大象传媒

Richard made his name as Craig Harris in Coronation Street before winning both a Star In Their Eyes special (as Will Young, in case you wondered) and the singing contest Soapstar Superstar.

Thankfully, his own sound is neither goth metal like his Corrie character loved or airbrushed pap like most TV show off-shoots spew out, but of the same singer-songwriter vein as James Morrison and Paolo Nutini.

Richard Fleeshman

His debut single, Coming Down, is a suitably emotional piece, documenting the break-up of a relationship 鈥� he says it's about 鈥渢hat moment when you think everything in your world is ruined and then having to pick yourself up again鈥� 鈥� and is out in November.

The song looks set to be a big hit for Fleeshman and has already been a 'Record of the Week' on Ken Bruce's Radio 2 show.

His album is due out a week later and sees him offer up a collection of tracks that he not only co-wrote, but also plays guitar and piano on.

In fact, it鈥檚 all so promising that he might even forgiven for making a dodgy version of Semisonic鈥檚 Secret Smile鈥� well, after all those weeks on Soapstar Superstar, he had to include a drab cover somewhere, didn鈥檛 he?

Coming Down is out on Mon 19 Nov. The album, Neon, is released on Mon 26 Nov.