DAVID Hunter cannot quite believe that it has been more than five years since he was on our screens in front of millions.

The former Bridgewater High student made it down to the last four in ITV’s Superstar, a 2012 competition to find a leading man for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

He may have not won but David’s showbiz career has not really stopped since then thanks to the exposure.

The 32-year-old is currently starring as Charlie Price in the Olivier and Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End and he reckons the longest he has been off stage since the contest has been just a few months.

He said: “I’ve been fortunate because I’ve always been working and if I’ve not been working it’s because I’ve gone off to do something else I want to do.”

David fell in love with performance art when he started drama classes at Bridgewater High when he was about 14.

He added: “I was quite a shy kid really but in those classes I found my confidence.

“I kept my head down at first but I was with a really nice group of students who liked me and liked that I was good at drama.

“If anything we had the cool kids doing drama so they decided I was cool. We used to secretly nod at each other in the corridors.”

That led to a part in the school’s production of Alice Through The Looking Glass and the lead as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

David, who used to attend a Parr Hall summer school called Stage Struck, said: “The teachers picked me out quite quickly in terms of being someone who could do it and someone they could rely on.

“So I just started doing more and more – a few school plays and then I started singing with some of the other kids at Bridgewater.”

He also used to help his sister Becci, a dance teacher, out on stage.

David added: “As often with dance schools they didn’t have many boys so whenever they needed to draft in a boy for a show like Danny in Grease they asked me.

“I’m no dancer but I was happy to sing and run around and make a fool of myself if it meant helping them out. I helped them out for a few years here and there.

“Before I knew it I was talking about drama school and a career in it. At first I didn’t think that was possible because at that point no one from Bridgewater had gone on to drama school as far as I know.

“So it was a bit of a mystery and I was asking the teachers if it was worth it or if I was just kidding myself.”

Luckily, David’s teachers were encouraging and he went on to train at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA).

His first paid gig was helping his sister out again when someone dropped out of a production of Aladdin at Parr Hall and he played a policeman.

But the bright lights of London soon called when he bagged a part in One Man, Two Guvnors at the National Theatre.

The opportunity for Superstar then came about but David admitted he was in two minds.

David, who grew up in Stockton Heath, said: “I never thought I’d go on a talent show. I didn’t think it was my style.

“But I didn’t think many people could hit the notes you’d have to sing if you were going to play Jesus so I thought I had a chance to go relatively far.

“I decided if I could get to the live finals it would be a really good step for me.

“My agent’s advice was just go for it and if at any point you feel like you’re being herded around like cattle or treated badly then call it a day and walk away.

“But as it transpired they treated us brilliantly and I think by that point – because there’d been four or five Andrew Lloyd Webber programmes in a similar vein – they attracted people who were already in business.

“I was looking around the room at the final 40 and it was people who were playing leads in West End shows and people I’d met while doing the rounds at gigs.

“Unlike The X Factor it attracts people who are already doing it because they know it’ll lead to good work.”

Meanwhile, David continues to work as a musician as well. He has just released an EP called Silver Linings and he used to be in a band called Reemer who shared a stage with the likes of The Feeling, Scouting For Girls and McFly.

David added: “We really lived an incredible lifestyle for a short period of time.

“We had Tom Jones’ old tour bus. It was this double decker massive thing with little TVs with every bunk bed and a lounge on one end and a kitchen downstairs.

“It’s not something you want to do forever and ever. It’s quite exhausting but it was an incredible life to be leading for a bit. Really exciting.”

Not that David’s life is any less tiring at the moment. He performs Kinky Boots eight times a week with just one day off.

David, dad to Rufus who is nearly two with another on the way with his wife Tara, said: “You do still get a buzz but I’ve done 600 shows of Kinky Boots now so I know every little moment.

“But the great thing about theatre is it’s kind of alive every night

“There’s things that change – the audience might react in a different way or the cast around you might do something in a different way. Keeping it fresh isn’t too difficult.”