Coronation Street spoilers: Shayne Ward teases ‘exciting’ future storylines for Aidan Connor
Wants to explore character's Irish roots
SHAYNE Ward’s triumphant transition from X Factor winner to bonafide soap star looks set to continue with the actor revealing Coronation Street have big future plans for his character.
The 31-year-old joined the long-running ITV show as factory boss Aidan Connor last August.
Just five short months later, he picked up the public voted best new comer prize at the National Television Awards and has since extended his contract with Corrie for another year.
Opening up to The Sun Online about what viewers can expect, he said: “We’ve all sat down with Kate Oates our producer and it has been great.
“She has asked how do I feel about Aidan, where do I see Aidan going and that’s really nice to hear that from a producer considering I’m still so new to it.
“But at the same time, she’s obviously telling us where she sees Aidan going and that’s very exciting.
"Not just for myself in the factory, but in a relationship, the fact that I’m a driven character, you know, always wanting to do right, but not everything goes right.”
He continued: “There’s a lot of things going on and I do want to explore the more Irish side to it as well which I’ve expressed because the character is Manc-Irish the same as me.
“It’s my own accent, it’s me being me, but with a different name which is good, except I don’t sell knickers for a living.”
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Reflecting on how viewers have taken to his character and to him, especially given initial scepticism with Shayne being a former reality TV star, he’s clearly both humbled and grateful.
He explained: “People are starting to get familiar with Aidan Connor which is good.
“To also have the public get behind me like winning best newcomer at the National Television Awards – I’m still kind of on a high from that.”
After scooping the winner’s title on the second series of The X Factor back in 2015, Shayne went on to sell 333,000 copies of his debut single That’s My Goal.
He then followed it up with three studio albums, the latest of which, Closer, was released last year.
Shayne later starred in the west end musical Rock Of Ages and an arena tour of Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds.
While his loyalty to Corrie is clear, that doesn’t mean he has given up on making music completely.
He revealed: “I’d love to get back to the music at some point, I do miss it and I do get the craving for it.
“It’s still there so hopefully there will be something.”
The multi-talented hunk will also next be seen limbering up for charity football match Soccer Aid in Manchester tomorrow (May 5).
Describing it as a “dream come true,” he will be playing as part of The Rest of the World team alongside fellow celebs such as Niall Horan, Matthew Morrison, Iwan Rheon and Michael Sheen.