Mikey North: Emotional plot tough

Coronation Street star Mikey North has admitted he found the storyline of Izzy Armstrong's miscarriage "draining" to film.

His character Gary Windass - an ex-soldier who has battled post-traumatic stress disorder and been in trouble with the law - is devastated when his wheelchair-bound girlfriend Izzy (Cherylee Houston) loses her baby and then says she doesn't want to risk trying to become a mum again.

Mikey said: "I like to play these heavy storylines but it does take it out of you. I've always said to make the scene real you've got feel it yourself. You've got to put yourself in those situations and how you'd react.

"So naturally it does drain you a bit and you do take it home with you, but that's what we as actors have to go through I suppose."

When Izzy says she doesn't want to have children herself, she and Gary start to discuss other options such as adoption and surrogacy.

Mikey said it's really important to Gary to become a father.

"I think Gary always needs somewhere to belong to - like he found the army. He wants to belong to a family and he wants to put the wrongs right with his upbringing, like the way his dad was. He wants to be the dad he never had.

"I think he'll be a good dad. His dad wasn't the best and I think he can learn from the mistakes Eddie made with him and put them right."