A law student from Croydon could be appearing in every living room in the country, after her performance at a local audition won her a starring role in a television advertisement.

Serena Williams, 24, of Melfort Road, Thornton Heath was in Kingston last week to start filming on the set of the new Abbey National TV advertising campaign.

She won a lead role in the bank's new advertising campaign after reading in the Guardian about the Whitgift Centre casting event last month.

She said: "I saw the piece in the Guardian, so I rang and registered. I did drama and theatre studies at college so I've always had the artistic bug.

"I was a bit nervous while waiting to go on in front of so many people, but I just went for it and did my best."

She won a leading part after impressing an expert panel of judges with her two minute role as Rachel from television hit Friends.

Serena thoroughly enjoyed a day's filming last week but has now returned to studying for a law degree at London Guildhall University.

However she has not given up on acting just yet. She said: "This has given me a great insight into the acting and television industries, and I would definitely like to go into acting."

The ad should go on air in early April.

Other hopefuls who won an acting role at the Croydon event included marketing director Tim Sinclair from Redhill, and consultant Stephen Lambert from Lewisham.