From Chatham's White Road Estate to University Challenge and a new show on Radio 3, via a brief spell as a tabloid heart-throb.

It's fair to say it's not a well-trodden path, but Keelan Carew has been blazing a trail of his own ever since he decided to take up piano as a young child.

And it's paid off. Having represented the Royal Northern College of Music on the BBC's University Challenge quiz show last year, Keelan caught the eye of viewers around the country, and social media posts about him led to The Sun declaring: "'THOSE ARMS!' University Challenge viewers can’t concentrate on questions as they swoon over hunky contestant."

Fortunately for Keelan, it was his potential radio talent that caught the ears of the 'powers-that-be' at BBC Radio 3, and the 24-year-old has now landed a spot presenting the show Sounds Connected.

Keelan explained how he was a pupil at All Saints C of E Primary when he decided to choose fortes and fortissimos over football, despite the efforts of his dad.

"One of my earliest memories is of my grandad playing piano, and I was on his knee hitting some notes," he recalled. "Then at about seven or eight I took up playing piano properly. My parents weren't musical, they were supportive but they weren't into it.

"They were useless," he added. "My dad had no sense of rhythm and my mum was tone deaf."

If that sounds harsh, it's said with affection, and Keelan gives his dad credit in other fields.

"My dad was like a chess prodigy - he was a clever man, as well as being a very athletic man and passionate about football. He stuck me on the pitch when I was six and I hated it, then I went the opposite way and took up classical piano.

"I'm not sure why. It's so hard to tell when you're young. I don't think I really loved the music, but I loved playing piano. It was rewarding. I was a precocious little 'so and so', and I was impressing the adults. It was good for my ego."

It was when he went to Rainham Mark Grammar School, that Keelan's passion for classical music really evolved.

"I remember when I was in year 7 at Rainham Mark, there was an older student, who could play really well - I've no idea what his name was - I remember walking into the classroom and hearing him play Rachmaninoff, and the penny dropped then. That's when I fell in love with the music."

Nevertheless, Keelan found there weren't too many other pupils with the same passion, or in fact any at all - so it wasn't until he went to the Royal Northern College of Music that he was able to find like-minded musicians.

"It was amazing," he says. "Growing up I was the only kid into classical music. There's 1,500 kids at school and I was the only one. I would spend my time talking to the piano teacher and music teacher, then all of a sudden I had found my people.

"At school they just didn't speak the same language. I remember one kid saying 'how do you listen to it? There's no lyrics, it doesn't make sense'. But I think if they saw me play loud and fast, it was like 'Keelan's clearly onto something.'"

And they were right, Keelan's studies importantly led to him completing a degree in music, but also led to his now-famous appearance on University Challenge.

But did he expect the reaction of the public to be quite so 'enthusiastic'?

"My girlfriend warned me people would do that on Twitter," he said. "I think it was more funny than anything. I'm such a music nerd and a geek, and I'm on a show with other nerds and geeks, and they still managed to sexualise it. Hats off to The Sun. My girlfriend said 'I told you so'.

"It was just very amusing, but I'm pretty ambivalent. It is what it is. I had different people come up to me and say 'I'm so sorry to see that', but as soon as my mum saw it she shared it immediately on Facebook, saying 'look at this'.

"It's funny. We did terribly - we were on twice and lost twice, but we got on well with Jeremy Paxman, I think he liked us, and at least we got the music questions right."

Luckily among the viewers was Jessica Isaacs, head of production at BBC Radio 3, who thought Keelan might just have the knowledge and charm to host a radio show on classical music.

"I guess she must have seen I had a face for radio," joked Keelan, who also works with the Yehudi Menuhin School as a teacher and outreach worker. "She got in touch with RNCM and asked if she could get in touch with me.

"I was invited up to Broadcasting House to do a pilot episode. They asked me if I could consider presenting Radio 3 Sounds Connected.

Keelan recorded three episodes of the show, which aims at "uncovering the quirky, peculiar and personal connections that link music through history,".

The first one went out last Sunday, and of course friends and family were listening in closely.

"I has some lovely praise from those near and dear, and my old music teacher from Rainham Mark, Miss Smallwood. She said it was amazing, but she also said the piano has never been the same since I was there. I put it out of tune so badly from playing so much."

"Everyone hates hearing their own voice, but I think I'm getting there. I hope it's interesting and gets the music to more people. It's about providing public service and enriching culture."

As for his own favourite piece of music, Keelan refused to choose, but says his favourite composer is JS Bach, and he admitted to guilty and now-not-so-secret pleasure outside of the classical world.

"I have this secret guilty pleasure which is Korean Pop - K Pop - and 80s Japanese pop known as City Pop. I also really like Little Simz - she was the breakthrough artist at the Brit Awards and I'm really into what she's done."

But he remains committed to spreading the word about classical music and making it accessible for all.

"It's not all wigs and Mozart," he added. "The best way to think about it is that you're listening to something critical and something timeless.

"As long as I'm talking about music and playing music I'm happy. It's for everyone - anyone can listen to Beethoven, it's up to you if you like it or not."

Listen to Keelan's new radio show at midnight on Sunday night on BBC Radio 3, or here on BBC Sounds.