Coronation Street star Junade Khan has revealed he worked as a London bus driver for eight years before landing his role as Idris Nazir on the ITV soap. The 44-year-old, who hails from Sheffield, shared the details in an exclusive interview with the ECHO at the Inside Soap Awards in Manchester.
Junade, who joined the cobbles earlier this year as the charming cousin of Alya Nazir (Sair Khan), said the permanent nature of the Corrie job allowed him to leave his driving role. He told the ECHO: "I was a London bus driver for eight years. During that time I was going through auditions but this is the job I've had the longest so it enabled me to leave that bus driving job."
Career change and a 'pinch-me' moment
Junade said he misses his former colleagues and the experiences the job gave him. He said: "I do miss the people there and the other bus drivers. It made you appreciate life and be a better person. I worked during covid, taking the nurses to hospitals and stuff like that so this is definitely a massive career change."
Joining the cast of Coronation Street was a real pinch-me moment for Junade, who grew up watching the soap with his grandparents. He said: "Honestly, it's been so nice, it feels like a family. Sometimes when you're doing a scene and you look up you think 'Oh my God, I'm on Coronation Street'. I used to watch it as a kid with my grandparents every Thursday night. It's just an iconic show, everyone knows it's been around for more than 60 years."
Playing the bad boy
Fans have quickly warmed to Idris as he swept Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) off her feet and schemed his way into ownership of Speed Dahl. Junade spoke about the excitement of playing a bad boy character and what fans can expect next. He said: "When you get the scripts you don't know what you're going to do next. One minute he's charming, one minute he's quite intimidating, he's always up to mischief. He's very determined to get what he wants."
He added: "He is going to try and accumulate more businesses. He's not happy just with Speed Dahl, he wants more. He's going to try and get Underworld next and go head-to-head with Carla. He doesn't seem to be happy. It makes you think why he can't just enjoy one business but he wants more and more and more. Growing up his family didn't have anything, so if he accumulates all this wealth, that's his comfort zone so he never wants to go back into poverty really."
Previous roles and Liverpool memories
Idris is not Junade's first time on Coronation Street. He previously portrayed Rosie Webster's (Helen Flanagan) romantic interest, Saj, 18 years ago. He is also known for his role as Ash Roy in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks between 2008 and 2009, featuring in more than 80 episodes, and has had roles in Game of Thrones, Better, The Last House and Emmerdale.
Junade lived in Liverpool while starring on Hollyoaks and spoke fondly of his time there. He said: "I used to live around Sefton Park and I loved going to Lark Lane, I had some good nights out in Concert Square too." The dad-of-two attended the Inside Soap Awards on Monday (September 21) evening, where Coronation Street was named Best Soap and Vicky Myers (Lisa Swain) and Gareth Pierce (Todd Grimshaw) took home the Best Actor awards. Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
