Graeme Hawley says he owes 'Coronation Street' for catapulting his TV career to the next level.
The 39-year-old star - who shot to fame in the ITV show as multiple murderer John Stape - doesn't think he would have stood a chance of landing his latest role in 'Love and Marriage' if he hadn't been given such a big part in the soap, and is grateful to the programme for putting him on the map.
He said: "The role took me on to another level. It catapulted me to a whole new world.
"For me 'Coronation Street' is more than a soap opera, it's like the flagship show of Great Britain.
"Let's be honest there's no way I would have got this job if I hadn't have been in 'Coronation Street' because without that profile I got before it I probably wouldn't have got a second look in."
Despite the dark side of his alter-ego's 'Corrie' storyline, which saw evil John attempt to cover up for three deaths before finally coming clean on his deathbed, Graeme insists he is terrible at "being nasty" so he attempted to see the funny side of the painful plot.
He added to the Coventry Observer newspaper: "In 'Coronation Street' I tried to find the funny side of everything because that's more what I wanted, I'm quite bad at being nasty in truth, I'm much better at being stupid and daft!
"You do what you're best at and I suppose that's what they saw in me and they wrote the character in that way."
Graeme's latest role in 'Love and Marriage' sees him play Martin Paradise, the youngest son of the Paradise family who are rocked when their mother - portrayed by Alison Steadman - retires from work and then leaves her husband.