Coronation Street’s Elizabeth Tan to star in period drama The Singapore Grip

She made a name for herself playing the first Chinese resident on Coronation Street.

Now Elizabeth Tan, 30, is a world away from the cobbles of Weatherfield in ITV’s sumptuous new Sunday night period drama which starts tomorrow.

She stars alongside David Morrissey, Jane Horrocks and Charles Dance in The Singapore Grip, a six-part adaptation of JG Farrell’s 1978 satirical novel mocking British colonial attitudes.

Her character Vera Chiang is a Chinese refugee who arrives in wartime Singapore under mysterious circumstances and finds herself moving among the expat set.

‘Vera’s a wonderful example of a three-dimensional female character,’ said London-born Miss Tan, who has family connections in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

‘In a period drama, it’s rare to find someone like that from an East Asian background.’

Since her big break as Xin Chiang in Coronation Street in 2011, the actress has starred in other TV series including the BBC’s Waterloo Road and Top Boy on Netflix.

But she hopes her latest primetime role will pave the way for other young actresses of East Asian descent. 

‘It means a lot to them… seeing a person of Chinese heritage on TV,’ she has said.

However, some critics fear that because the storyline focuses mainly on British characters, the drama could be accused of displaying a ‘colonial mindset’.