Why I’ll never leave the Street
After 60 years of playing Ken Barlow in Coronation Street, William Roache is still loving his job. Jim Maloney reports.
He is officially the longest-serving TV soap actor in the world but William Roache, who plays the seemingly ever youthful Ken Barlow in Coronation Street, turned down the role when he was first approached about it 60 years ago. “I went to the audition at Granada Television in Manchester but I didn’t particularly want the job,” he tells TV Guide. “I had just had the lead in a television play and I was living in a flat in London and waiting for the play to go out, which was a big break for me. “I didn’t want to go to what I thought was a small area in the north west of England, in a small family show, which would be very inconsequential. “But, unbeknown to me, during my audition Tony Warren, who created the series, took the casting people down to the studios, pointed to me and said, ‘He’s the one I want for Ken Barlow’. “When my agent said, ‘They want you, Bill’, I told him I didn’t want to do it. “Fortunately, he persuaded me that it was only going to run for 11 weeks and that in one of those weeks I would be on television Monday and Friday in Coronation Street and mid-week in the play and it would be a great ‘shop window’ for me. “And then the minute Coronation Street hit the screen it just took off. We were all astounded at the effect that it had and then we realised we were part of this new realism that was sweeping through the theatre – you know (Marlon) Brando and James Dean in cinema, John Osborne with Look Back In Anger in the theatre. We were ‘kitchen sink drama’ on television.
“I resent the description of it as ‘soap’. It’s a derogatory term to do with advertising soap powders.”
– William Roache
“The show was at the top of the ratings and we became instant celebrities who were recognised in the street.”
Such sudden fame might go to the head of a younger or less mature actor but Roache, who was then 28, had seen enough of the world to have given him stability.
“It was wonderful to have that recognition of the show and it took a bit of getting used to. I can understand when a pop singer maybe has a hit record and is suddenly feted. It can be quite heady stuff.
“I’m a middle-class person. My father was a doctor and I went to public (fee paying) school and was an Army officer who served in the Gulf for two solid years. So I had that experience and knew a bit about life before I joined Coronation Street.
“I resent the description of it as ‘soap’. It’s a derogatory term to do with advertising soap powders. We were a cutting-edge drama serial and were highly feted in all the top periodicals.
“The cast were offered a three-year contract, which I took. But then, as time went by and I was in my 40s, I thought, ‘Well, is this going to be me for life?’ And I didn’t have to think for long. My answer was, ‘Yes, I love it’.”
Roache, 88, who has five children, including actor Linus Roache, is the only original cast member still in the show and even after all these years, he still looks forward to work.
“It’s such a happy ship. One director we had once said, ‘Every so often, you’ll get a scene in Coronation Street that is as good as any cinema or play anywhere’. And that still applies. It’s wonderful that we can present all these stories and make a lot of people, who are in those situations, realise that they’re not alone. “The success of the show is simple. It’s about small people in a back street facing the adversity of life. And everyone can identify with that. “And, of course, it has to be well written, well directed and well acted. And it has been. “Some shows are about police, courtrooms or hospitals. We aren’t any of those but we’re all of them. We are about people so we can have anything we want. “Being an actor in an ongoing drama is very demanding. Some of the older cast, including myself, took time off for a few months as a precaution because of Covid-19 but it’s wonderful to be back on screen with my dysfunctional family. “I love them all. I really do. We all get along really well. “We enjoy working together and it’s just a privilege and an honour and a great enjoyment to go to work. “Ken has lived on the same street
his entire life when he could have moved away.
“People sometimes don’t appreciate what they have close to home. You hear the story of the person who is searching for the meaning of life and they travel all over the world and eventually they realise that all of the answers were back home in their own backyard.
“In other words, the journey in life is an inward one. That’s how you find out everything, as and when it is right for you. Appreciating the here and now and where you are is all part of that.
“Coronation Street has been a massive part of my life and if it continues to adapt to what is happening I see no reason why it cannot go on forever. And I see my future of more of the same and more enjoyment.”