'I'm still the same spotty chav from the streets of Grimsby I always was'

Hearing there were film auditions taking place next door and on the off chance there might be a bit of money in it, Turgoose took his place alongside the other hopefuls. It was to be the turning point for the teenager who previously spent much of his spare time playing computer games, eating fast food and smashing car windscreens.

Cast as the babyfaced skinhead in Shane Meadows's This is England, when the film emerged on to the big screen it had already created something of a buzz. A poignant snapshot of working-class life in the 1980s, its young star more then held his own and was soon catapulted from the streets of Grimsby to a relentless round of award ceremonies and interviews.

It didn't end there. Turgoose gave an award-winning performance in Meadows's follow-up Somers Town, his latest film Tom Harper's The Scouting Book for Boys, set in a Norfolk caravan park, has just been released and the teenager is widely thought of as a talent worth nurturing.

"It's been an interesting few years," says Turgoose, a master

in the art of understatement. "No one had any idea how big This is England was going to be. Not even Shane. We all just thought it was this little British film, which would probably disappear without anyone noticing."

It didn't and when it beat both Atonement and The Bourne Ultimatum to win the Best British Film Bafta, it wasn't just Turgoose who was surprised. Every teacher who had ever crossed his path did a quick double take.

By his own admission, Turgoose was a nightmare pupil. He didn't listen in class, homework was rarely completed and after a series of run-ins with staff he was eventually expelled.

He turned 18 last month and while he doesn't go in much for regrets, he does occasionally cringe when he looks back on the way things used to be.

"I didn't like school," says Turgoose, who alongside his acting work is now studying photography at Grimsby Institute.

"Now I wish I could go back and do it differently, but at the time I wasn't interested. Before I started working, I had a problem with people telling me what to do. Even now I still think some teachers think they're better than they are, but I guess I also understand that having 200 snotty kids going on at you every day isn't easy.

"I wasn't just snotty, I was horrible. I still see some of my old teachers around and about. I think they'd written me off and I can't say I blame them. Even I'm shocked by how I've turned out. We say hello, if I meet them in the pub we might have a drink and sometimes I apologise."

Some of Turgoose's rough edges may have been smoothed, but he remains refreshingly untouched by fame. He turned down the opportunity to fly to Manhattan to pick up an award with Meadows so he could sit his maths GCSE and turned up to the British Independent Film Awards to pick up the Best Newcomer Trophy in 2006 wearing an old pair of jeans. Coming from a world which so rarely finds itself in the spotlight, he finds it impossible to buy into the idea of celebrity.

"I was on the red carpet and this woman came dancing past," he says of the BIFA ceremony. "I thought it was a bit odd and then my dad said, 'Don't you know who that is, it's Dame Helen Mirren'. I was none the wiser, her name just didn't mean anything to me."

For all the highs of the last few years – and there have been many – Turgoose has also had to deal with personal heartache. While he was shooting This is England, his mother, Sharon, was dying from lung cancer. She never saw the finished film, but she was shown rushes of some of the scenes and he likes to think she can see just how well he

has done.

"It was really hard, but it happens, doesn't it? I now try to do things that would make her proud. I've turned down some parts, some of them with good money, because it can't just be about the cash can it?

You have to do the work you think is good even if it doesn't pay the best."

Turgoose's mother and father had separated when he was one-year-old, but since her death he has gone to live with his father where he's treated just like his three older brothers. In fact, the only sign that things are now a little different is the gym membership in his wallet and the fact he occasionally orders a salad instead of a plate of chips

"I still have all the same friends, we hang out in the same shopping centre and the same security guards every so often move us on," he says. "I joined a gym because I thought I should, but it costs me 25 a month and I don't really go enough. I'd have probably been better off spending 200 on a set of weights. I'd still have left them in my bedroom to go to play football with my mates, but at least I'd have had something to show for my money."

You suspect that Turgoose's friends and family are part of the reason he has remained so grounded. He has no intention of moving from Grimsby and says he has the kind of face which makes it easy to blend into the background. In The Scouting Book for Boys he plays misfit David, the son of the trailer park's resident entertainer, who would do anything to keep his best friend Emily, played by rising star Holliday Grainger happy – even helping her to fake her own kidnapping.

With a script by Skins writer Jack Thorne, the film is much darker than anything he's done before and Turgoose's performance has already been described as "powerful and heartfelt". Good reviews, he says, are nice, but he is more than happy to let Grainger take the bulk of the attention.

"We came out of the BBC the other day and someone stopped us and wanted to have a photo taken," he says. "Actually, they wanted a photo with Holliday. They weren't bothered about me, in fact I think they thought I was just following her around, but you know that's fine with me.

"Sometimes people do know who I am, which is a bit embarrassing if you're with your mates, but you've got to be polite. If people make the effort to talk to you, it wouldn't be right to ignore them would it?"

Turgoose will be next seen on the small screen. Meadows has written a four-part series We Were Faces, which picks up four years on from where This is England left off. On the first day of filming, the cast went

back to the beach in Grimsby where they had shot the final scenes five years earlier. The camaraderie had not changed, but this time they all know the expectations will be much greater.

"It was strange all being back together again," says Turgoose. "But it was good to catch up. Stephen Graham (who played This is England's hard nut Combo) has done amazing. He's been over in Hollywood, working with Nicholas Cage, but I'm happy staying in British cinema for a bit. The truth is I'm still the same spotty chav from the streets of Grimsby I always was. Plus if I did get to LA I really would have to start going to the gym."

THOMAS TURGOOSE

Born: February 11, 1992.

Family: The youngest of four brothers, Karl, Matthew and Jamie, he was brought up by his mother, Sharon, until her death in 2006 and now lives with his father, Rob.

Education: After dropping out of school, he secured a place at Wintringham School in Grimsby (now Oasis Academy Wintringham) while filming This is England and is now studying photography at the Grimsby Institute.

Awards: He won the British Independent Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer for This is England and the Tribeca Film Festival Best Actor in a Narrative Feature trophy for Somers Town.