William Patrick Roache (born 25 April 1932) is an English actor, best known for playing Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

Roache is the longest-serving cast member in Coronation Street, having appeared in the show continuously since its first broadcast on 9 December 1960.

Albert Waddicor was a violent drunk, but his wife was a successful businesswoman, who ran a restaurant and tea rooms at Alton Towers, which had been opened as a tourist attraction - but not at that time a theme park – after the death of the 20th Earl of Shrewsbury.

Roache grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, where he attended a Steiner school set up by his grandfather, a physician and surgeon, in the family's garden.

[4][5][6] His grandfather was a Freemason who was interested in such things as theosophy, esotericism, hypnotism, spiritualism, and homoeopathy, as well as the teachings of philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner.

He appeared in various stage productions, then had uncredited roles in several films, and later won small parts in television serials including Knight Errant Limited and Skyport.

In an interview with the Liverpool Post in 2007, Roache recalled "I played a young soldier in Germany who fraternised with a German girl, although I can't remember now how it ended.

"[10] On 16 October 1985, just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his debut on Coronation Street, Roache appeared as the subject of TV show This Is Your Life.

[13] He was the winner of The Golden Shot (a remake), progressing through to Bullseye in which he was beaten by television presenter Vernon Kay.

In October 2008, he revealed on BBC Breakfast he had had a two-year feud with actress Pat Phoenix, a fellow Coronation Street player, during which they did not speak to each other: this stemmed from her changing a scene involving the two of them.

In 1991, Roache won a libel action against The Sun, which had described him as boring and unpopular with his fellow Coronation Street stars.

In 2007, as a guest for Daily Politics, he championed Sir John Major as Britain's greatest post-war prime minister.

[40] An image of Ken Barlow had been removed from the Madame Tussauds waxwork exhibition in Blackpool due to fears it might be vandalised.

In March 2007, Roache was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Chester in recognition of his contribution to television.