As one of last year's most talked about shows returns for a second series, Glee star Cory Monteith tells Steve Pratt about going from zero to musical theatre hero.

NOT being a singer but auditioning for a singing and dancing role led to Cory Monteith sending in a very unusual audition tape. It worked because he was cast as high school jock Finn Hudson in hit US TV high school series Glee. Producers saw his tape and invited to try out for the show.

“My manager in Vancouver suggested I play Tupperware drums in the office,” he says. “So she went into the kitchen and got wine glasses, mugs and unsharpened pencils for drumsticks and I played the drums.

“It was a little bit different to what they had seen on those tapes so it led to the next audition, where I met Ryan (Murphy, the show’s creator). It got my foot in the door.”

Each episode sees the characters burst into song, both as part of their choir rehearsals and performances, and also to illustrate what’s happening in the slightly dark and surreal storylines.

Monteith can hold a tune and follow a routine, although he admits he’s no Broadway star like some of his colleagues. “I’m not much of a dancer,” he says.

“It’s my running joke that I’m a bad dancer and it’s true. It’s obvious. I’d never even been an actor, I was a construction worker before. This has all come as quite a shock.”

Glee follows the stories of members of a high school musical theatre club and their teachers.

The series has attracted its own army of superfans – who call themselves ‘gleeks’ – and count Kate Moss, Emma Bunton and Julia Roberts among their ranks.

So why has the show been such a success? Monteith, 28, thinks it might be something to do with the gradual acceptance of musical theatre. “Look at what was happening in popular culture, with High School Musical for example,” he says.

“That film opened a door, it opened people’s minds to an art form that people had been appreciating for years, but it made it mainstream, acceptable, marketable – and people open-minded to it.”

He’s keeping tight-lipped about what might happens in the second series, although it’s been well documented that Gwyneth Paltrow and Britney Spears drop in for guest roles.

He says he has “zero input” in what happens to his character, but reveals he would like Finn and Rachel to be together. “They’re very sweet. Rachel is so commandeering and strong and Finn is very aloof to it all. It’s a very cute combination,” he says.

There have also been reports their relationship might be threatened by the arrival of a new country and western singer. “Int-er-est-ing,” Monteith says teasingly. “I really truly don’t know, but that’s a good part of drama isn’t it... risk?”

He’s currently shooting a film, Monte Carlo, in France. He calls it a “teen caper” starring Disney graduate Selena Gomez and Catherine Tate. But he’s also hoping to land roles in grittier indie films “playing a drug addict or something”.

For the time being though, he’s happy to be in Glee. “I think I’m in it for three more years, I don’t know. Maybe I’m in it for seven. I can’t play a high school kid forever though because I’m damn near 30. But it’s a great show, I think it should go on as long as it can.”

He’s still coming to terms being a series that everyone seems to like. “It’s nice to be liked. It’s been fun, everybody’s very supportive and has something nice to say,” he says.

“I’m just waiting for all the haters – where did all the haters go? Maybe I don’t read the right blogs.”

■ The first episode of the second series of Glee is on E4 tonight (Sat) at 6.30pm and C4 tomorrow (Sun) at 11.35am. The second episode follows on Monday on E4 at 9pm.