Sons join Corrie's Bill Roache on the Street
Pete Bainbridge
May 26, 2010
menmedia.co.uk
Corrie's Bill Roache will star alongside his real life sons when a dramatic 50-year-old secret is unearthed on the Street. Actors Linus and James Roache will join their dad for three weeks in the lead-up to the 50th anniversary show.
Law and Order actor Linus, and Bill’s youngest son James, will appear on screen in September when Bill’s character Ken Barlow discovers a dark family secret. Ken is plunged into shock when he finds a letter from the 1960s which is unearthed during building work. But his desire to dredge up the past causes problems with wife Deirdre and son Peter.
Bill said: “I can think of no better way to celebrate my 50th anniversary on Coronation Street than to be working alongside both of my sons – I am looking forward to it immensely.”
Linus Roache, 46, is probably best known for playing Michael Cutter in the American series of Law and Order, but he also starred in Batman Begins and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Robert F Kennedy on TV. Linus also briefly played the role of Peter Barlow in Corrie as a child in 1975.
James Roache, 24, has appeared in ITV1 drama Cold Blood and the Innocence Project for the BBC. Street bosses are staying tight-lipped about the precise roles the Roache brothers will play.
My dad Ken Barlow .. the Coronation Street sex symbol And why I'm coming back to act with him again in the Street
Sue Crawford
22/08/2010
mirror.co.uk
He's been a household name for half a century. But no one knows Coronation Street's Bill Roache better than one of his own sons. Linus, 46, is every inch a chip off the old block. He looks just like him and has also followed in his father's footsteps by carving out a successful acting career. And next week the Roaches will be keeping it in the family when Linus and real-life brother James, 24, turn up on Weatherfield's cobbles.
The pair will play Ken Barlow's long-lost son and grandson in a shocking storyline to celebrate 50 years of the soap. Corrie fans will see Ken discover illegitimate son Lawrence and gay grandson James before the family reunion turns sour. But off screen father and son could not be closer, with Linus - the sexy star of TV's Law & Order - claiming he has yet to eclipse his 78-year-old dad's fame. Or his sex appeal.
"We went for a walk together the other day and these young girls were saying, 'Oh, we love Bill Roache, we've always had a thing for him'," says Linus, who plays Lawrence. "And they weren't joking, it was for real. Dad is an inspiration to me. I don't like talking about his age, but he's 78, which is unbelievable and I literally cannot relate to him like that. He's full of vitality and extremely healthy. He's a sex symbol, for God's sake.
"I hardly ever get recognised in this country, it's just my dad - and it even happens in New York. We went to the top of the Empire State Building and someone went, 'Ooh, look, it's Ken Barlow over there'. It was worse when I was younger. I remember once he was judging a beauty contest on the Isle of Man in a big open-air swimming pool that had been emptied out. There were literally thousands of people there and as we arrived and got out of the car, suddenly hordes of people swarmed forward trying to get through the barricades screaming, 'Bill! Bill!' "I was seven years old and holding his hand, and I remember thinking it was like he was one of the Beatles."
Linus, one of Bill's two children from his first, 13-year marriage to actress Anna Cooper, is delighted to be acting with his dad and brother. In fact, the idea for the family to join forces was actually their own. They had talked about it for a while before Bill approached the show's producer to see if he'd be interested.
He liked it and they came up with the storyline, which sees Ken caught in the middle of his warring homophobic son and gay grandchild. "It's been a beautiful experience and it's really given us a chance to spend much more time together and made an ever de bond between u says Linus. "I live York these days a come back here eeper us all," e in New and I hardly e normally."
But Linus was at his father's side when wife Sara died suddenly. Sara collapsed in bed at the couple's Cheshire home last year. But Bill, who still talks to his wife's photograph every morning, found comfort in work and was back on set just two weeks later. But then Linus has never known his father as anyone but Ken Barlow.
Bill had already been in the role for four years when Linus was born in 1964. As a nine-year-old Linus even briefly appeared on screen alongside his father, playing Ken's son Peter, in his first-ever screen role. However, as he grew older he shied away from the limelight.
"I was just a kid pretending with my dad and having a ball. Then one day somebody came up to me on the set and said, 'What does it feel like that so many million people are going to see you?' Suddenly self-awareness hit me and that was the very first time I got nervous. Sometimes at school I'd get teased a little bit and people would set me apart as being different because my dad was on TV.
"I did find all that a bit awkward. There was nothing really to feel awkward about, but I think that's part of being a kid - you just want to be part of everything and be like everyone else." Bill's marriage to actress Anna Cropper broke up when Linus was 10.
