The 81-year-old actor was filming a cookery segment with host Jeanette Thomas on a New Zealand TV programme. He was about to chop up a tomato then realised she had done it already. He told her: “You naughty girl. I would say I’m going to smack your bottom – I’d love to do that – but we’re not allowed to on TV.”
Jeanette, 40, laughed off his comments but Bill added: “There’s life in the old dog yet.”
Not for much longer I hope, as Ken on Corrie at least, if he keeps coming out with rubbish like this.
Polly Hudson at the Mirror agrees.
You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog
All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License
Is he trying to get himself fired or something?
ReplyDeleteI think it's time he went. He's clearly being tolerated by ITV because of his status as longest serving soap star in the world. But the man has now clearly shown himself to be an out of touch, out of date, ranting prat.
ReplyDeleteEmbarrassing when you start to need a scriptwriter for real life.
ReplyDeleteIf that's what joining a cult does to your brain I guess I'll stay an atheist, he really is past it and it's time he was put out to pasture.
ReplyDeleteI'm also worried about him. Since the Piers Morgan interview, his image for me has been damaged. I still like Ken as a character.
ReplyDeleteSince turning 80, it seems that Bill Roache has changed from being a gentleman to being a kind of controversialist and it doesn't bode well for me.
Maybe he needs to step back from interviews for a while.
I work with geriatrics and they do reach a stage where they feel there is nothing to lose, nothing to fear. As far as the soap goes, he probably feels they cannot fire him no matter what at this late stage in the game. I wonder if Dennis was brought in in an attempt to reign in Ken?
ReplyDeleteRoache is a lifelong Tory, a dear friend to the odious Neil & Christine Hamilton, holder of some extremely dodgy views, some of which he has been propagating in recent weeks, and a tinfoil hat crank to boot.
ReplyDeleteA thoroughly unpleasant individual. That he has played a stereotypical caring leftie for 50 odd years is perhaps the ultimate irony. Maybe he's being found out at long last.
I think its time he went, he is becoming an embarrassment to the programme and his clunky style of acting these days wont be missed. Give Dreary a younger man!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. If Barbara Knox said this to a young man, everyone would find it funny. I think he has been making a complete pratt of himself lately, but just as it is unfair that there is no male equivalent of "slag", it's unfair that there is no female equivalent of "dirty old man".
ReplyDeleteI blame Celebrity Juice. Going on that show has obviously corrupted him.
ReplyDeleteGood god Bill shut UP!!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a medical thing, like blocked arteries in the head. Or his meds (if he takes any) need adjusting?
ReplyDeleteIt's almost as if Mr. Roache wants to be seen as a completely different individual than that of his on-screen ego. It strikes me funny that he's doing so now, when he's already been seen by millions as his character for over fifty years, and most people only know him for "Ken Barlow". Is he possibly contemplating retirement from the show, yet he wants to stay in the limelight with publicity, making his opinons known on issues of the day, regardless of what they are?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't he have a publicist who should be reigning him on airing his opinons? Or is that person just laughing at the hole that Mr. Roache is likely to be digging for him, and encouraging him?
As long as he's controversial, people will listen to him. IMO he's totally lost the plot and should retire before he hurts himself. He'd better shut up before he ends his career on a bad note.
ReplyDeleteThe idiot needs to be fired. Sorry if thats an unpopular opinion buts its true, or the bosses need to sit him and down and tell him to cut it out. If anyone one else younger of been in it the last 10 years acted like this, they would possibly be booted from the show or warned. Bill may be 81, but he is still doing well and doesn't appear to be going senile. Sacking this stupid man who has had too much comfort remaining on this show would bring him back down to planet earth. He has been a fool so many years of his life, especially admitting to apparently sleeping with 1000 women.
ReplyDeleteCorra actors have been fired for less. What a nerk!
ReplyDeleteWhat makes me both sad and angry is that when a performer (actor, musician, etc.) behaves badly in their personal life it crosses over to their performance. Mr. Roache is making it very difficult for me to continue enjoying his characterization of Ken Barlow. I can't separate the two. If he keeps acting the old fool the producers will have no choice but to put him on hiatus, or even terminate his contract. 52 years in the job does not make him invincible.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of the bumbling old fart.
ReplyDeleteLeave him alone, for goodness sake. The calls for his sacking are just stupid.
ReplyDeleteOn what planet would Barbara Knox or any other female actress of a certain age do or say anything comparable to the hijinx of Bill Roache? I would say in general that I've notice folk over 80 tend to let go of their inhibitions. I don't mean that they deliberately act shocking but rather their true personality comes out, unfiltered. From everything I've read and heard about Mr. Roache over the years, it seems his facade is slipping, rather than his personality actually changing.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is about time this Bill Roache is leaving.
ReplyDeleteHe has strange views of most things, but that is his previledge.
He has little or no ambition, otherwise he would have left the street a long time ago, like a lot of other actors have.
Not only did he boast a little while ago, re; sleeping with......,but now this.
Stay at home mr. Roache.
Anon.