Coronation Street’s longest-serving actor Bill Roache has opened up about his thoughts on retirement.
And it’s good news for Ken Barlow fans – the veteran soap star will not be saying ‘ta-ra’ to the cobbles any time soon.
The 85-year-old claims he doesn’t currently even consider hanging up his specs and newspaper.
“I never think about it,” he told the Radio Times. “I enjoy what I’m doing and I’m lucky in that I’m in a job where I can age.
“I’m actually falling to bits in front of people’s eyes and that’s what I’m meant to do. Ken Barlow is me – he’s getting older and I’m getting older with him.”
In the same interview, Bill – who has been in the soap since 1960 – compares his character to The Godfather.
“There is a superannuated Don Corleone element to Ken,” he continued.
“If you look at Ken’s family, he has a daughter who’s a serial killer and a son who’s an alcoholic bigamist, so they’re like a little Mafia family and I try to keep them all together.”
Yep, fair point, well made!
Bill certainly gave Brando and De Niro a run for their money in recent scenes, after discovering that Billy Mayhew had been responsible for his daughter Susan’s death.
In chilling scenes, he calmly but very menacingly pointed out that the vicar was very much now indebted to his family.
The former teacher warned him off reporting his son Peter after he kidnapped him and threatened his life.
“You killed one of my children,” he whispered. “If you cause Peter to suffer, I’ll make you suffer. And that’s a promise.”
All that was missing was a “Capiche?”!
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