination.

“Danny is very different to any other role I’ve played. I’ve been watching children and what they do when they’ve got some sort of greatness — like their reaction to a present or something exciting that’s happened.

“They’re not like grouchy teenagers, and if you play them with that ‘not bothered’ attitude it becomes very one dimensional.

“It’s about believing in the text and committing to the performance, even though you might feel silly at first — because if you don’t commit then you’re going to end up looking silly on stage anyway.

“There’s a lot of imagination goes into the show, and if you believe in the performance that you’re giving then everyone else is going to. It’s a great show for Christmas.”

Des is clearly not afraid of taking challenging roles. Although he has appeared in the audience-friendly My Spy Family, playing “a geek who was really into star wars”, and appeared in a pilot for a show called runners where he played a young runner who gets sent on loads of embarrassing jobs, “like buying bras for girl band The Saturdays”, he has also taken on a number of potentially controversial roles.

One of these was the Johnny Cash Hijack Roadshow, a radio play for BBC Four’s Friday Play which aired last week.

“I played a lad with learning difficulties who gets caught up in stealing a tanker during the oil strikes,” said Des.

He also has another role lined up for straight after in Absolutely Frank at the Oldham Coliseum, directed by Noreen Kershaw who directed Spring And Port Wine.

The play is a two hander with Geoffrey Hughes — best known for his role as Eddie Yeats in Coronation Street.

“It’s the complete opposite from Danny where you’ve got that exuberant, magical element,” says Des. “With Absolutely Frank you’re very much going back to that very realistic drama.”

• Danny The Champion Of The World opens tomorrow and runs until Saturday, January 17.