A GOOD PRICE FOR OLD TOGS
Bill’s love aff
SKINT Katie Price has raked in £1,779 (€2,120) flogging her old, worn clothes — including a swimsuit.
The bankrupt former glamour model has sold 154 items on Depop over the last two months, including a red topped and leopar print bottomed JYY swimsuit.
Katie (43) — declared bankrupt in 2019 — has got as little as £3 (€3.60) for some of the items.
AFTER a mammoth 61 years on Corrie, Ken Barlow is like a member of the family to millions of viewers.
We’ve watched him living through love triangles, catching out a conman, surviving a stroke and even a murder attempt.
THE son of a doctor and growing up in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside in the UK, Bill’s childhood could have been idyllic.
But at home in Ilkeston with dad Joseph and mum Hester, things weren’t quite so simple.
His mother, brought up by a violent drunk herself, was distant with her young son and Bill recalled: “She talked very little about her own childhood. I think she didn’t know how to be more openly loving.”
He did have other role models though. His other grandfather was a freemason interested in spiritualism, shaping some of Bill’s later beliefs.
Then, aged seven Bill was sent to boarding school in Wales, something he described as a big cultural shock.
But it also was where he first discovered acting, joining the dramatic society there.
However, while Bill caught the bug for his future career, he initially felt he had to follow his father into medicine. He joined the UK army instead in 1953 when he feared he had missed the grades.
Being in the forces left him with ear damage after a bomb detonated near him.
In 1956 he decided to pursue acting. Shortly before joining Corrie, he played the leading role in a TV play called Marking Time. While there is now no trace of it, Bill says Coronation Street creator Tony Warren saw it and thought he was right for Ken.
Bill in the army
And as the longest-serving soap star in television history, Bill Roache is as much a part of the public consciousness as his character.
Away from the cobbles, Bill’s life is even more soap-worthy than Ken’s and, as he celebrates his milestone 90th
His early schooling was in his granddad’s garden, in a Steiner school set up by him — where children learn for themselves rather than the curriculum.
Shock
THE star has had five children. As well as Linus and Vanya, he had Edwina, Verity and William with second spouse Sara.
Lookalike son Linus (58) followed in his dad’s footsteps and has starred in Law & Order and Vikings.
Linus shares his dad’s spirituality saying: “I realised success as an actor alone wouldn’t make me happy. I needed to explore my spiritual side in more depth.”
He has described Bill as an inspiration to him, but added that fans were always mobbing his famous father wherever they went. Keeping it in the family, Linus and his younger half
Milestone
birthday this week, we reveal all about the Weatherfield legend’s incredible personal life. Here, NATASHA WYNARCZYK looks back at Bill’s scandalous love affairs and his claims that he bedded 1,000 women as well as his family tragedies and unusual spiritual beliefs... brother William James (36) both appeared in Coronation Street in 2010, playing Ken Barlow’s lost long son and grandson
James and Lawrence.
That same year, William played a younger version of Bill in BBC drama The Road to Coronation Street, about Tony Warren’s initial attempts to bring Corrie to TV. He said of preparing for the role: “I watched old clips of Daddy. He was very dashing. It’s the Roache genes.” During one of his worst moments — being falsely accused, then cleared of sexual offences in 2014, his daughter Verity (41) was his
“rock”, constantly by his side.
She works as an interior designer — despite her father once saying that he hoped she would be seen in the Rovers.
Off-screen, he has faced tragedy with daughter Edwina, who died from a viral infection at just 18 months in 1984. He later said that he believes her to be a nurse in the afterlife.
Vanya died aged 50 from a liver condition in 2018 — and Bill couldn’t say goodbye to her after he crashed his car in snow.
KEN has appeared since its very first December 9, 1960 centre of some of iconic storylines.
However, he will known for his on/o Deirdre (Anne Kirk with love rival Mik Briggs) which grip
The 1981 weddin was watched by a viewers — reporte wedding of Prince Diana Spencer tw Deirdre also tied t 2005.
And in real life B died in 2015 — we recalled: “With An married in a parall we’d go our separ evenings.”