KEN.. NOW AND THEN
ROMANCE Fling with newspaper reporter Jackie
FAB GIRL With Joanna Lumley
PROTEST Ken with Ban the Bomb student pal in 1961
STILL GAME With Rula Lenska in February
He is the longest-serving actor in any television soap opera in the world. And it is hard to imagine Coronation Street without the Ken Barlow we know and love – but actor William Roache was dangerously close to turning the part down. Thankfully, his agent stepped in.
“I didn’t want to do it but my agent said it was only for 11 weeks,” recalled Bill. “I wasn’t interested. I had my flat in London, I was getting acting parts and it all looked very rosy.”
The star has played Ken for six decades to date, even admitting his own father once called him Ken by mistake. Bill appeared in the soap’s very first episode which, unlike today, was filmed live.
“The change from then until now is unbelievable, it’s totally different,” he said. “In those days we’d have three days’ rehearsal, dress rehearsal and then record the episode straight through.” Fittingly, Ken was born at No.1 Coronation Street, with his mum Ida giving birth unaided under the kitchen table during an air raid. And the character’s first decade in the soap was world’s away from the rather nerdy teacher he would become in later eras.
In fact, Ken changed so much that Bill complained.
“I’ve been upstairs to the producer two or three times in 60 years, which isn’t bad, is it?” he said. “One of them was about the way they were beginning to write my character.
“As a young man Ken had all these girlfriends and then, when I was in my 40s, they turned me into a bit of a nerd and it was affecting my performance.
“They then created the Ken/Mike/Deirdre triangle, which was really good. It got the character back on track and I came through with a new dynamism.”
Back in 1960, the soap’s young English student was something of a lothario, cutting a dash on the cobbles as he dated numerous women. He romanced university student Susan Cunningham the same year, who found out she was pregnant. But her letter telling Ken he had a son cruelly ended up being lost for decades.
Ken became an English teacher and wed Valerie Tatlock, who gave birth to their twins Peter and Susan in 1965. His wandering eye led to flings that rocked his marriage. But he was devastated when Valerie died when she was electrocuted by a hairdryer in 1971.
His wedding to third wife Deirdre in 1981 pulled in 24 million viewers – famously eclipsing the ITV audience for Charles and Diana’s wedding. Having come full circle, fans saw him move out of No.1 back in February for a retirement home away from the cobbles. However, it might not be the last we see of our favourite soap stalwart.
LOVE TRIANGLE Ken, Deirdre and Mike Baldwin. Above, 1981 wedding