In an interview with The Radio Times, William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow, has repeated his statement that he'll never retire from the show. It's a statement he's quoted on often and it's good to hear it, too.
William is 85 years old now and has been a mainstay on Coronation Street since it began in December 1960.
Asked whether he would ever retire, Roache says in the new issue of Radio Times: “No! I never think about it. 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. If I were playing James Bond, I’d grow out of the age where I could play the role. But Ken Barlow is me – he’s getting older and I’m getting older with him.
“There is a superannuated Don Corleone element to Ken. 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.”
You can read the full interview with William Roache in the latest issue of Radio Times (out today)
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9 comments:
Well hold on a second - I just read an article this morning where William Roache claims he is getting younger, and that it is our food and lifestyle choices that harm our bodies, not age. Apparently our bodies are meant to go on forever.
Serial killer? Who else have Tracey killed? Ayla and Zeedan's dad? Kai (Jimi Ministry) I forgot his name???
Kal was Alya and Zeedan's dad.
I love that he's thought of as the Godfather of the show - he truly is - not only for just being there so long (and good for him!) but also because of his little mafia show family also! Love it!
Serial killer Tracy - wasn't she also responsible for the death of Sophie's girlfriend Maddie? Plus Charlie Stubbs of course, in order to "inherit" his house.
I've been re-watching episodes from 2006-2010 and I'm not only reminded of how unforgivable Tracy is (Stubbs' murder was one thing, but draining her parents of their life savings to defend her false testimony... ), but also how guilty Rosie Webster is. Why has everyone seemingly forgotten her role in bringing John Stape down, causing him to lose his job, and, through various devious ploys, making his life a misery until he was compelled to take on a false identity or never work again. Aren't the cascading deaths from that story the fall-out of Rosie's self-centered machinations?
I don't get the repeated references to organized crime. Isn't that analogy a little much? Ken is a boring, pompous old wind bag and Bill is starting to sound the same.
Perhaps this is what happens when an actor has played a part for almost sixty years. The actor and character become the same. Chris Gascoyne said as much about his character. While I'm amused by the mafia reference, I feel it was only a reward to a long-serving actor who hadn't been doing much. That means it's not to be taken very seriously. What makes the family work is the relationship between Peter and Tracy. They are very believable as siblings with a love/hate relationship, bringing up a third generation of Barlows with their own squabbles.
I think the Ken Corleone references started at Christmas when Ken took matters into his own hands about what Peter did to Billy and ordered everyone in the family to keep their mouths shut about what happened. Keep it all in the family and tell nobody else.
Besides the kids, there was his Tony Soprano-like visit to Billy in the hospital.
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