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In his first TV acting role, Abdullah Afzal from Cheetham Hill in Manchester plays kung fu-loving, joker Asif.

Describing his character, Abdullah says: "He is always messing about a lot and has a lack of knowledge in some areas and too much knowledge in others.

"He is quite silly and very physically active – he is always jumping around, hiding behind something, always wanting to play. He is like a really immature kid, just like myself."

Asif works in the post room but his family have a totally inflated idea of what his role in Fox Cranford actually is:

"His dad is a bit demanding and thinks Asif is a solicitor, so Asif is always trying to act like he is one not to disappoint him. Whenever his dad is around he is always in some kind of trouble just to keep up the disguise."

Abdullah has some sympathy for Asif's situation as he, too, has ended up in a different career than his family imagined for him:

"I had never done any acting until I was in college, my family didn't support it, they wanted me to be a lawyer just like Asif's dad does. But I'm the kind of guy who wouldn't do any written work and in the drama practicals I always got full marks, everyone wanted me in the group for confidence.

"My dad's really supportive of me now, he knows I won't do anything else so I may as well try and become a big actor or something different. I don't think there has ever been an actor in our family."

Playing Asif has been a complete learning experience for Abdullah both on and off the camera:

"I don't have any scenes with Nigel but we always want to listen to his stories. On the day of the read-through, after every line I looked at him to see what he thought of it. It is kind of a natural reaction.

"Sian as well, I have loads of scenes with her and she is a brilliant actress, I learnt a lot."

Abdullah was also keen to get an insight into other areas of the production process: "I sat down with the sound guy, put the headphones on, did the voice, worked on the camera and lights, everything. It's unbelievable. I just like to do everything to see how it works.

"I love editing, I have a master kit at home. I started off really rubbish with Windows Movie Maker but I'm getting better and I've got a fan base on Facebook."

Abdullah comes from a big family and he wants to use this experience in the future:

"I come from a huge family, I mean, if I walk around I always see one of my relatives somewhere. I've got three brothers and two sisters and they all have about three kids. I'm the baby of the family, but I have half-brothers younger than me.

"I've always wanted to write and I do have an idea of something I would like to make. There are so many things that happen in my household that would never happen anywhere else. I would love to be able to put that down on paper."

But for now Abdullah is determined to make it big in the acting world:

"I've always looked at the big picture and I want to go right to the top straight away, so I'm a big dreamer now. Bond, I could see myself as the next Bond.

"Bond does Bollywood – that would be great."