On easy street at 11

At 4ft 4in, he was too small to reach the microphone at the awards ceremony.

But despite his lack of stature, at the age of 11 Sam Aston is now a very big star.

Such is his success as the loveable Chesney Brown in Coronation Street that he has just been signed for another year at a reported salary of £40,000 - making him the highest-paid child actor on British television.

Yet he takes it all in his stride. As he received the Best Newcomer Award at the Royal Albert Hall in this week's National Television Awards, he told the audience simply: 'I have had a mint year.'

His cheeky, improvised speech brought the house down and crowned a year which has seen the schoolboy pick up a clutch of awards and beat off stiff competition from seasoned stars such as Patsy Kensit.

Born in Bury, Sam is the youngest of the nine children of accountant Richard Aston and his wife Janet, a medical secretary. He grew up in nearby Bacup and at six started going to drama classes with his brother Joseph, now 14.

Sam's drama teacher Carol Godby said: 'The family have no history of acting, but one of the older children, Emily, developed an interest at school and the others just followed on.'

Mrs Godby, who is a family friend and now also Sam's agent, recalled: 'At first, he was very quiet and would just sit watching everyone, in awe. But it must all have been slowly sinking in, because after about six months it became clear he had great talent.'

Sam first appeared on television in a Warburton's bread commercial in 2000. His impish looks and comic timing soon won him more advertising contracts - for Asda, Dairylea and Woolworths.

Bit parts in The Bill and Where the Heart Is followed, and a year ago he beat off five other youngsters for the part of Chesney, the much put-upon son of single mother Cilla, in Coronation Street. He impressed casting directors by telling a funny anecdote about playing golf - and from the moment he stepped on to the cobbled streets of Weatherfield, he looked at home.

A few years earlier, his sister Emily had been in the Street as Rebecca Palmer, the daughter of Des Barnes' girlfriend, and his brother Joseph once played Jack and Vera Duckworth's grandson.

Sam already knew Jennie McAlpine - who plays his screen sister Fiz - and Nicky Sanderson who plays hairdresser Candice, because they both attended the same drama classes. 'The adult actors are nice, but they are always telling rude jokes that I don't understand,' he said once.