CORONATION Street actor Ben Thompson is swapping scripts for setlists as he launches a music career.

Fans of the ITV soap will see his character, Ryan Connor, bid farewell to the cobbles as he heads off to university in Glasgow.

But Ben, pictured right, who lives in Radcliffe, is looking forward to a future in the music industry as a singer-songwriter.

Ben, aged 18, said: “It wasn’t my choice to leave Coronation Street, but a new producer came in and wanted to shake things up. I am one of the characters that sadly wasn’t part of the plan. Ryan is being sent off to university and can come back, but I don’t know if that will happen for the foreseeable future.

“I am sad, because it has been the biggest part of my life for the past four years. It has given me the freedom to work on my music, though. Writing music is something I have always done, but I’ve never been able to focus on it before because I had to do Coronation Street. It’s nice to be able to do something completely different to acting.”

Ben has been playing guitar for six years and was previously in a tribute band to The Smiths, Rusholme Ruffians, with friends he met while attending Radcliffe Riverside High School.

But he is now striking out alone to play both covers and his own original material, which has been inspired by singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan.

Ben played his first gig on Monday at Manchester’s Night And Day Cafe — which attracted plenty of fans of the soap — and is already lining up more dates.

He said: “Coronation Street has been a fantastic springboard for me — it’s a national institution. People hear about my gigs and want to see Ryan from Coronation Street play songs.

“It’s nice that people support me because I’ve been on Coronation Street, but I want to impress people with my music.”

Despite being known for his role in the soap, Ben is adamant that he will not be following in the footsteps of other Coronation Street stars who pursued music careers, such as Richard Fleeshman and Adam Ricketts.

“I know it’s hard to be credible when you come out of a soap and people might think I’m singing just because I’ve been on television. I’m not going to be on TV with make-up on and my top off, though,”

he said.

“I want to do this because I’ve written these songs and I want to play them for people.”

But he will return to Coronation Street later this month to film scenes for Christmas.

He is also a t t e n d i n g auditions and will star as Prince Charming in Cinderella this Christmas in Lytham St Anne’s.