Roy Hudd reveals reason he left Coronation Street

There's an interesting interview in the Express with actor and national treasure Roy Hudd, who played Coronation Street's undertaker Archie Shuttleworth.

Roy says in the interview that he never wanted to leave the show and was very sad to find out that Archie was being killed off. 

He says: “I didn’t want that but the thing was that I was very sad because it was a great team to be part of. They were terrific people, everyone who produced the show were marvellous. I love Coronation Street. It had that perfect balance of real drama and laughs. The characters were so beautifully drawn.”

But then he says that he declined a permanent role on the cobbles because he was reluctant to “play one character for the rest of his career”.

He says: “I really thought I had a job for life even though I came out of it and I said, ‘Look, don’t make me a permanent character because I have lots of things I want to do, not just play one character for the rest of my career,’ because that’s what they were planning to do and I said no because they wouldn’t let you do anything else at this particular time.  I said, ‘I’m a comic, I want to be in front of an audience again.’ I can’t be doing with it, standing on your mark and doing all that television. I came into it to hear the audience laugh.”

Roy explained he was then asked by producers to return intermittently as Archie.

“So they said, ‘We had all these ideas for you’, but I said, ‘No, I’m sorry I’ll have to go.’ And they said, ‘You will come back, won’t you?' So, I used to keep coming back whenever anyone died because I was the undertaker so I thought, I’ve got a job forever here. In the end he went on a long holiday abroad and he died and left all his money to Audrey and I was never seen again.”

Roy is set to star in a touring production of A Woman of No Importance this year which tours the UK until November. 

Tickets are available here: http://www.classicspring.co.uk/show/uktour

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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

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