But the two have always been close. "We stayed in touch, although sometimes it was pretty infrequent," says Linus. "Yet we always had a deep bond and it was a relationship we picked up as adults. We are naturally very easy with each other."
Bill went on to meet and marry his second wife Sara and the couple had two children, James and Verity, 29. Linus says: "There's a lot of banter and a lot of common interest between James, my dad and myself, because we all love acting and movies, so we're always talking about actors and styles of acting and stories. It's been great for the three of us to work and really be together. It's made an even deeper bond."
Linus clearly shares his father's work ethic. Like brother James, he decided on a career in acting at an early age. After school he spent several years with the Royal Shakespeare Company before getting his big TV break in 1994, as repressed homosexual Father Greg Pilkington in the award-winning TV series Priest. More TV and films followed and then in 1998 he took two months off to travel to India where he discovered spiritual meditation.
In 2002, he played Robert Kennedy in the US mini-series RFK and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor. Since then, he's appeared in America as the father of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins as well as starring alongside Angelina Jolie in Beyond Borders and with Helena Bonham Carter in Wings of the Dove. America has been his home for the past eight years and he lives in New York with his actress wife Rosalind Bennett.
"It's home now," he says. "I can't quite believe it, but it added up at the time and made a lot of sense to move. I love it and I'm happy to stay there." Linus plays down his success, preferring instead to praise his father whom he describes as "an institution". But he admits growing up in his shadow was tough.
"I tended to run away from it as a child and I didn't like all the media attention. Then, as a young man, I wanted to create my own career. But the name was never a hindrance. I did worry that people might cast me out of nepotism but it's never true. It might possibly get you in the door, but it's never going to get you a job. If you can't cut it, they're not going to use you."
William Roache is to feature on comedian Harry Hill's new album. The actor is one of a number of celebrities to appear on the TV comic's record 'Funny Times'. The TV Burp star signed a deal with Universal Records - the same label as singers Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse and Eminem - to compile the album, which will include funny songs, stories and jokes.
Roache, 78 - who plays Ken Barlow in the hit soap - recorded his voice for the track 'Ken!' which was written especially for his much-loved character. The comedy track also features a Mariachi-style trumpet rendition of the 'Coronation Street' theme tune, and is expected to chart in the UK by Christmas.
In his song, William sings as Ken, giving details about his life in soap - which has seen him perform many varied jobs, and a turbulent love life including four marriages, being widowed twice and divorced once, In the song he sings: "I was a librarian, I was a teacher, I was a trolley pusher, I was a taxi driver - now I am a free man." He also recites the line: "I know where the bodies are buried on the street," before listing his love rivals and lamenting his mistakes.
Other TV stars to star on the album include Bruce Forsyth who duets with Harry on Paul Anka and Sammy Davis Jr's legendary hit 'I'm Not Anyone' and 'Newsround' creator John Craven who sings a song called 'Never Be Holly Willoughby Symphony'.
Bill Roache - We're a' DOOMED!
December 16th, 2011
Coronation Street’s Bill Roache who plays Ken Barlow has predicted a series of “earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and tsunamis,” will cleanse the earth in 2012. The 79-year-old actor believes the world is heading for a series of natural disasters sent to disperse “negative energy,” which will then herald a new “golden age” where people will communicate telepathically.
He told Sky’s The Moore Show’: “This is what all the prophecies about 2012 are. Unfortunately there are some cleansings that will have to take place where negative energy has to be discharged and these will be in the form of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and tsunamis.
“The doom and gloom, as they are saying, is that December 21, 2012, is the end of the Earth. It isn’t, but it’s the change and the end of a lot of things as we know them. We’ll move into the golden age which will be a wonderful age where we’ll all love. We’ll communicate telepathically, we’ll all be aware of our spiritual selves, and it will be a beautiful place to be.”
Bill – who has appeared in Coronation Street since it launched 51 years ago – also explained he has held strong spiritual beliefs for some time, and a homeopathic doctor helped him in his early years on the ITV1 soap when he struggled to find comfort and happiness. He added: “That guy was able to appear on the astral plane, and come into a dream and actually speak to me that way. Nowadays spiritual things are more accepted and it’s going to keep getting bigger. But when I started, these things were very unusual and you had to be careful who you talked to. People would get hostile.”
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Holy moley...
I'm not sure if the video will work outside the UK - if not, let me know and I'll sort a download.
I wonder if this is people jumping on the bandwagon. It seems a bit much for another Corrie star to be charged with rape, especially after William Roache's comments a few weeks ago. Will be interesting to see how this pans out.
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