Ken Barlow

rdf:langString Ken Barlow

rdf:langString Ken Barlow

rdf:langString Ken Barlow

rdf:langString Peter Barlow

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString #cccfff

rdf:langString Coronation Street: The Complete Saga

rdf:langString Coronation Street: The War Years

rdf:langString Teacher

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Newspaper editor

rdf:langString Taxi driver

rdf:langString Shop assistant

rdf:langString Community Development Officer

rdf:langString Warehouse executive

rdf:langString "Janet clearly saw Ken as someone who might provide the sort of lifestyle she wanted if he was pushed and manoeuvred in the right direction. She had plans for them to move away from the Street and into a bigger house, and went along with the idea Ken had of getting the twins back to live with them, while all along having no intention of sharing a home with his kids. it soon became clear that the marriage was not going to be a happy one, and Janet was no Val."

rdf:langString "Ken has always been very earnest and honourable in his views, and he's tried to do the right thing. The trouble is that like any other human being he is flawed: we all are. When it came to the sort of job he would do, it was clear that teaching fitted perfectly with him as a person. Not only did it help satisfy him intellectually, it also allowed him to help others and at the same time give him a degree of control, which he probably always wanted. I always thought of him during that first decade as a young man who had a very stubborn streak in him when it came to his principles and what he thought was right."

rdf:langString "The now famous 'love triangle showdown' scene on the doorstep on No.1 will always be my favourite. Ken's contempt for his wife, Deirdre, and her lover, Mike Baldwin, was at its most venomous, and I was given to vent my spleen – so much so that even Anne Kirkbride didn't know how I was going to play the scene. All the anger and hurt Ken was feeling spilled out."

rdf:langString Coronation Street

rdf:langString William Roache

rdf:langString — Roache recalls his favourite Coronation Street scene.

rdf:langString — Roache on Ken's early characterisation.

rdf:langString — Roache, on Ken and Janet's relationship.

rdf:langString Ken and Deirdre's Bedtime Stories

rdf:langString "The truth was that Ken never liked him, but having his wife go off and have an affair with Mike turned dislike into hatred, which was wonderful for the programme. Just the mention of Baldwin's name was enough to get Ken twitching with barely contained anger, and for Johnny Briggs and me it was absolutely wonderful. At best the two characters sometimes tolerated each other in an uneasy truce, but at worst the two of them not only threw insults at each other, but punches too. It was a relationship that ran for many years, and although towards the end of Mike Baldwin's time on the show you might say there was a little mellowing going on, it was never a relationship that was going to be anything other than uneasy."

rdf:langString Ken Barlow is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by William Roache. He was created by Tony Warren as one of Coronation Street's original characters and December 2020 marked Ken's 60th anniversary onscreen. He debuted in the soap's first episode on 9 December 1960. Having appeared in the role continuously since that date, Roache is the longest-serving actor in a televised soap opera, and was honoured at the 2010 Guinness World Records ceremony for the achievement, having surpassed actor Don Hastings from the American soap opera As the World Turns, who previously held this title. Roache stated in 2010 that he had no plans to leave the role and would remain in Coronation Street for as long as the producers would have him. In November 2020, Roache was again presented with the Guinness World Record for the longest serving TV soap star in the world for his six decades in Coronation Street. Ken Barlow was introduced as the educated son of a working-class family. In being portrayed as both arrogant, moralistic and a political activist, he differed from the other characters in the soap opera, predominantly working-class like himself. The character developed a reputation as a ladies' man; plots saw Ken using underhanded tactics to boost his prospects in an election, dating numerous women, marrying four times to three women (Valerie Tatlock in 1962, Janet Reid in 1972, Deirdre Hunt in 1981 and again in 2005), fathering four children with three women (Lawrence Cunningham in 1961 from Ken's affair with Susan Cunningham – though he never knew about Lawrence until 2010 – twins Susan Barlow and Peter Barlow in 1965 from Ken's marriage to Valerie Tatlock, and in 1995 Daniel Osbourne from Ken's affair with Denise Osbourne), as well as later adopting Deirdre's daughter Tracy Barlow. Of the many women Ken has been paired with, his relationship with Deirdre has been the most enduring. Ken and Deirdre's fictional relationship made newspaper headlines in Britain in 1983, due to Deirdre's adultery with Mike Baldwin. The storyline captured both media and viewer interest: 20 million people tuned in to watch Ken's discovery of the affair. The storyline led to a feud between Ken and Mike, prominent in both characters' narratives until Mike's screen death in 2006. In March 2017, Coronation Street centred a "whodunit" storyline around the character, in which Ken is pushed down the stairs by an unknown assailant; the storyline was dubbed "Who Attacked Ken?". On 26 May 2017, Ken's attacker was revealed as his son Daniel Osbourne (played by Rob Mallard). Despite his somewhat antagonistic role in the show's early years, Ken developed a reputation among critics for representing an archetypal "boring man". This is an allegation denied by Roache, who has cited Ken's evolution over the years, his chaotic love life and dysfunctional family as evidence to the contrary. Roache has been honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the British Soap Awards for his portrayal of Ken. Away from the canonical serial, Ken has been portrayed by James Roache (William Roache's son) in the dramatisation The Road to Coronation Street, and by Simon Chadwick in the play Corrie!. He has also been spoofed by impressionist Jon Culshaw.

rdf:langString Darren Barlow