A NINE-YEAR-OLD rising star who landed a coveted TV role in ITV's Coronation Street, is "delighted and thrilled" after being nominated for a Digital Spy award.

Jude Riordan, from Lea Green, first hit our TV screens in 2017 after starring in The Secret Life of Five Year Olds on Channel 4.

Since then the St John Vianney pupil has gone on to appear in CBBC programmes and several adverts.

And in 2018 landed the coveted role as Tyler in Sky One’s Brassic alongside former Corrie star Michelle Keegan and Vince Gilligan.

He's now also starring as Sam Blakeman, the long lost son of Nick Tilsley in ITV’s long running soap Coronation Street.

St Helens Star:

Jude as Sam in Coronation Street

The story plot is that Natasha, his mum, who was one of Audrey Roberts' hairdressers, was in a relationship with Nick 10 years ago before leaving the street pregnant with Sam, and Nick did not know.

He's only been in the role for just over a month, but now Jude has been nominated for Best Newcomer for his portrayal of Sam Blakeman.

He's nominated alongside adult actors in other soap opera programmes.

His proud mum Kellie Riordan said: "It's amazing and he's totally delighted and thrilled. We didn't know, someone tagged him on Twitter, which is run by us, and we looked into it and saw that he was nominated.

"We told him and he was unsure what it meant at first but once he realised he was just so made up and overwhelmed.

"He absolutely loves acting and everyone of set is always commenting on how confident and competent he is.

"We never push him to do anything, he just loves acting and we help him the best we can, so to be recognised with an award nomination is unbelievable.

"Please is you can please vote for him, it's online voting and it would mean the world. It's amazing just to be nominated."

To vote click here