alan45
26-09-2010, 02:58
CORRIE legend Bill Roache today pulls no punches as he spills behind-the-scenes secrets that will stun millions of Street fans.
In an revealing autobiography as the soap begins its 50th anniversary celebrations, the star who has been an ever-present since the first episode talks frankly of his life as Ken Barlow for the first time.
As Corrie's original lothario he's had four screen marriages, 24 lovers and enthralled the nation in one of the most famous scenes in soap history when he belted factory boss Mike Baldwin for bedding his beloved Deirdre.
But today Bill confesses to cheating in real life too - on his first wife Anna.
Street actor William Roache tells of 50 years on the hit soap
"I wasn't strong enough to resist the opportunities," says the Weatherfield elder, now 78 and the only member of the original cast still in the show.
"I succumbed to my weaknesses and because of this indulged in things like affairs which I am certainly not proud of."
Bill also tells of his secret feud with another Street legend - Pat Phoenix - in which they never spoke to each other off camera for two years.
He reveals how a new producer nicknamed the "Mad Axeman" almost gave him the chop. And how he went into his role so fiercely in one dramatic scene with rival Baldwin that he scared Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre, into real hysterical tears on screen.
"The atmosphere in the studio after we'd finished was electric," he says with pride. "I knew it was a bit special."
PHOTOS: Ken's life in pictures
A bit special is what Ken has become since December 9, 1960, when he first walked onto the famous Street that has made him a national treasure.
But he reveals he nearly turned down the role. "I wasn't interested. I had my flat in London, I was getting acting parts and it all looked very rosy," says Bill.
He changed his mind and finally agreed to go for an audition - and was told it would run for 13 episodes and would be six weeks' work. "Those six weeks have now stretched into 50 years, and the programme is still going strong," he says proudly. "Nobody could have known way back then what an impact it would have."
But Bill reveals he nearly got the chop after just three years when producer Tim Aspinall, known as a "Mad Axeman" among the cast, earmarked him in a cull of top stars.
"He had a kind of hit list of characters," says Bill. "He decided who he wanted out, while others including myself were put on warning that we were likely to be given the chop at a later date. It was appalling."
But before the axe could fall Bill was reprieved as Aspinall himself was replaced.
The young Ken was married to actress Anna Cropper at this time. They went on to have two children, Vanya and Linus. But as his popularity on the show soared, their relationship crumbled and Bill blames their marriage breakdown on his affairs.
ON-OFF: Ken keeps on getting back with Deidre
He says: "Temptation is lurking around the corner, because so much is on offer to you. It was nobody else's fault. No one forced me to do what I did, and I still regret the way I behaved and ultimately what it did to my marriage."
He found himself with woman trouble at work as well as at home as the show completed its first decade. Bill reveals he and Pat Phoenix had a clash over the way a scene was written one day that would explode into a bitter feud when Pat told him where to get off.
No one forced me to do what I did and I still regret the way I behaved
"I was very upset about this - she just wanted to alter the scene to suit her. We had a huge row in front of the whole set and it turned out to be the last words we spoke to each other off-screen for the next two years.
"I have to admit that I didn't like that. It was horrible to have it hanging there. I actually liked Pat - but we just avoided each other for those two years unless we had to play a scene together."
Their feud ended when Pat invited Bill to a party out of the blue. "From that moment on there wasn't a problem. We never spoke about the incident again," he says.
In 1972, Bill met two women who changed his life. One was Sara Mottram who would be his wife for 31 years before her tragic unexpected death last year. The other was Anne who joined the soap as Deirdre Hunt, but would find soap immortality as Ken's long- suffering wife.
Bill says: "I'm sure Anne had no idea that Deirdre would become such a popular part of the show, but I think it says an awful lot for her as an actor that she is still going strong some 38 years later."
But as the soap moved into the Eighties, Ken got more boring and Bill got fed up - and his self-confidence nosedived. "He was beginning to look very ordinary and quite nerdy, and that in turn had a knock-on effect for me, because I started to lose confidence as an actor," he says.
"I went through a time where I was really scared of 'drying', which is not being able to remember your lines.
"You start to wonder about your own ability to remember lines and act in the way you had, which can be very damaging."
So he had a heart-to-heart with the producer which led to the 1983 storyline that would earn the soap its highest ratings - 29 million - when Ken was caught in a love triangle after Deirdre began an affair with Mike Baldwin, played by Johnny Briggs.
But Bill reveals he was unhappy at how the showdown scene - when he first came face to face with Mike after discovering the affair - was written.
Ken was scripted to stand there meekly while Mike and Deirdre chatted on his doorstep. Bill says: "Every time I looked at the words and at what was supposed to happen I knew it just didn't ring true."
