Daily Record

I can never really see myself retiring from Corrie.. I don’t want to slow down, I want to speed up

- BY AMANDA KILLELEA

FOR Corrie fans, the Street just wouldn’t be the same without its golden oldie stars like Ken Barlow, Rita Tanner and Audrey Roberts.

But the coronaviru­s pandemic raised fears that the Weatherfie­ld legends wouldn’t be able to return to the cobbles for months.

Now Street icon Bill Roache – and his doctor – have said that Corrie’s popular pensioners will be back in the Rovers Return this autumn, which means he will be back on screen when Bill and the show celebrates its 60th anniversar­y later this year. And for 88-year-old Bill that day can’t come soon enough.

He said: “I’m looking forward to it – I don’t want to slow down. I want to speed up. They have started filming again but not for us oldies. But probably by the autumn they have said we could be back. I had no idea until they contacted me and they asked me if I wanted to go back and I said yes.

“Then I had to get a doctor’s report that he considers the protocols they have got are good, which he has done.”

Bill has also spoken to fellow cast member Simon Gregson, who plays Steve McDonald, to find out how filming has been going so far. “He said we have got new health and safety guidelines,” added Bill. “But he said the feeling is one of real happiness. You can still banter with the crew at a social distance.”

Bill insists his time away from his beloved Corrie has made him even more determined never to retire from the cobbles, where he has played Ken Barlow for 60 years.

Speaking from his home in Cheshire, he said: “I can never see myself retiring from Corrie, I really can’t. I love Coronation Street, I always have and I still do. Everyday I think how fortunate I am to be in it. I want to be the first Centenaria­n to still be working in a soap.”

If Bill gets his wish and is still working at Corrie on his 100th birthday, it would be no surprise. He looks at least a decade younger than his age – in fact his character Ken is a whippersna­pper at 80.

Lockdown is the longest period of time Bill has been away from the cobbles since its very first episode back in 1960, and he is chomping at the bit to get back. “There has been nothing like this in anybody’s living experience,” he said.

He has been sharing lockdown with his two youngest children Verity, 39, and Will, 34, who he had with his second wife Sara Mottram. His eldest son, actor Linus, 56, now lives in America and they have been FaceTiming regularly.

“We’ve been lucky – I have got a house with a nice garden and we have been enjoying good weather. We all get on very, very well. But I realise how tough it is for so many people,it is very hard.”

And Bill has managed to brush up on some old skills from his time serving in the forces – he joined the Army in 1953, rising to the rank of Captain before leaving to start an acting career.

“My children are wonderful and we sort of divide the chores” he said. “I’ve relearned how to wash and iron a shirt – not since my Army days I’ve had to do that.

“It gives you time to reflect and you haven’t got any demands being made.

But it will gradually get back to some sort of normality.”

And normality for Bill means that famous street. One of his first TV roles was in a Granada TV play called Marking Time, where he played a young soldier in Germany who fraternise­d with a German girl. Coronation Street creator Tony Warren spotted Bill and decided he would be perfect as Ken.

Corrie was only meant to run for 13 episodes but within six months it was the most watched show on British TV.

Since then, Bill has met the Queen seven times and escorted the Duchess of Cornwall around the Street’s set when she visited to mark its 50th anniversar­y.

And of course, he has been at the centre of some of Corrie’s most explosive moments. Fans got a reminder this week of the famous Ken, Deirdre and Mike Baldwin love triangle which had millions of viewers transfixed, in new series

Coronation Street: Stories that Gripped the Nation.

“That was the big one, the one that really hit the pulse of the nation,” said Bill. “Marriage guidance counsellor­s quoted it and I remember it went up on the screen at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground at half time when Ken stayed with Deirdre.

“It was very intense. I remember the big scene I had with Anne, the first time I went at it, it made her cry. She stopped and said ‘I didn’t know it was going to be like that’. I said well it is.

“When we went for it she still cried but it was genuine. That was the scene we got awards for, you really got the raw emotion coming out. It is very satisfying to get that, but you don’t always hit it. Another time Ken was having an affair with somebody and I was dropping my daughter at school and one of the mothers said to her child ‘get away from that man’. She was really angry. “About a year later she came up to me and said, ‘You know, at the time you were doing that, my husband was doing exactly the same thing’, but she said in a way I helped her through it as she realised she was not alone.” Ken has been married four times and had some 30 girlfriend­s, including Joanna Lumley and Stephanie Beacham. Bill added: “Ken has had some wonderful girlfriend­s.” Recently, Ken became single again after he dumped

Claudia, played by Rula Lenska. But Bill hopes that Ken will eventually find love once more. Though off screen he is happily single. Bill has been married twice, first to Anna Cropper for 13 years – who was mum to his children Linus and Vanya – and then to Sara Mottram for 31 years until she died suddenly in 2009, aged just 58. And sadly that isn’t the only tragedy Bill has endured in his life.

His eldest daughter Vanya died at just 50 in 2018, while he and Sara suffered heartbreak in 1984 when their toddler daughter Edwina died of bronchial pneumonia at just 18 months. He

always described second wife Sara as “the one”, and says he is now content with the love he gets from his children.

“I am 88 and Ken is actually 80, so he is younger, so why not get a new love interest for him? Let’s see what comes along,” he said.

“But I have got friends, my children are lovely, I find love through my children. I am very content. I have got a lovely freedom, great family, a lovely job, I enjoy writing and playing golf.

“Life is good, it is as good now as it has ever been. I am not alone, I have a lovely life and I am very blessed and really enjoying it. You never know what life has got in store for you.”

And now as the show celebrates its 60th birthday, Bill says long may it continue. “It is a full cake, it is not a young people’s show or an old people’s show. It is life, it embraces all things. I don’t see why it can’t go on forever.”

Coronation Street is life.. I don’t see why it can’t go on forever

BILL ROACHE ON SOAP’S 60TH ANNIVERSAR­Y

 ??  ?? Bill says ‘he’s had time to reflect’
Bill says ‘he’s had time to reflect’
 ??  ?? Mike, Deidre and Ken in love plot
Mike, Deidre and Ken in love plot
 ??  ?? Lumley played Ken’s girlfriend
Lumley played Ken’s girlfriend
 ??  ?? With soap partner Rula Lenska
TRAGEDY Bill and late wife Sara
SOAP ICON Bill says he still feels great at 88
With soap partner Rula Lenska TRAGEDY Bill and late wife Sara SOAP ICON Bill says he still feels great at 88
 ??  ?? MBE with Verity, Sara and Will; right, Anna and Vanya
MBE with Verity, Sara and Will; right, Anna and Vanya
 ??  ?? Bill started on Corrie in 1960
Bill started on Corrie in 1960
 ??  ??

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