A former soap star who embarked on a new career in journalism is set to return to the stage for the first time in six years.

Nigel Pivaro won fame as Coronation Street bad boy Terry Duckworth in the 1980s but switched careers to become a journalist in 2006.

After spending a year at the Manchester Evening News, he went freelance and has since worked for several national titles.

Nigel recently returned from a seven-month reporting stint in the Middle East, covering the Syrian uprising and the horrors inflicted by President Assad’s dictatorship.

Now he is set to return to the stage after a six-year break to star in Lowestoft’s Christmas pantomime.

And he took time out from rehearsals to pay a visit to the offices of the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News to talk about his new career.

Said Nigel:  “I have been doing this for six years and I love it. I have always had my ear to the ground, and I just love meeting people.

“As an actor, you have to communicate with people, so there are those inherent skills. You must be interested in people to be an actor and, as a journalist, you also have to be interested in the human condition.”

Nigel told the EDP he now got more satisfaction from seeing his by-line in newsprint than from seeing his name on the credits for a TV show.

“It is not Nigel Pivaro and a cast of 20 or 30 other people. It is Nigel Pivaro who found that story, went to talk to those people and then got it published. It is your own thing,” he said.

Earlier this year, Nigel returned to Weatherfield to reprise his Coronation Street role as the troublesome son of Jack Duckworth, played by the late Bill Tarmey.

The Christmas booking at Lowestoft’s Marina Theatre soon followed – but Nigel describes that as merely “light relief.”

He said:  “I am a journalist.  That is my day job, but this is a bit of light relief to go back to what I used to do for a while. A change is as good as a rest.”

The full interview in the EDP can be seen here.