ACTOR Andrew Buchan found out that he had scooped a prestigious theatre award — by text message.

Bolton-born Andrew won the Best Actor in a Visiting Production award at the MEN Theatre Awards for his role as David Beeves in Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All The Luck at the Lowry.

The awards were presented in an afternoon ceremony at the Midland Hotel on Tuesday.

But as he is currently in London filming the second series of The Fixer for ITV1 he was unable to make it to the ceremony.

“I found out that I’d won on the afternoon of the awards as the texts started coming through,” he said. “It felt really good.

“I’m filming at the minute and so I couldn’t even go up, which was frustrating and annoying. It’s my first ever award and I really wanted to be there but there was no way in the world I could make it.”

However, Andrew, who also appeared in the BBC's adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford last year, dismissed the idea of pre-recording a video message in case he won as “a bit Paula Abdul”.

Set in Midwest America, The Man Who Had All The Luck centres on David, whose life is blessed with good fortune.

But as the lives of those around him begin to crumble, he starts to question his own destiny.

See full story in The Bolton News