OHMYGOSSIP — Bill Roache initially saw ‘Coronation Street’ as a stepping stone in his career.
The 88-year-old actor joined the ITV soap back in 1960, but at the time, he thought it would be a short-lived role on the show.
Bill – who plays the part of Ken Barlow – said: “My agent said, ‘It’ll only be for 11 weeks.'”
The soap received rave reviews when it first aired and it’s been a huge success ever since.
He said: “It was highly prestigious with write-ups in all the big papers. We went straight in at the top of the ratings and we’ve never been out of the top 10 since.”
The veteran star also feels that the soap label does a disservice to ‘Coronation Street’, arguing it “denigrates” the show.
He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “Soap’s a derogatory term, it denigrates what we do. ‘Coronation Street’ is a major, cutting-edge drama serial.”
Meanwhile, Bill admitted he’s fortunate to have risen to fame in a pre-internet era.
He conceded that young actors and actresses of today have to deal with far more scrutiny than he did in his early days on ‘Coronation Street’.
He said: “It was good to be known in an age when there were fewer so-called celebrities. A lot of things were open to us.
“Yes, it’s different for today’s youngsters.”
By contrast, the actor admitted to preferring today’s jam-packed filming schedule.
Bill explained: “I thought when we did two [weekly] episodes it was too much. But I much prefer it now. There are no rehearsals but you can have maybe two or three goes at a take, so if something’s not right, there’s more latitude for hitting it how you want to hit it.”
Source: VacationHunter.Online
Find us also on Facebook @Ohmygossip.com