ACTOR READY FOR NEW CHALLENGE

Shieldinch star Jordan faces an uncertain future after soap's axe - but he knows an actor's life can change with one phone call

- BY PAUL ENGLISH

HE'S been a mainstay of Shieldinch for 12 years, playing the businessman son of a Glasgow gangster.

But now Montego Street star Jordan Young has accepted the fight to save River City is all but over and he'll return to the uncertainty of life as a jobbing actor.

"River City came along and massively improved my life and I will always be grateful for that," said the Fife actor, who learned his fate with the rest of the cast and crew at a shock meeting with BBC bosses in March.

"I knew it was never going to be a job for life because you can't expect that in this industry.

"But when the rug gets pulled from under your feet like that, it's a shock, a seismic change.

"But here we are, a couple of months down the line, and I have started trying to focus on the future now, to accept it and to move on. I'm very lucky to have had 12 years. Now it's about preparing to embrace new challenges again."

The telly industry bombshell sparked a campaign which reached Holyrood, leading to cross-party support and a parliamentary grilling for BBC bosses.

Show fans took to social media to voice their disappointment and the soap's actors, including longest-serving star Stephen Purdon, spoke out to defend its importance as an employer for the cast and crew, who've filmed at its purpose-built set in Dumbarton since cameras first rolled in 2002.

Jordan, who played notorious gangster Lenny Murdoch's businessman son, Alex, said: "There was a lot of fight to start with but when an institution like the BBC make these decisions they don't make them lightly.