Katherine Kelly has revealed how she went back home to Yorkshire to help her research her latest TV role.

The former Coronation Street star plays a no-nonsense editor-in-chief of a newspaper group in the second series of The Field Of Blood, a two-part crime drama based in the early Eighties and set against a backdrop of the miners' strike and the changing face of journalism.

It wasn't long after being offered the role that the actress, now based in London, was on a plane to Glasgow for filming, so her research time was limited. "But I read a lot," said Katherine. "Not necessarily about journalism but about that time."

She also visited her family back in Yorkshire. "I am absolutely born and bred in Arthur Scargill land," she said, referring to the president of the National Union of Mineworkers during the strike.

"My dad, who's in his early 60s, was a miner from age 15 to 17 and I used to sit in local pubs talking to miners from that era. Wait 'til they see who I'm playing in this!" she laughed.

Katherine credits her home town for keeping her grounded. "I come from a place where people have a great sense of humour and the way they show love is by abusing you on some level," she said. "For instance, if someone came up to my dad and said, 'Oh, we saw your Katherine on the box last night, she's great'. He'd go, 'Ah, she's awful'. Or my brothers will say, 'Get a proper job!'."

Since leaving her role as the much-loved Becky McDonald in Corrie, Katherine has been seen in hit ITV drama Mr Selfridge and played Kenny Everett's wife in the TV drama Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story.

Despite her soap role being left open, it's unlikely she'll walk the Weatherfield cobbles again. "I've always said I'd love to pop back but I don't think it will ever logistically be a possibility," she said. "Isn't that sad?"

She's currently filming the second series of Mr Selfridge, returning as the manipulative and glamorous Lady Mae.

"It'll take us seven months to film the 10 episodes," she said. "It's such a big ensemble cast but Lady Mae is in it a lot more. She's got her husband and she gets a lot closer to the Selfridge family."

:: The Field Of Blood: The Dead Hour is on BBC One on August 8-9.