We find Eric Coates - boy star of 1976 BBC film about York

We asked readers if they knew the boy - Eric Coates - and several got in touch to tell us they had been at school with him at the 1970s at Archbishop Holgate's Secondary School, played in the football team with him and that he was from Heworth.

One mentioned he had studied at Oxford, become a solicitor and was now also a professional artist.

And with that information, we were able to track down Eric - and get his verdict on the re-emergence of that film from the dusty BBC archives.

Eric Coates painting in his studio

READ MORE: Watch! BBC film of York in 1976 by schoolboy Eric Coates

Eric, 58, lives with his partner Helen in St Alban's, Hertfordshire, and splits his time between being a consultant solicitor specialising in property law and working as an artist. One of his paintings was selected for the Royal Society of Portrait Artists' Show in London last year - one of only 150 portraits selected out of a submission of 3,500.

Eric with his painting at Royal Society of Portrait Artists' Show in London last year

Friends in York tipped him off that footage of the film he made as a 13-year-old schoolboy for the BBC children's show Why Don't You... had been published in The Press - much to his shock.

He said: "I feel quite privileged to see myself at that age - but it was a bit weird!"

Eric recalls that his role in the show was very last minute. The child booked to appear in the film got "stage fright" and Eric was sent to the rescue. "I was pulled out of chemistry," recalls Eric - and the next thing he knew he was on the Bar Walls with a BBC film crew.

Eric Coates in the 1976 BBC film for Why Don't You

"They were lovely about it. I didn't speak to camera - they just filmed me walking around York and then we went to Heworth Golf Club and they asked me questions to go with the film they shot - it was all my own words."

Eric still loves the city. He said: "I love it. I miss it. York gave me my love of architecture - painting in stone and wood.

"I remember seeing York City for the first time in 1968 with my dad."

Eric walking past York Minster in the BBC film from 1976

Eric's dad was Laurie Coates, a management accountant and export manager at Rowntree's from 1963 the mid 1980s. He died in 2016 aged 90. His mum Pam still lives in York.

Eric, who takes commissions, said there is one view of York he would like to paint: "It is the view of the Minster from the walls looking over Treasurer's House."

Two artworks by Eric Coates

You can see more of Eric's work at: www.ericcoates.com