Why soap star Robert Beck is so passionate about putting his family and fatherhood before his career

Rewind 30 years and those of you of a certain age (me definitely included!!) will remember actor Robert Beck portraying Peter Harrison in the now cult soap Brookside.

Nowadays he's probably more recognizable as Jane Danson's husband than for his acting.

Jane, his wife is best known for playing Leanne Battersby in Coronation Street- a role she's undertaken since 1997.

He says: "We made a decision that I would take a backseat while our children were young... I turned down opportunities because nothing is more important to me than my boys and my family."

Robert starts to get emotional as he explains that he missed most of Jane's first pregnancy because he was on tour for six months.

He says: "I never wanted to miss anything again... I'm getting emotional here talking about it."

But, now his two boys are now teenagers he says it's time for him to start getting his career back.

He says: "Hollyoaks is such a great job and the fact it's filmed in Liverpool near to family is great- if it was filmed in London I'm not sure i would have taken the job."

I commented to Robert about how solid he and wife Jane seem to be. He tells me: "A lot of people say that - we've been together 22 years - I think it's that amount of time - from the start of our relationship we had the same values."

Roberts characters Fergus was first seen on Hollyoaks a couple of weeks ago, but on 6 April we see his storyline really take off.

"I've played characters before that have done bad things- but I don't think i've actually played an out and out baddie so this will be fun."

Hollyoaks is on tonight at 6.30pm on Channel 4.