IAN Kershaw is a familiar face on the small screen.

If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell – then his picture should.

Ian swapped acting many years ago for a role creating characters rather than portraying them, penning scripts for theatre and radio and being nurtured by the BBC Writers Academy.

“If you prove yourself then they might let you do TV,” he explains.

Now an award-winning writer his modern take on Cinderella staged as Lancaster’s Dukes theatre's festive treat is gaining plenty of critical and audience acclaim.

However, there are two special people Ian particularly wanted to impress – the daughters he shares his home with alongside his actress wife, Julie Hesmondalgh, best known for playing one of the nation's favourite soap characters, Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street.

“In the conventional story, I think Cinderella is quite a wet character but I wanted to write her as a girl who likes climbing trees and sees the world through the same eyes as my daughters who are 13 and 10,” continues Ian.

Although these days a well established stage, radio and television writer, Cinderella is the first Christmas show he’s attempted.

“I went back to the original fairytale and took elements that excited me and removed bits that didn’t.”

His goal though is to do the best he can for the audience.

"The big thing with me is that I want people to be entertained at the theatre. I appreciate that people have turned off their TVs, got their coats on, and put cash in their pockets to go out and see a play.

"I try to entertain them and give them a good time."

Ian’s Cinderella is the story of gutsy teenager, Ella, who lives on a northern farm with a stepmother and sisters, recently relocated from Essex, who make her life a misery.

As Ella dreams of a better world, news hits of a party at the palace – is this the ticket to her future?

Performed in The Round at The Dukes, the laughter-laden, big hearted theatrical treat also features animal puppets which delight the audience as do the catchy songs which Ian has written the lyrics for – another first for him.

Although he now has a successful career as a writer, Oldham born Ian says he didn’t visit a theatre until he was 21.

“I saw Richard Harris in a play and that was it. The very next day I packed in my job as a joiner and enrolled on a performing arts course.”

After training at The Royal Welsh College Of Music and Drama, Ian worked as an actor, mainly on television, before becoming a writer and he’s never looked back.

He's had several minor roles in Coronation Street (as a journalist and solicitor), Brookside, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Hillsborough, The Grand, Grafters, Casualty, City Central, Clocking Off, Sweet Medicine, Emmerdale, Christmas Lights, Fat Friends, Heartbeat, New Street Law and Jane Hall.

However, his talent for writing shone through and courtesy of the BBC academy he cut his scriptwriting teeth on Doctors, before getting work on episodes of Holby City, Eastenders, Casualty, Shameless and Death In Paradise.

Earlier this year, he saw his film Castles In The Sky, starring Eddie Izzard as the father of radar, broadcast on BBC2.

Ian's Castles’ drama was about Robert Watson-Watt, the Scottish engineer credited with inventing and developing the radar systems that helped the Royal Air Force fend off the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

Ian also wrote the Radio Academy award-winning Lost and Found starring Tom Courtney and his new radio comedy series Cleaning Up is due to air on Radio 4 in early 2015.

He has co-written The Mill too for television with Debbie Oates – one of the regular Corrie scriptwriters - who wrote The Dukes previous two festive productions and introduced Ian to Dukes director Joe Sumsion, who has directed Cinderella.

So now Cinderella is up and running will Christmas be a chance for Ian to switch off the computer, put his feet up and relax, at his Derbyshire home?

“We absolutely love Christmas but it’s utter chaos,” he adds. “We have a very traditional family Christmas at home with our daughters and the grandparents.”

Ian’s wife Julie currently appearing in God Bless The Child at The Royal Court in London which runs until December 20 so the plan is for the family to see Cinderella when she’s returned home.

For Ian 2015 looks like being a busy year with an adaptation of Susan Hill's Mist in the Mirror for Oldham Coliseum in the pipeline: “It’s scary,” he points out.

And for Hayley? Well Ian tells me that next year she will be in a new drama penned by Russell T Davies entitled Cucumber.

Cinderella runs until January 10 and is recommended for anyone aged 5 plus.

To book telephone The Dukes box office on 01524-598500 or visit www.dukes-lancaster.org