When a second series of Britannia High was ruled out in January, it left former Skins actor Mitch Hewer with a rather large hole in his diary.

The 20-year-old, who played Danny Miller in the musical drama, had expected to spend most of 2009 touring the country with a stage show version, promoting a clothing range to rival High School Musical's and recording the next hit series.

However, despite people such as Gary Barlow and Arlene Phillips being behind the show, it flopped spectacularly, leaving Hewer with a suddenly blank calendar in front of him, which he is filling by performing in Never Forget at Fairfield Halls at the moment.

"With Britannia High there was a lot of hype and when there is too much hype sometimes it never works," he says.

"When I took the job people were saying it will be the biggest show of the year and the UK version of High School Musical with its own clothing range as well.

"With the people behind it I don't understand why it flopped.

"People think being an actor is easy and you live a party lifestyle but it's really hard because there is so much competition out there.

"Nobody is making new projects either.

"The channels would rather spend the money on more reality television series because they know they make money and if I was head of ITV I would probably do the same."

Hewer shot to fame in teen cult drama Skins, playing Maxxie Oliver in the first two series before the whole cast were cut and replaced by a new batch of youngsters.

"For me the success of Skins was quite surprising but I think shows work when you don't expect them to work," he says.

"It just related to so many people and appealed to so many different age levels because everyone was young once and had a teen life.

"They spoke to us before the second series about what was going to happen with Chris dying and we knew everything that was going on and that it would be our last series.

"Of course I would love to be part of it again, it was the first thing I ever did and it was amazing and a lot of fun.

"We even won a BAFTA for it and I never expected to win a BAFTA."

Never Forget, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, December 23 to 30, 3pm and 7.30pm most days, £23. Call 020 8688 9291 or visit fairfield.co.uk.