Former Coronation Street star Nigel Pivaro, who played the fugitive son of Jack Duckworth, hopes to carve out a career as a journalist after doing work experience on the Manchester Evening News.
Pivaro, alias Terry Duckworth, has joined the NUJ and is due to start a post-graduate course in journalism next year.
During his work placement at the MEN, Pivaro landed his first scoop, which earned him a page-one byline.
Pivaro said: "I'm not in journalism for the fame, but for a sense of achievement. I was chuffed to mint balls with getting the front page. I have found the work experience with the MEN very useful.
"I have learned that in journalism, you need a vast range of contacts, and to be able to analyse and select salient points of a story very quickly — and to ask pertinent and probing questions, and not give up until you get the answer."
Pivaro said his career as an actor and his Salford background could also help.
"I can speak to anyone from Prince Charles to a villain, and everyone in between — and have done," he said.
"I think to be a good journalist, you must have an unending fascination with people and an interest in human life. To me, that's where actors and journalists cross over — they are both dedicated people watchers."
Pivaro hopes to specialise in reporting on security issues and terrorism since recently gaining a Masters in Terrorism and International Relations at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. His last appearance on Coronation Street was in 2002.
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