After being so well known as Karen In Coronation Street, Suranne Jones could be forgiven for feeling nervous about life out of the Street, but, as she tells Steve Prqatt, the variety of work coming her way has made the move worthwhile.

Suranne Jones didn't want people to start asking "why is this girl on TV all the time?". Instead, they might be wondering why the Oldham-born former Coronation Street star keeps being cast in roles that require an American accent and have previously been played by Hollywood actresses.

Her last theatre role was opposite US actor Rob Lowe on the London West End stage in A Few Good Men, as the naval lawyer played on screen by Demi Moore.

Now she's stepping into Debra Winger's shoes in the stage version of another award-winning film, Terms Of Endearment, receiving its world premiere at York Theatre Royal.

She's playing the often-pregnant, headstrong daughter of Linda Gray's Aurora Greenway in this comedy drama. So audiences face the juicy prospect of Dallas' Sue Ellen squaring up to the Street's feisty Karen Macdonald.

Returning to the stage was a deliberate move by Jones, following a string of TV projects including Vincent, opposite Ray Winston, Kay Mellor's sex drama Strictly Confidential and the TV movie Dead Clever. "I've been looking at scripts for all sorts of things, but theatre was the thing I wanted to do," she explains.

"Last year I did three TV projects with the last one going out on New Year's Day. I didn't want people saying 'why is this girl on TV all the time?'. I want longevity and so many people see you in the theatre."

It was coincidence that Terms Of Endearment presents her with another American role. "I knew of the film but have never seen it. Now I'm loathe to watch it in case anything turns me into her," she says.

"With Aurora being so crazy, it lends me to being slightly kooky. Linda is so wonderful in the part, you just can't help find her endearing."

Of course, she's aware that this is another part previously played by a massive star, but Jones proved during Karen's many emotional upheavals that she's a more than capable performer.

Jones is fully aware of the snobbishness some people direct towards TV actors in general and soap actors in particular. "I came out of Coronation Street with a lot of people thinking 'what's she going to do now because she's a soap actor?'. I've read so many times that soap actors can't act," she says.

She's thankful for the opportunities that have come her way in the two-and-a-half years since she left the Street. She certainly doesn't miss all the media attention that accompanies being in the country's top TV show.

"It's been so nice to drop out, the difference of being in a soap and having the paparazzi outside your door or the gates when you're going out to dinner. That dies down if you don't want it," she says.

"I was in my early 20s when I did Corrie and I think it sent me a little bit mad, so it's nice to find myself as I enter my 30s. It was a wonderful place, an amazing training ground but the character was so up and down all the time.

"When I said I wanted to leave, they said what can we do with her? They had to break her down. She was crying all the time, going to the pub and having a drink. Then getting up in the morning and going to the pub and having a drink, doing the same thing. I actually went to acting lessons after Corrie to exorcise me."

"Leaving was such a huge thing. I started to win some awards and get some recognition. People were saying really nice things about the way I'd evolved her so it was hard, but I just thought, 'where else am I going to go with her?'.

"Then I got a National Television Award and thought 'okay, I should move on'."

Without any work to go to, she took a trip to Australia to visit relatives, only to get a call from Granada about a role in a new Ray Vincent drama series, Vincent. They were considering her for a role and wanted to see her chemistry with Vincent. She broke off her holiday to fly back to England for the audition, and then got straight back on the plane back down under. She got the role too.

I guess correctly that asked if she'll ever walk along those Street cobbles again, she'll say something along the lines of 'never say never'. "Corrie has not gone away and never will. People still shout 'hey, Karen' and 'when are you going back?'," she says.

"Well, I'm doing other stuff and starting to look into my own projects, researching things and talking to production companies. All that's exciting. I'm only 29, there's still a lot of stuff I want to do as Suranne."

She's shown off her singing and dancing skills at special events and charity dos, so you might have expected her to have done a musical soon after leaving the soap. Again, she demonstrates the thought she's putting into progressing her career and not jumping at the first thing that comes along.

Appearing in productions of Chicago and Guys And Dolls currently doing the rounds was a possibility. "I just thought I'd love to do it and if the role had not been done by so many other people down the line I might have gone for it. A musical is definitely something I want to do."

* Terms Of Endearment opens at York Theatre Royal tomorrow and runs until September 15 (tickets 01904-623568), then at Darlington Civic Theatre from September 17-22 (Tickets 01325-486555).