British city worker with no acting experience to become unlikely TV star after landing sitcom role in CHINA

Richard Heathcote, 24, earned £26,000-a-year as a translator

But the Chinese graduate has quit his job to take up a role in Ciao Britain



A City worker has quit his job to star in a new Chinese sitcom - despite having no acting experience.



Bilingual Richard Heathcote, 24, earned £26,000-a-year as a translator for Norman Foster's architecture firm, but is pinning his hopes on the success of Ciao Britain.



He plays Steve, a dead-beat English graduate who is struggling to pin down a job post-university, whom he compared to unlucky-in-love Curly Watts in Coronation Street.

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Richard Heathcote says the opportunity to embrace Chinese culture was worth quitting his City job

Mr Heathcote, centre, is to play Steve, an English graduate living with Chinese housemates in London

Richard Heathcote says his character is similar to Coronation Street's Curly Watts, played by Kevin Kennedy

Mr Heathcote said: 'I feel very at home with the Chinese sense of humour, which is different to British and American humour.

'My character Steve is a Chinese-speaking British guy in his 20s who the other Chinese housemates make fun of.

'He's the butt of everyone's jokes - a bit like Curly was in Coronation Street - and a bit unlucky in life.

'He lacks any kind of direction and is never quite able to pin down a job he is interested in. He is a graduate and struggling to get enthusiastic about anything.'

Mr Heathcote heard about the role from his former lecturers at the University of Sheffield, who told him about the unusual opportunity to use his fluent Mandarin.

Filmed in a warehouse in Greenwich, the sitcom portrays the lives of four Chinese housemates and an Englishman living together in London.

Filming for the first series will begin in April and the pilot is due to air on Chinese TV in September.

Mr Heathcote, from St Neots, Cambridgeshire, said: 'I hope the soap is a success, if the launch goes well we will be shooting 30 episodes minimum a season so the schedule will be pretty hectic - its a very exciting time.

'I did have a very good job but this was such a great opportunity and allowed me to really embrace Chinese culture.'

Mr Heathcote studied Chinese at university and lived in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing for a year in 2007 as part of his degree.

After graduating in 2010 he worked as a marketing co-ordinator for Chinese clients in the London office of world-renowned architects Foster and Partners.

Norman 'Curly' Watts, played by actor Kevin Kennedy, appeared on the Street for 20 years before the character left the Weatherfield cobbles for a new life near Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2003.

Filming on Ciao Britain, in which Mr Heathcote plays English graduate Steve, begins in April in Greenwich

Richard Heathcote, from St Neots, pictured in London's Chinatown celebrating his part in a new sitcom

Executive producer for Ciao Britain, Xiaoyi Li said: 'The idea came from a team of us bouncing thoughts around about what we thought would make a great show for young people.

'The team were all very international people and we saw something in our experience of the city and thought we would take it to China.

'The series will be shot half in the UK and half in China. It is a very exciting time for us all.'