THE lights of Hollywood have been shining on a Monmouth schoolboy this week after an eight-episode miniseries started on TV last Saturday (18th November).

Six-year-old Overmonnow Primary School pupil Jamie Sharpe was picked to play one of the young boys in a Philippa Gregory novel adapted for television, called The White Princess.

Jamie plays Henry Pole in three episodes out of the eight already screened in America and had to travel to set locations in the UK in 2016 with his mum, Jess, to play his part.

The White Princess charts one of the most tumultuous times in British history from the point of view of the women waging the ongoing battle for the English throne.

It centres on the marriage of Elizabeth of York, played by Jodie Comer, and King Henry VII, portrayed by Jacob Collins-Levy.

Jamie’s name was put forward by Katie Powles, who plays the Queen’s Lady in Waiting throughout the series and is a second cousin to his mum. She showed the director a picture of Jamie and straight away they said he was perfect.

Katie is also a former pupil at Overmonnow and Monmouth Comprehensive Schools and has worked in TV and film for 10 years.

She has worked as an actress and a model as well as behind camera as an assistant to directors and production alongside assisting with casting children for Poldark and The White Princess.

Jess knew Jamie was right for the part and after a costume fitting he was ready for the cameras.

Shooting took place throughout the summer of 2016 and Jess took Jamie to various locations around the country for a day’s shooting.

“Luckily, the production made sure that we didn’t have to stay overnight and were able to shoot Jamie’s part a day at a time,” said Jess.

They travelled to Bottleneck Studios in Bristol, Berkeley Castle and even Salisbury Cathedral and would spend five to six hours on set, but would be home every night.

“I had to play with two other boys called Woody and Billy,” said Jamie, who played the part of the son of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, otherwise known as Margaret Plantagenet. She was played by Rebecca Benson who was Talla Tarly in Game Of Thrones and Kar in Dr Who.

“The man would say ‘quiet please’ then ‘rolling, take your places everyone’ and lights, camera, action!”

Jamie even had a go with one of the rolling cameras when there was a pretend fight scene with men using fake swords.

He met some famous people on set, including Michelle Fairley who played Catelyn Stark, another Game of Thrones character, who was on set the same time as Jamie.

“She would say ‘I know who you are playing young man’ to Jamie” said Jess.

“He had his own trailer and would have to try on different costumes,” she added, “and even got to sit on the throne on set!”

There was also a fake snow scene which was “actually ginormous dandruff” said Jamie, which happened to be filmed on the hottest day of the year and Jamie had to wear a big thick fluffy winter coat, “but luckily not for long” added Jess.

Most of Jamie’s on-screen time is in episode five filmed in the tower at Caerphilly Castle, and some of episode six. “In America, he is in episode four, but we are not sure whether that will make the cut for the British TV audience” said Jess.

The miniseries can be seen on UKTV’s Drama Channel on Saturday evening at 9pm, Freeview channel 20, Sky’s 158 channel and can be seen on cable on Virgin Media’s 128 channel.