I don't care if I'm 120 I'll still be there
So he approached director Brian Mills and made his feelings known. It was agreed that instead Ken would go to hit Mike and Deirdre would intervene. But Bill says: "Poor Annie wasn't prepared for what happened to her next and actually burst into tears because of the ferocity of my performance.
"She was shaken up by it, and when it came to the moment for Mike Baldwin to knock at the door she got an even bigger shock.
"After Baldwin asked why Deirdre had put the phone down when he'd called earlier, I slammed the door shut with my left hand and then slammed poor Annie against the door itself, leaving her shaken and shocked.
"She then made her way into the Barlows' living room, sobbing her heart out, and Brian left the cameras rolling, capturing her genuine distress."
The shock scene gripped the nation. "The storyline was described as the most volatile and explosive in the programme's history," says Bill.
"And when Deirdre decided to stop seeing Mike and stay with Ken, the scoreboard at Old Trafford on the night flashed the message that the couple were not splitting up to 56,000 football fans, amid thunderous cheers from the crowd!"
The show went from strength to strength. And in 1999 Bill was involved in another memorable storyline as on-off Ken and Deirdre got back together again and married a second time.
REVEALING: The star talks frankly in his new autobiography
Bill says: "I was pleased. It seemed to fit perfectly with the lives that had been created for them throughout their time in Coronation Street.
"They had both gone off and done very silly things and had had affairs with people, and yet their overriding need as they got older was for each other."
Bill is now looking forward to more trials and tribulations as Ken and reveals he would carry on until he is 120 - if the Street will still have him.
He aims to last as long the lucky Corrie vine plant given to the cast by Noel Dyson, who played Ken's mum Ida, when she left the soap in 1961.
Bill says: "She gave us it as a parting gift, saying 'When this vine dies, the Street will end'.
"There was panic 30 years later when it went missing as we moved studios. Actors can be pretty superstitious. But it was eventually found in a skip and a cutting from it is still going strong to this day!" Just like Bill. "I'm not even thinking about retiring. It isn't an option and I don't want to even consider it," he says.
And apart from a long-standing hearing problem he has been dealing with since he was 21 after a mortar accident in the Army, he feels fighting fit.
He says: "I feel great. I've just had another clean bill of health and just lost 18lbs in weight and I'm feeling really good.
"I love the Street and while they want me and while I can do it I want to carry on. I don't care if I'm 120, I'll still be there."
In an revealing autobiography as the soap begins its 50th anniversary celebrations, the star who has been an ever-present since the first episode talks frankly of his life as Ken Barlow for the first time.
As Corrie's original lothario he's had four screen marriages, 24 lovers and enthralled the nation in one of the most famous scenes in soap history when he belted factory boss Mike Baldwin for bedding his beloved Deirdre.
But today Bill confesses to cheating in real life too - on his first wife Anna.
Street actor William Roache tells of 50 years on the hit soap
"I wasn't strong enough to resist the opportunities," says the Weatherfield elder, now 78 and the only member of the original cast still in the show.
"I succumbed to my weaknesses and because of this indulged in things like affairs which I am certainly not proud of."
Bill also tells of his secret feud with another Street legend - Pat Phoenix - in which they never spoke to each other off camera for two years.
He reveals how a new producer nicknamed the "Mad Axeman" almost gave him the chop. And how he went into his role so fiercely in one dramatic scene with rival Baldwin that he scared Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre, into real hysterical tears on screen.
"The atmosphere in the studio after we'd finished was electric," he says with pride. "I knew it was a bit special."
PHOTOS: Ken's life in pictures
A bit special is what Ken has become since December 9, 1960, when he first walked onto the famous Street that has made him a national treasure.
But he reveals he nearly turned down the role. "I wasn't interested. I had my flat in London, I was getting acting parts and it all looked very rosy," says Bill.
He changed his mind and finally agreed to go for an audition - and was told it would run for 13 episodes and would be six weeks' work. "Those six weeks have now stretched into 50 years, and the programme is still going strong," he says proudly. "Nobody could have known way back then what an impact it would have."
But Bill reveals he nearly got the chop after just three years when producer Tim Aspinall, known as a "Mad Axeman" among the cast, earmarked him in a cull of top stars.
"He had a kind of hit list of characters," says Bill. "He decided who he wanted out, while others including myself were put on warning that we were likely to be given the chop at a later date. It was appalling."
But before the axe could fall Bill was reprieved as Aspinall himself was replaced.
The young Ken was married to actress Anna Cropper at this time. They went on to have two children, Vanya and Linus. But as his popularity on the show soared, their relationship crumbled and Bill blames their marriage breakdown on his affairs.
