“If the last thing you saw me in was Corrie, it might be a bit of a shock,”

As Katherine Kelly star's in ITV's newest drama, Mr Selfridge, she talks to Melonie Clarke about shopping and very big hats

Katherine Kelly is the first to acknowledge that her new role in Mr Selfridge is a million miles away from the Coronation Street's feisty, beer swilling, Becky McDonald.

"If the last thing you saw me in was Corrie, it might be a bit of a shock," Katherine laughs.

"If you think I'm going to waltz into Selfridges with a bottle of cider and smash it all up, then you're going to be really disappointed."

When asking RADA trained Katherine to describe her latest venture, she is quite adamant that it is not a period, costume drama.

"It's primarily a show about shopping and how shopping was created, the back drop is 1909 because that's when it happened, so that makes it a period of peace but its primarily about shopping."

Before Mr Selfridge, only the working would go shopping. And even for those who went shopping, it was an incredibly different experience from today.

"If you had walked into a shop there would have been nothing out on display because that encouraged shop-lifting. Everyone thought Mr Selfridge was mad," Katherine tells me and on top of that "he wanted to give free public toilets; people thought that was a disgrace and disgusting."

"Harry Selfridge was such a fascinating character. He was probably one of the first people to know the importance of publicity - he was the Edwardian Simon Cowell really."

The upper classes, like Katherine's character Lady Mae Loxley "wouldn't dream of going shopping, dress makers would go to her."

"Fashion was very important but dress makers would go to her and tailors would go to the men."

Although Katherine does not count Mr Selfridge as a period drama, she does not deny that the back drop of the Edwardian era does make for an exciting context.

"The Edwardian period is fascinating. The Victorian era was so straight laced and strict. And now we're in the Edwardian times, women are showing a bit more skin, they are wearing their hats differently, in five years' time we are going to have the First World War, everything is going to change forever and you can feel that bubbling."

"You could feel that women, the suffragettes, want a vote and a voice; women are playing a much larger role in society. I think that turn of the century; early 1900s is a really exciting time."

After Katherine left Coronation Street she went to The National Theatre where she performed, to much acclaim, in She Stoops to Conquer. Despite this, she had always been looking to work with ITV again.

"Out of all the brilliant dramas they are filming this year, this was the thing that really grabbed me. and they [ITV] really wanted me to play her too which was great."

Working with The National Theatre, Katherine was used to the extravagant costumes that come with appearing in a piece with a period backdrop, but Mr Selfridge is her first costume drama on screen.

"I've done a lot of period stuff on stage so I'm used to wearing a corset. It's nice doing it on screen though. And the best thing about my character is that she is the richest, the most upper class- so she has the biggest and the best outfits."

In particular, when it comes to the biggest and best, the hats her character wears throughout the series are quite literally show stopping.

"I wear a huge white hat in the second episode when Harry decides he wants to get an aeroplane in the store. And my massive white hat with all these feathers was so big that they had to change all the camera shots!"

So when it comes to shopping, is Katherine as big a shopper as her on screen character?

"I'm a vintage shopper, that's my vice; I can't walk past a vintage shop and not go in!"

Mr Selfridge is on ITV, Sunday at 9pm