Catherine Tyldesley has set her sights on landing some "gritty drama" roles when she leaves 'Coronation Street'.
Catherine Tyldesley
The 34-year-old actress is departing her role as Eva Price on the ITV soap later this year, and she has been inspired to try out for some hard-hitting parts as her next career step after former 'Corrie' boss Kate Oates - who is to take charge of the second series of 'Bancroft' - introduced some tough plots during her reign.
She said: "I adore doing comedy and Eva has had that side to her.
"Kate Oates has really fuelled my desire to do some gritty drama as well.
"We'll see what happens. I feel really excited."
Catherine's character Eva has been in floods of tears on numerous occasions in recent months after her ex Aidan Connor (Shayne Ward) took his own life and she gave birth before giving her daughter away to Toyah Battersby (Georgia Taylor).
And while the emotional scenes leave the former 'Scallywagga' star tired, she is grateful to have her husband Tom Pitford and their three-year-old son Alfie to "cheer [her] up" at home.
She said: "It is exhausting but as soon as I get home my little boy Alfie will put a smile on my face and my husband has a great sense of humour, so sometimes when I get home he looks at me as if to say, 'Oh my word, what has she been doing today?'
"I'm like, 'Get me a glass of wine.'
"But yeah, they're both great at cheering me up when I get home.
"You have to be able to switch off. I'm so lucky."
Catherine - who will be on screen as Eva until August - has also heaped praise on Georgia for her "brilliant" portrayal of the recent baby storyline.
Speaking on ITV's 'Lorraine', she added: "Georgia has played that so brilliantly. She absolutely breaks my heart in every scene."
Catherine previously revealed she wanted to leave the soap after seven years to try new projects, and she also wants to go travelling with Tom and Alfie.
She said: "The timing seemed right. My son Alfie doesn't start at school for another two years so as a family we wanted the chance to travel.
"I have relatives in Australia, but we didn't want to go for just a couple of weeks, we'd like to go over there and spend six weeks or more over there and then visit as many countries as possible. [Husband] Tom and I had always talked about travelling and we are keen for Alfie to visit different cultures.
"In between there will hopefully be some exciting projects for me as well."