Barns Green performer stars in bold TV drama

Daniel Costello, 20, plays the character Will Brown in PREMature, a new experimental drama that begins on Sunday, February 22 (10pm).

The show is set to air on Community Channel (Sky 539, Freeview 63, Freeview HD 109, Virgin Media 233 and TVPlayer).

PREMature is set in Greater West London and presents the powerful story of a high school loner called Prem, played by Karanvir Bhupal, who discovers the harsh reality of growing up.

It uses an intimate shooting style that’s partly influenced by the gritty realism of Dogme filmmaking. The show also contains surreal and sometimes bizarre sequences.

Daniel, who is studying psychology at Oxford Brookes University, described his character to the County Times: “On the surface Will’s just a young lad who hasn’t got a huge amount of weight behind him.”

He continued: “He’s internally very strong. He fights a lot of demons and has to look after himself and he always has done. He was forced to grow up very quickly in a home with a mother who was suffering from her own problems and he had take care of her at the same time. So in a way he’s wise and older beyond his years.”

Daniel added: “It sounds a bit corny but at first I thought of Will as a character. The more and more I went into this part the more I realised he’s a real person. I kind of developed a new side of myself for him.”

Daniel is looking forward to seeing the finished product on TV and he’s enthusiastic about the performances of his co-stars.

“All of the actors in this series are unbelievable,” said Daniel. “They’re all new actors and I can’t wait for people to see them on telly because they really are cracking people, especially Karanvir.”

Daniel discovered his passion for acting during his education at Hurstpierpoint College.

“I wasn’t really into drama that much when I was younger,” he said. “The first thing I ever did was I played a duck in Jack and The Beanstalk when I was at William Penn School in Coolham.”

Hurstpierpoint College offered a lot more drama opportunities and one evening Daniel was given the choice between going to an audition or doing some homework.

Understandably, Daniel picked the audition and ended up getting the part of Dandy Dan in Bugsy Malone.

His drama teacher watched the performance and urged Daniel to apply for a drama scholarship.

“I loved it so much that I went for it,” said Daniel. “Got the drama scholarship and that just kind of lead me into the whole drama department of Hurstpierpoint, which just grew and grew while I was at the college.”

Daniel took part in one or two plays every term, which included shows like The Sound of Music and Closer.

“We were always surrounded by an amazing team of teachers,” said Daniel. “One of my teachers, Mr Beeby, who was sort of my idol for drama, helped me out a lot. Then a new drama teacher Mr Smith – Andrew Smith – came into the school and he actually helped me with the audition piece for PREMature, just over two years ago.”

Daniel auditioned at the West London-based Liger Television Studio and was ecstatic to learn that he’d got the part.

He said: “To be honest with you, this is like the biggest thing I’ve ever done. I love it. I absolutely love it.”

He continued: “I definitely want to take this a lot further. I’ve got an agent at the moment in London. I’m with Bloomfields Welch agency and they’re finding auditions for me and things like that. My kind of long-term prospect would be to try and move into the American film and TV industry because they’ve got so much scope to just push you out there, and then continue with British and English film.”

Daniel admires the way PREMature’s director, writer and producer Rohith S. Katbamna has helped uncover new talent.

He said: “If I could establish myself, that would be what I’d want to do – carry on Rohith’s work of helping to establish actors who are starting out like I am.”

To find out more about PREMature visit the show’s website here.