WE all like it when we are proved right.

I stuck my neck out a little in February, 2010 when I raved about Vanessa Kirby, a young actress who played Helena in an Octagon production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“Apart from her acting talent, she has a face made for the screen,” I wrote, adding that I believed we regulars would one day be able say we remembered seeing her at the Octagon.

That day seems to have arrived — the young actress who made her professional debut here in Bolton has been seen as the tragic debutante Ruth Elms in the BBC 2 drama The Hour and is set to play Estella in the BBC’s Christmas production of Great Expectations.

She will be on the screen alongside established stars such as Gillian Anderson, David Suchet and Ray Winstone.

Vanessa chose not to go to drama school after graduating from the University of Exeter and decided instead to accept an offer from David Thacker, the Octagon’s artistic director. She made her professional debut playing Ann Deever in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and followed it up with Regina in Ibsen’s Ghosts.

Critics noticed her and, much to the delight of everybody at the Octagon, she has gone on to hit the heights very quickly indeed.

Mr Thacker, who mentored Vanessa throughout those three Octagon roles, deserves every credit for his role in helping to develop a future star.