HE was involved in one of the most explosive storylines ever seen in a TV soap so you could forgive Christopher Harper for going for something less challenging for his next acting role.

But no, the 40-year-old has swapped Coronation Street’s evil abuser Nathan Curtis for psychopathic playboy Charles Bruno in the thriller Strangers on a Train which is heading to Manchester.

“Someone did suggest that for next next role I should perhaps play a fluffy bunny,” laughed the 40-year-old actor.

“But dark characters are the best ones to play,. As they say, the devil has all the best tunes.”

Although at first glance there may appear to be similarities between his TV role - which saw him groom the teenage Bethany Platt - and the murderous playboy Charles, Christopher is quick to point out their differences.

“I think Charles is the other side of the coin to Nathan,” he said. “Nathan is the abuser no matter what; he’s making choices all the time that make someone else’s life worse. With Charles it’s clear that he’s the victim of an abusive relationship. Although he’s manipulative and calculating it’s driven by a need to be liked.

“Certainly both are charismatic people. Nathan was charming and funny and had a nice car and a good flat and all these things which a 17-year-old girl would love. With Charles, although you sense he could be hard work, he’s still the kind of guy you’d like to go and have a drink with.”

Strangers on a Train, written by Patrician Highsmith and which was also turned into a successful movie by Alfred Hitchcock, also stars John Middleton, who played vicar Ashley Thomas in Emmerdale for 20 years and Jack Ashton from Call the Midwife.

It centres around a chance meeting between two men on a train heading across America.

“There is terrific tension in the whole piece,” said Christopher who starred with Victoria Wood in the award-winning TV film Housewife 49. “It extends way beyond being a whodunnit or a thriller. Certainly it’s thrilling but you know who did it - it’s how everyone copes with what has happened and the tension that comes from that which makes it brilliant.”

Playing the effervescent Charles is a demanding role.

“It’s the most exhausted I’ve ever been,” said Christopher. “I did Journey’s End in 2010 and was running a marathon at the same time and I was nowhere near as tired as I am on this. Think it’s because Charles never shuts up!”

The tour will see Christopher making a welcome return to Manchester, his home for over 12 months when he was filming Coronation Street in a role which he admits has changed his life.

“I’ve been acting for 20 years but nothing is like playing the arch villain on Corrie for a year,” he said.

The powerful storyline rightly received huge amounts of praise and has had a lasting impact on Christopher.

“I really hope that just having the issue on Coronation Street has given people a vocabulary with which they can describe what’s happening to them or what they fear and therefore has helped raise awareness or even stopped some future abuse happening,” he said.

“As an actor you never get to make such grand, important statements but because of the huge following of Corrie and the huge amount of care and attention that went into the storyline, I’m at the forefront of all this work and we can see that it has made a massive impact already.”

Christopher is a patron of Voice CSA which campaigns for victims of abuse and works also with the NSPCC and Barnado’s.

“I hope in 10 years time people will say that it was a very important time to watch Bethany going through everything she did and it helped them understand what they were going through. That would mean the world to me just to know that.”

Although Nathan was arguably the most hated man on TV, Christopher hasn’t suffered from playing such an evil character.

“The thing that has changed in my life most is that people now come up to me in the street two or three times a day,” he said.

“Of the three people who approach me in a day, two are hardened Corrie fans who just love meeting someone off the show but one of those people will always be a dad who can now talk to his teenage son or daughter or about the issue of abuse, or may even be someone who was abused themselves.

“It has been an immense privilege to have people open up to me. But I think everyone knows I’m an actor and I’m just delivering these lines so I’m lucky, I haven’t been attacked in Sainsbury’s with a frozen chicken!”

Strangers on a Train, Manchester Opera House, Monday, February 5 to Saturday, February 10. Details from 0844 871 3018 or www.atgtickets.com