A teenager who has broken all UK records for sport stacking in his age group is appearing on a children’s TV channel this week to encourage youngsters to become more active.

James Acraman, from Stevenage, was showing off his cup stacking skills yesterday on the Disney Channel on behalf of Public Health England.

The 17-year-old is taking part in the Change4Life campaign and fronting the ‘10 Minute Shake Up’ – which hopes to get children across the country moving for an extra 100 million minutes this summer.

The footage of James demonstrating how to sport stack – which involves moving plastic cups in specific sequences in as little time as possible – will be repeated on the channel at 11.40am and at 3.55pm on Thursday, Sunday, and Friday, August 29.

“It was fantastic working for Disney,” said James, who won four world championship medals in sport stacking at an event in South Korea in April.

“I really enjoyed the experience. The people were so kind and enthusiastic about what I did – it was hard keeping it a secret until now!”

The filming took place in London in June after James, who is a student at North Hertfordshire College, was approached by Disney via Twitter.

His dad Roger said: “Disney in conjunction with Public Health England wanted to get kids more active this summer. The production team were brainstorming ideas and one did sport stacking at school so suggested it.

“The Disney executives liked the idea so they started searching for sport stackers on Twitter and found James. They sent him a message asking if he’d like to do it – I think he took about a nanosecond to answer.”

James’ tutorials will also be featured in Disney stores, cinemas, and online.

• Watch a video of him preparing for the Sport Stacking World Championships above.