Michelle Keegan: 'I've had to hit the gym for Our Girl – and I hate it!' (VIDEO) | News | TV News | What's on TV

Michelle Keegan is just about to start filming her lead role in BBC1 warzone drama Our Girl, but she's finding the gym prep difficult to get into.

Michelle told What's on TV on the red carpet at the National TV Awards: "I start Our Girl next month, which I'm looking forward to... I've been trying to hit the gym [to prepare], even though I hate it and I've also been having meetings with medics, female medics, to hear their side of the story and see what they've been through personally, really."

Michelle follows the path of EastEnders' Lacey Turner, who starred as a female soldier in the first series of Our Girl in 2014.

Michelle was at the NTAs to support Ordinary Lies in the Best Drama category. She played drug smuggling receptionist Tracy in the hit BBC1 drama, proving she has a big career beyond Coronation Street.

"I know people were watching what I did next after Coronation Street, and I had a lot of shows [to consider] – with that one I knew as soon as I got that script I knew it was winner and I was like 'I need to be in that show!' I was very proud about how it got received and I was very proud to be part of it."

Watch the red carpet interview with Michelle Keegan, above."]

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.