Cochrane had appeared as an extra on TV for Coronation Street's production company, Granada TV, prior to his successful audition in 1989 for the role of Andy McDonald. Cochrane's character stayed in the programme for seven years before he was axed, along with several other cast members, in a high-profile cull by a new producer in 1997. His character took a job as an English teacher in Spain, but has since returned for two short spells so that Andy McDonald could be seen attending the remarriage of his parents and later being best man at his brother's wedding. After Coronation Street, Cochrane co-launched a short-lived magazine about soap operas and has also co-hosted a show on Peak FM in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Cochrane's other television roles have included playing the character of a golf professional Barry Scripps in ITV's Heartbeat. Other television guest appearances have included Loose Women, Canada AM, The South Bank Show, Live and Kicking, To Me To You, Confessions, Win, Lose or Draw, and Celebrity Eggheads. In addition, Cochrane has contributed to many Coronation Street-related entertainment shows and documentaries including Farewell Liz, a tribute to Beverley Callard in 2011. Other shows all for ITV stations or for commercial DVD release have included: A Nightmare on Coronation Street, The Kids from Coronation Street, Women of Coronation Street, Coronation Street Through the Keyhole, The Stars of the street 50 years 50 classic characters, Happy Birthday Coronation Street, Classic Coronation Street, Coronation Street Secrets and Coronation Street: The McDonald Family Album. In 2012, he participated in a sold-out Canadian theatre tour, Tales from the Street, which saw him and other Coronation Street stars talk candidly about the soap. He was an executive producer of the tour which earned rave reviews. He has also turned his hand at television presenting with appearances on Granada TV and MUTV where Cochrane interviewed footballers Roy Keane and David Beckham. In addition to giving many radio interviews Cochrane has also presented and guest presented on radio for a number of commercial stations including nationally on talkSPORT. Cochrane starred in a nationwide tour of Spring and Port Wine with the Middle Ground Theatre Company, which was a Manchester Evening News theatre award winner. He has appeared in various pantomime productions, including Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and Cinderella. 2014 saw Cochrane appear on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in an episode about Callard, his on-screen mother in Coronation Street. He is currently making his first film, A Study in Red: The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper. On 2 September 2019, he guest starred in an episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors as Dean Telford, a debt-ridden dad who owes money to a local businessman and has to use his pizza business to deal drugs.
Personal life
In his spare time Cochrane enjoys playing and watching most sports. He lives in Manchester with his wife Denise and their two children.
