SINCE meeting a tragic end on Coronation Street in 2010, Steve Arnold hasn't looked back and hasn't stopped working, proving that there is life after soap.

Next week he comes to The Courtyard playing the title role in Chaplin: The Charlie Chaplin story: "It's a fantastic challenge," he says, "playing multiple characters and getting each individual one and making it its own."

A heart warming and powerful musical tale of the first true British icon of cinema, this fascinating story weaves through Chaplin’s early journey as a young boy and his often fractious relationship with his mother through Victorian Vaudeville London to the glitz of early Hollywood.

"I didn't know much about him when I got the part," says Steve, "but I've done a lot of research since and learned that he didn't know who hsi dad was and he'd moved house about 15 times before he was 12. He's just such an iconic figure - all it needs is a moustache, a hat and a cane to be instantly recognisable as Chaplin - and the first massive star."

Steve first met Chaplin author Stuart Price a couple of years ago when he was looking for a two-handed to perform with a friend. "I read a lot of scripts and found Stuart's play Concrete Boots. We put the show on and Stuart asked me to do this after working on Concrete Boots. As soon as I knew he was doing it I jumped at the chance. The writing's fantastic and it's full of really great characters."

Not even halfway through a very busy year which has, among other things, seen him playing Buttons in Cinderella and touring the Wizard of Oz - "I think I'm doing five plays this year" - he's enjoying life after Ashley Peacock. "I was there 16 years and had a fantastic time, but I'd done every storyline possible and it was time to move on," he says, going on to reveal that the character had originally been intended to appear in just one episode. "They told me they'd really enjoyed it and would write me into another episode. A week later and they asked if I'd like to sign for three months.

"And there was no better way to go than live in the episode for the show's 50th anniversary. It did the character justice - he was lovely to play."

Steve was 21 when he first joined the Street, but had been acting since he was 14 when fate stepped in. "I was at school one day and the teacher asked me to go to the assembly hall, where there were about 50 kids and a director and producer. Me and my brother Kevin were both picked and that was how it started."

The parts they won were those of two brothers who set out in search of George Best, This Boy's Story, and the film went on to win a BAFTA.

"Mum and Dad were so proud of us being in a film and having our names at the beginning," he says. "I was in the right place at the right time."

Chaplin is at The Courtyard on Thursday, June 16 at 7.30pm. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555 or visit courtyard.org.uk