Coronation Street: Ken Barlow actor William Roache feared stroke storyline would be the end of his role

The beloved character collapsed in the latest instalment of the ITV soap
Stroke shock: Ken Barlow is in hospital after collapsing in the latest Corrie storyline
Mark Bruce/ITV/PA
Ben Travis18 October 2016

Coronation Street’s William Roache has admitted he was ‘paranoid’ about his character Ken Barlow’s shock stroke storyline.

The actor spoke about scenes aired on Monday night, where Barlow collapsed in the hallway and suffered a stroke after a fight with his son Peter.

“Well when I first heard about [the plot] I was a bit paranoid - first thing I said was, do I get better?" Roache said.

“It made me feel paranoid about my job.”

He claimed that medical accuracy was important to him in the storyline.

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"As an actor, you don't act the deformity, you act trying to speak through it,” he explained. “So I thought, 'well if I bite my tongue like that and trying to talk like that...'

“[Stroke specialist Pippa Tyrell] said perfect, that’s it. So I was very happy.

“As an actor it's good to have something to do like that, but you want to get it right, which I think we did.”

Roache praised producer Kate Oates, who joined the soap earlier in 2016, and has brought back Ken Barlow’s son Daniel and grandson Adam to the show.

"The Barlows have always been female with Blanche and Deirdre and the two children," said Roache. "And suddenly it's four males. They have a scene round the bed in the hospital, and I actually felt this sense of family.

"It was really quite exciting, and I hope we'll become like a Mafia family - we in-fight like crazy, but if anybody else attacks us - we'll go out and get them."

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