Street star owes it all to Lord Olivier

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 19

Street star owes it all to Lord Olivier

From ROBIN CHARTERIS in London William Roach, known to millions of “Coronation Street” fans as Ken Barlow, recalled in a recent interview how he owed everthing to Lord Olvier.

“I’d come out of the army longing to be an actor and I couldn’t get work,” said Roach, the only character who has stayed with “Coronation Street” for its full 25 years. “I wrote to Sir Laurence and he suggested I meet him at the stage door of London’s Cambridge Theatre where he was playing. He invited me- a complete unknown - into his dressing room, offered me a gin and tonic, gave me 20 minutes of his precious time and told me not to give up.

“Years later when he came to Granada to do a series of plays, I bumped into him in the corridor and he said: ‘I would like to say how much I enjoy your performance as Ken? It turned out he was a great ‘Coronation Street’ fan.”

Meanwhile, the head of Granada Television, Sir Denis Foreman, has told Indian reporters that India may buy “Coronation Street.”

In return, Britain may well see an Indian soap opera, “Hum Log,” a serial in Hindu which shows the trials and tribulations of a middle-class Indian family.

“Coronation Street” is Britain and the world’s longest running serial. Celebrations are being held in Britain to mark its silver jubilee.