DOUBLE Olivier Award-winning actress Sheridan Smith is embarking on her first nationwide concert tour which will take her to Manchester and Blackpool next week.

It follows the success of her debut album released at the end of last year - an album which Sheridan admits would not have been possible without her dad Colin’s encouragement.

“I always used to tell people that, if ever I said I was thinking of recording an album of different songs, they should shoot me,” she said.

“I think I was a bit allergic to actors you’d see on TV interviews saying they’d got an album coming out. There was something about it that made me feel uncomfortable.

“And yet I started out singing with my mum and dad who had a country and western duo called The Daltons. I then fell into acting by pure chance when I was cast in a youth production of Bugsy Malone and my life and career headed off in another direction. Despite all that, my parents were always on at me to do an album. I was asked after Legally Blonde and then again when I appeared as Cilla but I always said no.

“It was my lovely dad who told me not to be silly. ‘Why can’t you do both?’ he said. ‘Singing and acting’. We lost him to cancer in 2016 but, when someone asked me yet again if I’d be interested in recording an album, I had his voice ringing in my ears. And he was right. It was a wonderful experience.

“I’ve dedicated the album to him. I’d never have done it without his constant encouragement. It’s just that I didn’t know how people would take it and yet, the reaction has been so lovely, so supportive. I’m sure he’s up there somewhere now saying, ‘Told you, kid’.”

The first half of the concert tour will feature all the tracks from the album. And the second?

“Well, I don’t want to give too much away,’ says Sheridan, 36, “but there will be classic songs that audiences will know – my version, for instance, of Crystal Gayle’s Talking In Your Sleep, as well as a bit of humour and a tribute to my heroine, Dolly Parton. I just adore her. If ever I go to a fancy dress party, I always go as Dolly. I think if I met her, I’d just cry. And there’ll also be a lot of audience interaction.”

Sheridan has come a long way in a short time. She has known huge success – all those awards are testimony to that – but there have been corresponding lows, too. At one point, she doubted whether she’d ever be able to face down her demons and embrace the spotlight once more with real confidence.

“I’d had such good luck, one great experience after another. There was Gavin & Stacey and Legally Blonde and Mrs Biggs, Flare Path, and Funny Girl and Moorside. I said yes to everything I was offered and I was truly grateful to be asked. But I hardly had time to catch my breath. As a result, I think I burnt myself out a bit.”

And then her father was diagnosed with cancer which turned out to be the tipping point.

“I’d been run off my feet, professionally speaking, and now I was dealing with terrible grief but having to do so in the public eye,” she said.

Sheridan was incredibly close to Colin. She turns over a forearm to reveal a simple tattoo ‘Daddy’s Girl’.

“My mum keeps telling me that my dad would be so proud of what I’m doing now. I do feel that he’s watching over me,” she said.

At the height of her tribulations, she also drew tremendous support from the public.

“My troubles were pretty widely reported and complete strangers would stop me in the street and ask if they could give me a cuddle,” she said. “Everyone was so kind, so understanding. It helped me build up my emotional strength again, the realisation that I wasn’t alone.

There’s no doubting that she did have a bit of a meltdown in 2016. “It’s true. That’s why I chose to sing my version of the Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy both on the TV special and on my album.

“It’s a cheeky little nod to the fact that I had my moments of madness. But then I remembered what my dad always taught me: never lose the ability to laugh at yourself.

“My dad was my world. Everything I did, I did to make him proud. Losing him was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. But I’ve come out the other side.”

Sheridan Smith, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Monday, April 16 and Blackpool Opera House, Tuesday, April 17. Details from www.livenation.co.uk