A YOUNG actress who began her acting career in Atworth has won the lead in a new film, released today.

Romola Garai, 20, took on her first roles on stage at Stonar School and can now be seen in I Capture the Castle.

She said: "It is great to be working. If you act, you are prepared for bouts of sitting in front of daytime TV when you are not working but I have been lucky.

"The problem is that the moment you achieve one goal, more seem to appear, which keep you striving to stay busy."

The actress was seen on the small screen last year when she played Gwendolen Harleth in the BBC's costume drama Daniel Deronda.

Her first big break came playing the part of work experience girl Zoe in the internet office drama Attachments.

She then played the long-lost daughter of ex-EastEnder Michelle Collins in the drama Perfect in 2001, before being given her first major role in The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, playing a younger version of the character played by Dame Judi Dench.

I Capture the Castle is based on a novel by Dodie Smith, who also wrote The 101 Dalmatians.

The story is told through the eyes of Miss Garai's character Cassandra Mortmain, the daughter of a family living in an old castle in the 1930s.

The eccentric family has not paid any rent for the past two years and their world is disrupted when their new landlord, Simon Cotton, and his brother arrive.

Cassandra withdraws into her diary but is soon drawn into the turmoil when she falls in love with Simon.