Little Britain duo welcome grant

Bafta winners Matt Lucas and David Walliams met at the school

Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams have welcomed a £250,000 lottery grant for the National Youth Theatre which first united them.

The Bafta winners met at the theatre school in Holloway, north London, which received a Heritage Lottery Fund boost.

David Walliams said: "It was where we first shared ideas. Without it there would have been no Little Britain."

The grant will pay for the school's latest production ID 1000, to be staged at the Tower of London on Saturday.

Matt Lucas said: "There are lots of great performers who have come out of the National Youth Theatre.

"The current James Bond, Daniel Craig, was there, as was Jamie Theakston and people like Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis and Sir Ben Kingsley."

The theatre school's latest production deals with themes of identity and outsider status.

Artistic director Paul Roseby said: "We are working with over 1,000 young people right across the UK as a result of this grant.

"It really means we are engaging with people who would not necessarily get the opportunity the work with the National Youth Theatre or to engage themselves with the creative arts."