FROM the bright lights of New York to studying Shakespeare in London, Stroud actor William Moseley has the world at his feet.

Since celebrating his 21st birthday in April, the star of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and its sequel Prince Caspian has moved back to London and is hoping next year will be just as exciting.

After spending Christmas in Sheepscombe with his family, he'll be jetting off to Italy to shoot a film in Rome for two-and-a-half months which is based around the signing of the Magna Carta.

"There are some really interesting and good actors in it – Richard Attenborough, Bob Hoskins and Robert Carlisle," William says.

"I'm going to be playing, this sounds ridiculous, but someone who can read and write as most of the people during the time of the Magna Carta couldn't.

"I'm lucky to be going from children's media into an adult film and make that transition. It's one of those things you always hope is going to happen but are never entirely sure.

"I'm hoping that will go ahead but you never know with these film companies."

William was on the red carpet all summer attending premieres of Prince Caspian and brought quite a few friends along to the London premiere, as well as his grandparents and an old teacher from Wycliffe College in Stroud.

He's about to jet off to LA and Philadelphia to promote the release of the DVD next month.

In Prince Caspian he resumes his role as Peter Pevensie and returns to Narnia, along with his siblings Susan, Edmund and Lucy, to save the magical world from the tyranny of King Miraz. The second film in the Narnia trilogy is darker than the first and packed with action scenes.

"There are two major battles," says William. "One is a night raid and the other a really big battle which has a really cool moment when a guy comes at me with a pike and I block him, take the pike off him and smack him with it.

"Then I'm fighting all these guys. It was really fun. The best thing that I probably got to do in the whole film was in the night raid. It involves horse riding which was something I couldn't really do before I started the first Narnia film.

"In this scene Caspian brings this galloping horse to me and he rides off. As we're being shot at by archers I grab hold of the horse's saddle, jump on to the horse and kick at a guy who's coming towards me and then gallop out of the castle.

"I did all that myself. it was all me, no stunt man."

His character Peter doesn't feature in the next chapter of the Narnia story – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – but William says he's ready to move on and do new things.

"It's been a dream come true and it's very sad to say goodbye, but now I'm ready for the next challenge.

"It's a scary time for me right now but I'm excited about the future and whatever it holds," he says.

William lives in a flat in north London and comes back to Stroud once a week because his parents, Julie and Peter, who is a cameraman for the BBC, are helping him to shoot auditions.

"I did love New York but I prefer London," William says. "The only thing about London is everything is so spread out. My friends live in the south east and I live in the north west and it's about an hour to get to them.

"My sister's also in south east London so it can be a bit of a nightmare to link up. In New York everything was in a four-mile radius.

"But I'm really enjoying the city, there are always things to be doing, always films coming out and theatre shows to see."

In between roles, he's studying a Shakespeare course at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

"I absolutely love it," William says. "I really wanted to keep myself focused. There's quite a lot of waiting around as an actor and I wanted to do something that really interested me.

"There are so many people I would love to work with in the future, but we'll just have to see how it goes. It's a weird business to be in. You think as soon as you've done one or two major motion pictures the offers will come pouring in but it isn't like that.

"You have to audition like crazy because you're put with a new level of actors and you've got to compete against them and do the absolute best you can."

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is out on DVD on November 17.