Former 'Coronation Street' star Sean Wilson wants to land a role in a serious drama.
Former 'Corrie' actor and cheesemaker Sean Wilson has ambitions to star in serious TV drama
The 58-year-old actor played Martin Platt on the ITV soap from 1985 to 2005 and after leaving he reinvented himself as a cheesemaker, gaining experience in several Michelin-starred restaurants before launching his own business Saddleworth Cheese Company.
Although Sean is committed to his his food business he still has acting ambitions and would love a part in a TV drama like 'Line of Duty' or 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office'.
He said: "I think I have a lot to give on the acting side. But maybe in more serious projects. Definitely a serious drama, there’s loads of them about and my agent keeps putting me up for them and when I see them on the TV I’m like, ‘Oh my god, why am I not in this?’ But it is what it is. The beauty of my position is that I’m not relying on my agent ringing me every day. Either showbusiness wants me or it doesn’t.”
After leaving 'Corrie', Sean had parts in 'The Royal', 'Doctors', 'Waterloo Road', 'Casualty' and 'Silent Witness' and he also competed on 'Dancing On Ice' in 2006 and appeared in Channel 5 cookery series 'The Great Northern Cookbook' in 2013 which was commissioned following the success of his book of the same name.
Sean - who returned to 'Corrie' for a brief stint in 2018 - is currently developing his own series which would focus on him running his cheesemaking business, showing viewers what goes on behind-the-scenes, and he has pitched the idea to the Discovery Channel.
Talking to BANG Showbiz, he spilled: "We’re talking with a production company at the moment and their development side had a few ideas, food based. We’re trying to develop it into something that is plausible to take forward maybe to Discovery Chanel or some kind of food channel. We’re trying."
Sean was speaking to raise awareness of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and the apprenticeships and courses that are on offer ahead of National Apprenticeship Week (5 February to 11 February).
Sean wishes that he'd known about the courses when he was started his Saddleworth Cheese Company because he had no experience of business after working as an actor for over two decades.
He said: "When I first took the leap I stepped straight out of the studio into a Michelin restaurant, I was introduced to the cheesemaker who taught me how to make the Lancashire cheeses. Fabulous world, passion, feeding the passion, the bubble was getting so big it wanted to burst. I was really enjoying myself, until I stepped into the business world and then the gravity of the situation started to hit home. I’m trying to get through to people that there are accountancy apprenticeships out there now that can really help someone like me. They weren’t there when I was looking for that information.
“I stepped out of school straight into ITV studios for 21 years, stepped out and before I knew it, two years later I had my own cheesemaking company with passion to burst, but I needed to transfer myself into that business environment. The cheese business environment is a multi-billion business and you need to jump on a fast train and you need to have finance skills and also business skills that allows you to integrate to the environment. So this type of apprenticeship that the AAT are offering for someone like me to go and do a three-year course, where I’m learning through osmosis, from actually working in the job while being taught by a mentor, if I could do that and then start my business then of course I can jump on the fast train with a lot more confidence and I can see mistakes around the corner when they’re about to happen. Every step isn’t just a new step."
Go to AAT.org.uk/apprenticeships or AAT.org.uk/qualifications for more information.
Tagged in Helen Worth