NEWPORT actor and film maker Darragh Mortell is poised to be thrust back into the limelight with the news that the smash hit Noughties children's TV show Tracy Beaker is being re-released.

All 99 episodes of the top CBBC TV show, based on the 1991 book of the same name by Jaqueline Wilson, are being rerun on iPlayer.

That's 42 hours of binge viewing for the dedicated Tracy Beaker fan.

Set in a London children's home, the award-winning programme, which ran over five series, follows the fortunes of Tracy and her fellow inhabitants. It was such a hit, it was made into a feature film in 2004.

Darragh, aged thirty, was a 14-year-old Caerleon Comprehensive School pupil when he beat thousands of other young hopefuls to land the role of Crash in 2003. He starred in the show, which first hit the TV screens in 2002, along with Dani Harmer, who played the main character.

Darragh's character Crash was a cynical and sometimes volatile young artist. He played Crash in both the TV series and on the big screen.

He went on to become a film maker and in 2015 Darragh, who grew up in St Mark's Crescent, Newport, won the award for the best experimental film at the London Independent Film Festival.

He scripted and directed 'Peep Dish', a surreal thriller which focuses on a peeping Tom who stumbles upon a mysterious box on the side of the road and becomes imprisoned and forced to analyse in-depth the murky consequences of his voyeuristic addictions

Darragh also appeared in Casualty, Holby City and The Bill.