ON-OFF: Ken keeps on getting back with Deidre
He says: "Temptation is lurking around the corner, because so much is on offer to you. It was nobody else's fault. No one forced me to do what I did, and I still regret the way I behaved and ultimately what it did to my marriage."
He found himself with woman trouble at work as well as at home as the show completed its first decade. Bill reveals he and Pat Phoenix had a clash over the way a scene was written one day that would explode into a bitter feud when Pat told him where to get off.
No one forced me to do what I did and I still regret the way I behaved
"I was very upset about this - she just wanted to alter the scene to suit her. We had a huge row in front of the whole set and it turned out to be the last words we spoke to each other off-screen for the next two years.
"I have to admit that I didn't like that. It was horrible to have it hanging there. I actually liked Pat - but we just avoided each other for those two years unless we had to play a scene together."
Their feud ended when Pat invited Bill to a party out of the blue. "From that moment on there wasn't a problem. We never spoke about the incident again," he says.
In 1972, Bill met two women who changed his life. One was Sara Mottram who would be his wife for 31 years before her tragic unexpected death last year. The other was Anne who joined the soap as Deirdre Hunt, but would find soap immortality as Ken's long- suffering wife.
Bill says: "I'm sure Anne had no idea that Deirdre would become such a popular part of the show, but I think it says an awful lot for her as an actor that she is still going strong some 38 years later."
But as the soap moved into the Eighties, Ken got more boring and Bill got fed up - and his self-confidence nosedived. "He was beginning to look very ordinary and quite nerdy, and that in turn had a knock-on effect for me, because I started to lose confidence as an actor," he says.
"I went through a time where I was really scared of 'drying', which is not being able to remember your lines.
"You start to wonder about your own ability to remember lines and act in the way you had, which can be very damaging."
So he had a heart-to-heart with the producer which led to the 1983 storyline that would earn the soap its highest ratings - 29 million - when Ken was caught in a love triangle after Deirdre began an affair with Mike Baldwin, played by Johnny Briggs.
But Bill reveals he was unhappy at how the showdown scene - when he first came face to face with Mike after discovering the affair - was written.
Ken was scripted to stand there meekly while Mike and Deirdre chatted on his doorstep. Bill says: "Every time I looked at the words and at what was supposed to happen I knew it just didn't ring true."
I don't care if I'm 120 I'll still be there
So he approached director Brian Mills and made his feelings known. It was agreed that instead Ken would go to hit Mike and Deirdre would intervene. But Bill says: "Poor Annie wasn't prepared for what happened to her next and actually burst into tears because of the ferocity of my performance.
"She was shaken up by it, and when it came to the moment for Mike Baldwin to knock at the door she got an even bigger shock.
"After Baldwin asked why Deirdre had put the phone down when he'd called earlier, I slammed the door shut with my left hand and then slammed poor Annie against the door itself, leaving her shaken and shocked.
"She then made her way into the Barlows' living room, sobbing her heart out, and Brian left the cameras rolling, capturing her genuine distress."
The shock scene gripped the nation. "The storyline was described as the most volatile and explosive in the programme's history," says Bill.
"And when Deirdre decided to stop seeing Mike and stay with Ken, the scoreboard at Old Trafford on the night flashed the message that the couple were not splitting up to 56,000 football fans, amid thunderous cheers from the crowd!"
The show went from strength to strength. And in 1999 Bill was involved in another memorable storyline as on-off Ken and Deirdre got back together again and married a second time.
REVEALING: The star talks frankly in his new autobiography
Bill says: "I was pleased. It seemed to fit perfectly with the lives that had been created for them throughout their time in Coronation Street.
"They had both gone off and done very silly things and had had affairs with people, and yet their overriding need as they got older was for each other."
Bill is now looking forward to more trials and tribulations as Ken and reveals he would carry on until he is 120 - if the Street will still have him.
He aims to last as long the lucky Corrie vine plant given to the cast by Noel Dyson, who played Ken's mum Ida, when she left the soap in 1961.
Bill says: "She gave us it as a parting gift, saying 'When this vine dies, the Street will end'.
"There was panic 30 years later when it went missing as we moved studios. Actors can be pretty superstitious. But it was eventually found in a skip and a cutting from it is still going strong to this day!" Just like Bill. "I'm not even thinking about retiring. It isn't an option and I don't want to even consider it," he says.
And apart from a long-standing hearing problem he has been dealing with since he was 21 after a mortar accident in the Army, he feels fighting fit.
He says: "I feel great. I've just had another clean bill of health and just lost 18lbs in weight and I'm feeling really good.
"I love the Street and while they want me and while I can do it I want to carry on. I don't care if I'm 120, I'll still be there."