A Brookside star who is making it big as a director for the likes of Corrie and Emmerdale is keen to champion Liverpool talent on screen.
Leon Lopez is best known for his role as Jerome Johnson in the Channel 4 soap Brookside which he played up until 2002.
Over the course of his career, Leon has starred in soaps including EastEnders, Hollyoaks In the City and Doctors as well as starring musicals on the West End.
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But the 42-year-old, from Toxteth, has now turned his attention to a career behind the camera as a director, with his most recent work on the BBC drama Death in Paradise airing this week.
Leon told the ECHO: "I got into production by making my own shorts and I did my own film.
"My first film, which was Soft Lad, was a Liverpool based film and off the back of that it got distribution and it got picked up by Netflix UK and Peccadillo Pictures, which is a little distribution company.
"I made that because it was something I'd written which I wanted to practice really as a director, I didn't expect it to get a release."
Leon said the release of his film led to other jobs and he went on to study for a degree in Film Making at the University of East London.
He said: "I made a load of short films there and then they got picked up there by different distribution companies.
"And then Hollyoaks approached me and asked me if I wanted to work there as a director.
"At first I was holding off because again, I wanted to make my own stuff and write my own stuff and produce my own stuff - and you don't make any money for that really.
"I was a bit apprehensive about going into a job that I knew I'd be making a decent living but in the end I said yeah and that just snowballed.
"From that, it led to me working on Emmerdale and then Emmerdale put me forward to Coronation Street, and then Death in Paradise last year came up and I'm just working between them now."
Leon has got the chance to work with a whole host of different actors and soap stars over the years, some of whom he knew from earlier on in his career.
He has directed scenes for some hard hitting storylines including episodes involving the character of serial killer Breda McQueen on Hollyoaks and Meena Jutla on Emmerdale.
Leon said: "The biggest thing that has surprised me was as an actor not realising just how much work goes into behind the scenes and how many people are involved in just getting to the script stage.
"There's so many different departments and so many different offices which I have interaction with now.
"We shoot usually about two months or something in advance so you know [the storylines] a couple of months in advance as a director.
"And then when you're there sometimes in your script it's got some ideas of what's coming up or sometimes the producers will say 'you need to stay true to that because that's going to affect a story that's coming up in a few weeks.'
"I've been at Corrie for just over a year and a bit now but the first time I worked with Barbara who plays Rita, I'm not going to lie I was really nervous because she's iconic isn't she?
"She's a dame but she was so so lovely. I only got a few scenes with her but people like that haven't been working on those shows for 60 odd years - you've got to be nice to keep your job.
"You always find the biggest and most experienced actors are always the loveliest but that didn't stop me from being nervous."
With so much talent in his hometown of Liverpool, Leon believes more productions should be set in the city as well as being filmed here.
He said: "I feel like we are missing a regular drama set in Liverpool. I think it's such an amazing, vibrant city so if I ever get an opportunity to do something then I'll jump at it.
"As I say, I make my own stuff, I write my own stories and there's a couple of pilots that I've written and usually it's set in Liverpool.
"That was why I got into directing originally, to make my own.
"That's the one thing that Brookside did - it was a vehicle for Liverpool talent and nearly everybody who was on it was from Liverpool.
"Whereas a lot of these programmes that are set in Liverpool now, they hire cast members who aren't Scouse who come and do a Scouse accent, and I'm all for that great actors are great actors, but a lot of the time it's because someone is high profile so they want someone high profile and they'll put the accent on.
"Whereas if there was a programme that was set here regularly there would be a chance for up and coming North West actors to come through who weren't necessarily big and successful yet."
Asked whether he'd return to Brookside if the soap made a comeback, Leon said: "I'd love to go back and work on it as a director but I don't think I'd be in it as an actor.
"Maybe I'd do like a cameo or a couple of episodes but I don't think I could do it long term, I don't know. I just enjoy directing so much now but you never say never because I don't want to say I'm never going to act again and then next year you see me doing something.
"I do enjoy acting when I'm doing it but I feel like maybe because it's a lot newer, the directing side of things, I love that a lot more."
