Appearing in his school play has landed 11-year-old Tyger Drew-Honey a starring role in a new BBC sitcom.

Tyger, a pupil at Danes Hill School in Oxshott, appears in comedy Outnumbered alongside comedian Hugh Dennis.

The six-part series depicts the daily chaos of family life for two parents desperately trying to keep three young children in check.

Tyger, from Walton, auditioned for the part of the oldest child, Jake, when he discovered writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, the team behind Drop the Dead Donkey, wanted to use child actors with no formal acting training.

The part is Tyger's big breakthrough, after he was first spotted by an agent performing a comedy role in the school play Treasure Island in 2005.

"The agent was there looking at some other children," said Tyger, "but she asked to speak to me afterwards and asked me if I wanted to join her agency."

Since then, he has done some voice-over work for adverts, and will appear in The Armstrong & Miller sketch show on BBC One when it is shown later this year.

He said he was both excited and nervous about his small screen debut. "I've only seen the pilot episode so I can't wait to see the other episodes," he said.

He said the experience of filming the show was great fun. "Both the audition and the filming involved a lot of improvisation which I'm quite good at and really enjoyed, he said. "Everyone on the set was really nice and I felt really relaxed."

He said he was enjoying his new-found stardom. "It's an insight into celebrity life, to a small extent," he said. "Sometimes my friends say wow you are going to be famous', and other times we act like nothing has happened."

Outnumbered, which began on August 28, runs on consecutive nights on BBC One at 10.35pm.