Roy Barraclough
Actor best known for playing Alec Gilroy, landlord of the Rover’s Return, in Coronation Street
ROY BARRACLOUGH, the comic actor, who has died aged 81, played Alec Gilroy, the shifty landlord of the Rovers Return pub in the ITV soap Coronation Street; earlier, in the 1970s, he had formed a successful screen partnership with the comedian Les Dawson when they appeared as Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebottom, two matronly north country gossips.
Barraclough’s portrayal of Gilroy echoed a well-worn image from a seaside postcard: small husband dominated by large buxom wife, although in Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) Gilroy seemed to find a genuine soulmate; a moving scene in which the couple grieved over Bet’s miscarriage resonated with anyone who felt they might have missed their last chance to have children.
His character started out as a rather seedy theatrical agent who represented Rita Littlewood (Barbara Knox), then working part-time as a singer in a nightclub. Barraclough brought real warmth and humour to the part as well as much-admired comic timing; informed by Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) that her doctor employer had proposed marriage, Gilroy’s muttered aside – “’As ‘e gone senile?” – was worthy of Tony Hancock.
Roy Barraclough was born on July 12 1935 at Preston. Stage-struck as a boy, he acted in amateur productions during the 12 years he worked as an engineering draughtsman.
When he landed a job as entertainments manager at a holiday camp, Barraclough played the piano and told jokes, then joined a Huddersfield repertory company as an assistant stage manager. Moving to the Oldham Coliseum, he acted alongside future members of the Coronation Street cast including Julie Goodyear, Barbara Knox and Anne Kirkbride. By the mid-1960s he had played many roles for Alan Ayckbourn (then a BBC drama producer based in Leeds).
Fame on television came when he replaced Les Dawson’s regular “feed” and the pair created the roles of Cissie and Ada. Barraclough played Cissie – the marginally more refined of the two – and the characters were derived from an impromptu routine with which he and Dawson had entertained the studio crew while they waited to record a sketch.
Cissie’s attempts at daintiness or self improvement were constantly undermined by Ada (played by Dawson without any effort to raise his voice to a more feminine pitch), who would greet Cissie’s comments with a raised eyebrow, a hitching of her large bosom and the rudest possible misinterpretation. In a sketch in which Cissie tries to introduce her friend to culture at an art gallery, Ada’s response on being told that a painting is “a Pissarro” is that “these foreigners will do it anywhere”.
Before being cast as Gilroy in Coronation Street, in 1973, Barraclough had already played four minor roles in the series, beginning in 1965 as a tour guide hired by the street’s residents on a coach trip. A year later he was “I-spy” Dwyer, the window cleaner who sold his round to Stan Ogden. He also played a bed salesman.
After his departure from Coronation Street in 1996, Barraclough starred with Dora Bryan in a dismal sitcom called Mother’s Ruin, derided by one critic as “the high sewage mark of the television double entendre”. More successfully, in 2005 Barraclough made a guest appearance in Last of the Summer Wine in the episode “Has Anyone Seen A Peruvian Wart?” He also took parts in episodes of Casualty and Peak Practice.
His stage roles ranged from musicals and pantomimes to serious drama, including Shakespeare; he played Falstaff opposite Ben Kingsley and Robert Powell in a production of Henry IV in Stoke-on-trent. Recent television roles included Maurice in Last Tango in Halifax (2012-2013). and Mr Grainger in a remake of Are You Being Served? (2016)
In 2006 Barraclough was appointed MBE for his charity work.
Roy Barraclough never married.
Roy Barraclough, born July 12 1935, died June 1 2017