Coronation Street icon Sean Wilson played one of the soap's most enduring characters. Joining the cobbles when he was an 18-year-old, he was a regular on the street and at the centre of some of the show's most gripping storylines from 1985 until his departure in 2005.
Sean chose a very different career path after his nurse character left Weatherfield. After discovering a passion for cheesemaking, he set up the award-winning Saddleworth Cheese Company, based in the Lancashire's Trough of Bowland, in 2009. His business has gone from strength to strength, with his products stocked in Asda and Tesco.
Sean, who was inspired to cook in the eighties by celebrity chef Keith Floyd, would host dinner parties for his Coronation Street castmates, has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants and has presented his own Channel 5 cookery show, Great Northern Cookbook, with an accompanying book.
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Now, after years of experience as a chef and cheese connoisseur, Sean has gone from the nation's favourite street to the nation's favourite cheese, bringing out a Cheddar-themed cookbook.
Called Cheddar Gorged, it celebrates the history of the cheese, traditionally matured in Cheddar Gorge, near the village of Cheddar in Somerset, since 1170. "Since wolves were roaming the country," he said.
"I'm more than ready for this. I have been cooking professionally since 2005. I always wanted to cook," said Sean, who was born in Ashton-under-Lyne.
"Keith Floyd inspired an army of men to go into the kitchen with a glass of wine. I always had an interest in food. I remember going to a wedding and when I was at the reception I tried venison and it was awful.
"When I worked on Corrie I had my own pad and I was lucky enough to be friends with chefs through Coronation Street and I learned about cheeses, which started in France."
Sean says his "love affair" with fromage began in the wine-producing village of Gevrey-Chambertin in Burgundy when he tried the region's artisan soft cheese Ami du Chambertin. "I was eating a cheese with a spoon, It smelled like a farmyard but its taste was sweet and mushroomy."
He says that since leaving Corrie, cooking has become his "life." "We're very keen to pigeonhole people but we've got a big brain between our ears and lots of interests," he told us.
"My reason for writing the book is that we all have a piece of cheddar in our fridge and yet don't know anything about it, and it's the nation's favourite cheese and becoming the world's favourite cheese."
In a cookbook which 'gorges' on cheddar, Sean fuses the cheese with dishes from around the world for 60 recipes - breakfast, lunch, dinner, even desserts. One surprise headline recipe is cheddar ice cream.
In 2018 Sean made brief comeback to Coronation Street as Martin, the second-husband of Gail, the father of David and adoptive father of Nick and Sarah. Gail and Martin were married for eight years but split in 1999 after he had an affair with nurse Rebecca Hopkins.
His character then fell in love with 16-year-old neighbour Katy Harris, but they split after she aborted his child over a false rumour that he was sleeping with Sally Metcalfe. Katy later tragically took her own life after murdering her dad Tommy when he gloated over what had happened.
In 2005 Martin moved away with his new girlfriend Robyn and their daughter Charlotte Platt was born the following year. He returned 15 years later after David was drugged and raped by mechanic Josh Tucker in a harrowing storyline.
David went to see his dad in Liverpool where Martin, who had a new baby on the way with his partner Robyn, was about to emigrate to New Zealand.
Asked if we might see Martin's return to the cobbles one day, Sean said: "I made it clear that I could be turned but now it's 2023 and nothing has happened." He chuckled: "The writers decided to send me to New Zealand so maybe they're trying to tell me something." He added: "I am busy writing books, but of course I would give it some thought."
Sean, 57, says he would love to have his own TV programme exploring the history of cheese. "I can see them now on Gogglebox saying 'well I didn't know that.'" Cheddar Gorged is available to buy now on Amazon and from Waterstones and WH Smith.
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