Michelle Keegan reveals ex-cop dad helped her with role in ITV's The Blame

Michelle Keegan hopes her shocking new thriller sparks a national conversation about sexism in the workplace and shines a light on police misconduct. The former Coronation Street actor, 39, stars as DI Emma Crane in ITV1's police thriller The Blame, which sees her investigate the murder of a 16-year-old girl. At the same time she's battling misogyny from male officers, who share a secretive WhatsApp group. When she hacks the Whatsapp group, she's horrified to find sensitive pictures of victims. Michelle said: 'I feel a responsibility and we want to start a conversation at the end of it that people can relate to in their workplace and speak up and feel comfortable to speak up as well.' The coppers' WhatsApp group is central to the plot of the thriller and uses real life messages from recent cases where police officers have been found guilty of misconduct in a public office over sending inappropriate WhatsApp messages that have included pictures of victims. Michelle said of the drama 'we want to start a conversation at the end of it' Just this year ex-police sergeant Paul Street, 41, who enjoyed fame on shows including Britain's Teenage Drugs Runners, asked a colleague to send him a sex video of a female suspect and was later found guilty of two charges of misconduct in a public office, in a case that saw a total of 12 officers investigated. Executive producer Nicola Shindler said: 'We did a lot of work on the cases that are out there. We had access to those text messages which real police officers have sent. "They become increasingly important in the um and we wanted to keep it as close to that as possible. If we'd made it up you wouldn't believe what was in those messages so we chose not to make it up.' Michelle was helped with the role by her dad Mike who is a retired police inspector from Greater Manchester. Michelle Keegan said she asked ex-cop dad Mike about his days in the force She said: 'My dad was in the police force since he was 17. He was an inspector so I used to go to him and go, 'Dad what do you think about this? and when i was doing like the meeting scenes like, 'How would you talk to people in the police force and how was your body language?' and I used to go to him quite a lot actually for resources.' And Michelle's dad confirmed that 'banter' had always had a presence in the police force. She added: 'He was police officer in the 70s and the 80s and he said there were hardly any women in the police force but they were treated equally. He said there might have been lad banter, that's never changed, that has been there always.' She stars alongside Douglas Booth, DI Tom Radley, in the drama Michelle stars opposite The Riot Club star Douglas Booth, 34. The pair share a sizzling sex scene in episode one and Michelle says their chemistry came quickly. She said: 'We bonded quite quickly when we started playing quizzes quite early on in the make-up chair.'