Milestone man:
Coro Street’s
William Roache looks back on his long-standing role as Ken Barlow.
As Coronation Street clocks up another major milestone, its 10,000th episode, 87-year-old William Roache (Ken Barlow) – the only original cast member still acting on the soap – reflects on his career and why the show has been so successful. James Rampton reports.
The year 1960 is so far in the distant past that back then the UK had not even joined the European Union, let alone left it.
Harold Macmillan was the British Prime Minister, Walter Nash started the year as New Zealand Prime Minister, John F Kennedy had yet to be sworn in as the US President, Neil Armstrong had not yet walked on the Moon, and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones did not exist.
That is how long ago Coronation Street started.
And now it is set to clock up its 10,000th episode (on February 14 in New Zealand to be precise). Only one person from the first episode of the world’s longest-running TV soap is still in it – William Roache.
His character, Ken Barlow, has been through many partners, hairdos, fashions and jobs since then, but he is still going strong.
Roache is 87 but looks two decades younger. His longevity in the role of Ken defies belief. To underline the point, he is in the Guinness World
Records as the longest-serving male television star in a continuous role. The actor says that he cannot credit it that the soap has made it to this amazing landmark. “10,000 episodes – who would have believed that? Nobody when it started. If they’d offered me a 60-year contract back then, I probably would have run a mile at the time.” To celebrate the 10,000th episode of the soap created by Tony Warren, the residents of Coronation Street are embarking on a trip down memory lane. They are travelling to Blackpool on a mission. Rita is taken aback when a parcel arrives containing Dennis Tanner’s ashes with a note asking her to scatter them in Blackpool. Trying to come to
terms with the sad news of Dennis’ death, she confides in Ken. He has no hesitation about accompanying her on this special journey.
Believing that everyone would benefit from a day out, Jenny hires a coach and invites lots of the residents to come with them.
Holding Dennis’ urn tight, Rita, Ken and Jenny are joined on the trip to Blackpool by Amy, Audrey, Carla, Eileen, Emma, Evelyn, Gail, Jenny, Mary, Nina, Sean, Tracy, Sally and Yasmeen.
But, this being Coronation Street, the trip does not go as planned. By the end of the journey, some lives will have changed and one resident feels it is time to depart the cobbles.
Roache reflects on how the soap has altered over the years.
“Things have changed unbelievably. I mean episode one on December 9, 1960 was a live episode. We’ve done a few of those since – really frightening nowadays because we’re not used to it.
“But in the 60s, a lot of things were live, even some commercials. So that’s how we did it. We used to go out on Friday and Monday at 7pm, and we did the Friday episode live, and then recorded the other as live.”
That, the actor continues, “Went on for about three months and then a strike knocked that out of sync. After that, we then recorded them, but in a way they couldn’t be edited. So it was almost like doing it live.”
He goes on to contemplate the other ways in which Coro has been transformed since 1960.
“The change from then till now is unbelievable. “It’s totally different. In those days, we’d have three days’ rehearsal, a dress rehearsal and then record the episode straight through.
“Now we turn up and do a scene. We can do pick ups, retakes, not too many, but we can do a few. And there’s no rehearsal, absolutely none. And no prompting, so we have to turn up knowing it and ready to do it – which I prefer actually. Often you get some really wonderful spontaneity with the thoughts coming straight out.”
Roache winds up by considering why Coronation Street has been such an enduring success over the past six decades.
“It’s amazing – actually it’s not amazing we’re still going. Tony Warren set the heart of the Street as a community that cares and you can’t go far wrong with that.
“You can have police dramas, hospital dramas, all sorts of things, but we’re just about people. And so long as the stories are character-based, it could go on forever. Well, 60 years in television terms is almost forever, isn’t it?”