A BOLTON actor will be starring in the final episode of BBC One's adaptation of Jane Eyre next weekend.

Former Rivington and Blackrod High School pupil Andrew Buchan plays Jane's love interest, clergyman St John Rivers, in the last of the four part series.

Andrew was delighted to have been offered the part in Charlotte Bronte's classic story alongside actress Ruth Wilson as Jane. But he had one regret.

"I didn't even get to snog anyone and felt like walking out, " he joked.

"Rivers is a stubborn one, quite uptight, and someone who always keeps things to himself.

"We both have blue eyes but I'm not sure if I match up to the other descriptions of him, the square jaw."

Andrew was in America when his agent offered him the audition for the part.

"I said, Oh come on, this isn't me,' but I went for the audition and I got it. I learned my lines in a bar in Soho, with big bad techno beats in the background which was ridiculous, but I still got the part.

"Filming was hilarious because they got me in all the gear - a massive hat and ruffled shirt - and took me to the middle of Derbyshire.

"All the crew were standing around and the producer held an umbrella over my head and said Welcome, this is your church.'"

His character in the adaptation is a local clergyman who rescues Jane from the moors.

He nurses her back to health and a year later he proposes to her, offering her a life of companionship as a missionary.

Jane finds herself with a dilemma: Should she stay with dependable St John Rivers or go back to Thornfield to face the demons of her past.

Andrew, aged 27, says he returns to Bolton two or three times a year to meet friends.

Brought up in Lostock, he was inspired to get into acting when he was at school but went on to complete a modern languages degree at Durham University.

"My parents persuaded me to do a degree first and I had always been into languages when I was younger. I went to university for the beer really, if you go to uni to study there is something wrong with you," he laughed.

After university and a brief stint as a concierge at the De Vere Whites hotel in Horwich, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London for three years.

He graduated in 2005 and went on to play Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at Manchester Royal Exchange and had a part in If I Had You, an ITV production starring Sarah Parish and Paul McGann.

At present, he is filming a BBC political drama due to be screened in the spring.

Andrew is not ruling out more TV and film work, but theatre is his passion. "If Wesley Snipes phoned me up and asked me if I would like to do a trilogy, I wouldn't say no. But if you train at RADA you are trained for all facets and can't really ignore theatre."

Andrew, who now lives in Shepherds Bush, speaks fondly of his mother who died from cancer in 2000. "The acting is a promise to my mum," he said. "She would be quite weepy now. She was the arty one in the family, Audrey Hepburn meets Joan Collins."

He also said he owes a lot of thanks to his father, who stills lives in Lostock. "Johnny B is something else, he has a bit of magic and has been a rock for me," he said.

Andrew has no plans to settle in Bolton just yet. "It's not that I don't want to come back, I just have to stay in London for auditions. I try to have as many trips home as possible, you can't beat that banter."

The final episode of Jane Eyre, which also features Toby Stephens as Rochester, will be screened at 9pm on BBC One on Sunday and will be repeated on Sunday, October 22 at 5pm.