William Roache, eh? The nation’s world record holding, longest serving and most celebrated soap actor has totted up an utterly astounding 65 years in the role of Ken Barlow, Coronation Street’s last remaining original character.
From humble beginnings as a university student, clashing with his father, Frank Barlow (Frank Pemberton), to becoming a teacher, husband to Valerie (Anne Reid) and father to twins, Susan (Wendy Jane Walker, Suzy Paterson and Joanna Foster) and Peter Barlow (Joseph McKenner, David Lonsdale and Chris Gascoyne), all before losing Valerie to a faulty hair dryer that claimed her life and made him a widower.
Second wife, Janet (Judith Barker) committed suicide, before he finally met Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride), thus beginning their epic romantic saga that spanned decades and solidified them as one of soaps most iconic couples…
…and what is an iconic couple without plenty of affairs and a break up thrown in? After their divorce, there was the Wendy Crozier (Roberta Kerr) of it all before Ken became a father at 55, having Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) with Denise (Denise Black). He later – of course – reunited with his beloved Deidre while retaining his wandering eye, before her untimely death.
Ever since, Ken has been held in high esteem as the patriarch of the Barlow dynasty, trying to keep alcoholic Peter, devilish adoptive daughter Tracy (Kate Ford), troubled son Daniel and grandson, Adam (Sam Robertson), in line.
On his process for portraying Ken, William told The Mirror: ‘It’s pseudo-method I would say.
‘If you’re playing a character that’s vastly different from yourself you’ve got all sorts of things to learn and do. I didn’t have that. I was just playing me as Ken Barlow.
‘In my book I don’t act, I just do, and I believe it. That’s it. I don’t think about acting at all. I just absorb, take it all in, feel that’s who I am, that’s what I’m doing, and do it.’
But with 65 years worth of storylines under his belt, William describes only’only a couple of times’ where he’s struggled to portray a plot.
‘One time in particular, when it hasn’t worked is because I took it personally, I was personally involved. It wasn’t Ken, it was me doing this but under the name of Ken.
‘Ken had an illegitimate child by a hairdresser and he was looking after this child on his own and was very protective of it, was fighting for it tooth and nail.
‘Suddenly, not in just one episode, but in one scene the mother of the child comes along and takes it away and he says okay. I said, ‘I’m sorry, I just can’t do that.’ I’d been so involved with protecting, keeping and looking after this child, suddenly in one sentence.
‘The producer said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s a bit sudden, I realise it.’ It was too late to change it. That was a big wrench.’
Speaking further on why the storyline was so difficult, William said: ‘I took [it] personally. As an actor you shouldn’t do that, if you’re doing different parts all the time you’d be all over the place. I feel I’m Ken’s protector, I feel I’m looking after him. His caretaker rather than protector. That’s what I do.’
With an inimitable run in Weatherfield, does William ever feel the years catching up with him? ‘I try not to think about the years, I just think about getting on and enjoying life,’ he said, much to our delight.
What’s he looking forward to as he carries on bringing Ken to life on-screen?
‘I would want for the future just more of the same. I think to quite a large extent ageing is a belief system, you know.
As you get on people say, ‘Oh, take it easy, you shouldn’t be doing that.’ So, you start taking it easy. And then it’s, ‘Well, I think you should give that up.’ So, you give that up and it goes down, down you go.
‘Actually, as you get older, you should start doing more, not less. We’re lucky to be here, as we are, so make the most of it. Life is a miracle. Our actually physical body is a miracle and it’s capable of so much more.’
We’re with William, the more Ken, the better!
