A soap star has opened up about his off screen work supporting army charities.

Antony Cotton, who attended Oldham Theatre Workshop, acted with Suranne Jones at Oldham Coliseum and is best known for his role as Sean Tully in Coronation Street, has been involved with the military community since 2008.

The 48-year-old is a patron of charities Help for Heroes and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA).

He was made an MBE in 2022 for services to the British army, personnel and veterans.

Speaking to comedian Kathy Burke on her podcast, Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake, Antony shared that it is his “life’s work”.

He said: “What I do en masse, is I go into army camps and I talk about mental health and I get a conversation going.”

Kathy said: “I think it’s really wonderful that you do this and you’re very dedicated to it."

Antony, from Edenfield, added: “The army stuff has kind of taken over in importance so I would like to be remembered as somebody that was a friend to our armed forces, rather than ‘Coronation Street star, Antony Cotton'.

“It is my life’s work. I can’t imagine doing anything else and I’d be bereft if I couldn’t do it.”

Antony has played the role of the Corrie barman and factory worker for more than 20 years and was the first openly gay character on the soap.

The Manchester Pride patron also played Alexander Perry in drama series Queer as Folk and credits the writer and creator, Russell T Davis, with “changing his life forever".

Talking about the rainbow flag, he said: “It is representative of lots of stuff. I get asked about the rainbow flag all the time, why we fly it.

“We don’t fly it for us, we fly it for people all over the world that aren’t allowed to.”

The dark comedy podcast invites celebrity guests to "plan their perfect death".

Antony joked that he would like his obituary notice placed in a frame on the gates of Manchester Town Hall and his funeral held at St Patricks’ in Lancashire.

He also reflected on his time on the famous Weatherfield cobbles.

Antony said: “I’ll always be referred to as Coronation Street's Anthony Cotton no matter what I do ... it is because it’s part of people's DNA, isn’t it?

"It is unique in that sense.”