Ken and Me - Tapa dura

The TV programme "Coronation Street" is watched by around 20 million people every week. After many allegations of steamy extra-marital affairs, including one with Pat Phoenix, William Roach, having spoken to no journalist since the "Sun" trial, sets the record straight in this account of a life on and off Coronation Street. From early in his life, Roache's character Ken Barlow was beset by romantic problems. The wild fling that his third wife, Deirdre, had with his arch-enemy Mike Baldwin, so gripped the nation that news of its ending was reported in "The Times" and the House of Commons. William Roache's private life has also had its share of trauma - with his second wife, Sara McEwen, he endured the death of their daughter. Then, in 1991 he won a libel case against "The Sun". In this autobiography he describes his Derbyshire childhood, his army days in the West Indies and the Gulf, and his later fascination with the paranormal. He also speaks, fondly, of the encouragement he received from Laurence Olivier to become an actor. Not least, he recounts his 30 years with the world's most successful serial in Britain's most famous street.