It was no surprise that the vast majority of the audience for two sold-out Q&As with Shtisel star Michael Aloni in London on Sunday was female.

And event host JNF UK ramped up anticipation levels by devoting the first part of proceedings to promoting the beneficiary of the events - the Yad Tamar programme supporting Israeli cancer patients and their families.

It was sensible scheduling as for the 280 people crammed into each session at the Marriott Hotel Regents Park, nothing could follow the heartthrob Israeli actor, whose portrayal of caring but conflicted youngest son Akiva Shtisel in the Charedi soap has won international acclaim through its streaming on Netflix.

There were whoops from the crowd at the afternoon session (which included Howard Jacobson and Robert Rinder among the male minority) as a showreel demonstrating the diversity of the 35-year-old's acting range was shown.

As for the questions, the bulk were posed by Yaron Brovinsky, an actor and Israeli TV personality. The first - whether Mr Aloni is single - mysteriously went unanswered.

What we did learn is that he hails from a family of lawyers and became an actor "by mistake. I wanted to be an inventor. I wanted to change the world."

After army service, he was handing out flyers to help finance a trip to India when he was spotted by a casting director.

Prior to Shtisel, he had not laid tefillin since his barmitzvah - and "no one spoke Yiddish around me when I was growing up".

He auditioned for the role of Akiva in a raincoat, which he had assumed was appropriate attire, yet managed to convince the production team that the secular host of The Voice in Israel "could be this Chasidic guy from Mea Sharim". Even then, his expectation was that a show with no sex or explosions would, at best, have limited appeal. "I never believed anyone would watch it."

Despite being well known as an actor and presenter among the mainstream Israeli population, he was able to film scenes in Charedi areas of Jerusalem for the first season as "a free man. But when the series aired, even the strictly Orthodox community was watching it."

So when it came to shooting the second series, his cover was blown and he encountered shouts on the streets of "Kive, Kive, let me introduce you to my daughter".

There was even genuine interest from Jerusalem locals when the actor put up posters for the storyline of the charity Akiva established offering free heaters in memory of his mother.

Mr Aloni had also made Charedi friends who came to visit him in Tel Aviv. "They know how to drink..."