‘I left without any expectations of what would happen’: Michelle Keegan on life after Coronation Street

WALKING away from what made you famous is always a risk.

It’s especially true of soaps. No one is bigger than the show, and the EastEnders and Coronation Street juggernauts have powered on serenely after top names have left.

A few have seen their star ascend higher, many have seen it flicker or fade.

When Michelle Keegan took her leave of Corrie in the spring of 2014, naysayers muttered that she should have stuck to playing Tina McIntyre.

But almost three years on, 29-year-old Michelle has had the last laugh.

Ordinary Lies and Our Girl have been solid gold smash hits, with Michelle showing she was far from a one-note Weatherfield wonder.

Now as she’s set to star in another major drama, ITV’s Tina And Bobby, she shared her Midas touch secrets with iN10.

“It’s about going with your gut instinct,” she says as she settles down to chat.

“I’ve also got a great agent who’ll give me advice on whether to take on a role or to read the scripts to see how I feel.

“I think it’s about making the choices to try other roles.

“That’s the way it was with Our Girl. It was quite a physical, stripped-back, gritty role. I’d never done that kind of thing before.

“I feel really lucky. I left Corrie without any expectations of what was going to happen.

“It was a tough decision. It took me a few years to finally decide to leave.

“The only reason I left was because I went into acting to see if I could challenge myself and do different roles.”

Ordinary Lies was her first post-Tina role and she admits she was so nervous she couldn’t bear to watch it with anyone and stayed clear of the all-important Twitter verdict until it was over.

“When I saw the positive feedback it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I burst out crying. It was sheer relief.”

Similar concerns burdened her before Our Girl. The original series had followed the army life of Lacey Turner’s medic Molly Dawes.

The new series focused on a new character, Michelle’s Georgie Lane.

“There was a lot of pressure,” she confides.

“I was a big fan of the first series and a massive fan of Lacey – she’s an incredible actress.”

And she knows the finger of blame would have pointed her way if it had flopped.

“I was the lead so that would have been what was said, especially as the first series went so well. It was a bit of a gamble.”

If there was one criticism mooted it was just that Michelle was just too darned gorgeous to totally convince on a terror frontline in her military fatigues.

As the serial winner – an unprecedented six times – of Sexiest Female at the British Soap Awards, making her look down and dirty can’t have been easy.

“I thought I WAS stripped back!” she laughs.

“Some people said I still had make-up on and it wound me up as I didn’t have a scrap.

“I had dust all over me and it was just how I looked because I had a bit of a tan as we were filming in South Africa.

“I like looking gritty and dirty. I embrace it, I love it.”

Tina And Bobby, a four-part drama also starring Skye actor Lorne MacFadyen, tells the story of the romance between Bobby Moore, England’s 1966 World Cup-winning captain, and wife Tina.

When they first met Tina was just a kid, a teenager working as a typist for the Pru who was swept off her feet by the handsome 17-year-old who hadn’t even made the West Ham first team.

They wed in 1962, she helped him through a testicular cancer scare and, in the wake of the World Cup triumph, he became a national hero and Tina was the first footie WAG.

Michelle met up with Tina, who was with Bobby until a few years before his death in 1993, to talk about the dizzying celebrity lifestyle.

Being married to former TOWIE favourite, Strictly star and radio and TV presenter Mark Wright, the media spotlight is hardly alien to Michelle.

“We talked about the pressures of being in a public relationship,” she confides.

“They were huge, the first golden couple of their time.

“They went from a normal background and being anonymous to – overnight – being in the public eye.

“I know Tina found that really difficult. She’d wake up in the morning and there’d be journalists on her front doorstep and cameras everywhere.

“Because they were both really private people, it was hard.

“Mark and I have a relationship that’s in the public eye but we do like to keep some things private.

“It’s finding that balance.”

It seems as if every element of their relationship comes under the microscope, with repeated speculation over the state of their marriage or whether or not babies are on the horizon.

Surprisingly, Michelle insists the intrusion into life at their plush Essex home isn’t what might be imagined.

“A lot of people think I am followed everywhere but I can take the dogs for a walk, I can go to Tesco’s for a Sunday shop,” she says.

“My life is very normal. So when I see those stories I wonder where they’ve come from. No one really follows me that much.

“I think I’ve got the best of both worlds. It’s definitely not as bad as has been made out.”

The normality of that life includes regular visits back to her Manchester roots and domestic routine.

“I love that three-hour drive, listening to music and stopping off for a Starbucks or a takeaway.

“And I love going to the pictures with Mark, going out with him for something to eat. Or just having a Saturday night in binge-watching TV.”

So, with their second anniversary coming up in May is she wholly settled into married life?

“Oh yes, totally used to it. Not a lot changes when you’re married.

“It’s not like you wake up and feel totally different.

“It’s really nice to be back home and do the normal stuff. Mark takes the bins out, that’s his job, and I don’t mind cooking!”

Not being under the contractual restrictions of Corrie has meant super-stylish Michelle is able to work with fashion brand Lipsy as well as Revlon cosmetics.

With more than 80 costume changes, Tina And Bobby gave Michelle lots of different fashion looks.

“There wasn’t a single outfit I didn’t like. The ’60s were very feminine with the suits and the beehives and heels.

“I loved the ’70s bellbottoms and flowy shirts and the ’80s with the big shoulder pads and hair.”

It sounds like clothes are a huge part of Michelle’s life, but before heading off she insists she wouldn’t take advantage of Mark’s credit card and free day to do some serious retail therapy damage.

“If I don’t go shopping for months I could go a bit wild – but I haven’t done that in a long time.

“I couldn’t go shopping and buy loads of stuff just for the sake of it. I’m not a shopping addict, honest!”