HERE'S a thought: without Clacton-on-sea and its summer rep, the Ken Barlow we all know and love might never have graced Coronation Street.For it's conceivable that Weatherfield's resident intellectual could have been played by someone other than William Roache had it not been for a lucky break in Essex.

HERE'S a thought: without Clacton-on-sea and its summer rep, the Ken Barlow we all know and love might never have graced Coronation Street.

For it's conceivable that Weatherfield's resident intellectual could have been played by someone other than William Roache had it not been for a lucky break in Essex.

As an aspiring young actor in the 1950s, with precious little experience, Bill needed help to launch him on a stage career. He got it when the Unicorn Players gave him his first professional theatre job. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Eight weeks of treading the boards at Clacton Town Hall in the July and August was just what the doctor ordered. Bill seized the opportunity, and a few years later would join TV's new serial drama, Coronation Street, when it launched just before the Christmas of 1960. He's still there.

“I remember quite a bit because it was very vivid for me,” he says of his spell by the seaside in 1956 or '57. “I'd been in the army for five years” - he was a captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers - “come out, and was trying to get into acting. I'd done some film bits but realised the art of acting has to be learned in the theatre. So that was the beginning. Clacton started me off.”

How does he think he performed?

“Oh, dreadfully! The first play, I know I wasn't very good, and they cast me down for the second one. But then I was learning fast, and by about the third play in I was beginning to get the parts I should have been having all along. There was still a tremendous amount to learn, but my colleagues were very helpful and I enjoyed the environment. It was a nice place to be, Clacton.

“All my life I'd wanted to act, but I didn't know how to set about it - my family were all doctors - and I had no connections whatsoever. I just had to fight my way in. I think I probably learned more about how much I needed to learn than anything else.”

After that came rep at places such as Oldham and Nottingham. Then, in 1960, Granada launched Coronation Street - the serial drama depicting the lives of ordinary folk in a fictional suburb of Manchester. Bill was in the very first episode. Today he's still there, living at 1 Coronation Street.

Back then, Kenneth Barlow injected a touch of youthful Britain - the hint of change and wider horizons - into a traditional community. The son of a postman and a cleaner, young Ken was the first Street resident to go to university.

But he's never managed to cut the umbilical cord with Weatherfield. He's had a string of jobs - including teacher, taxi driver, lecturer and newspaper editor - and an unfair amount of strife from his relationships. First wife Val was electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer in 1971 and it's been an emotional rollercoaster ever since.

The latest bump was caused by Twisted Tracy, his murderous adopted daughter who killed boyfriend Charlie Stubbs, tried to lie her way to safety, but was jailed for at least 15 years. The fallout led to Ken and wife Deirdre parting - though this week it was all sweetness and light again.

“Ken's a good guy. He's a straight man,” says Bill. “He's the intellectual in the street - was criticised for being a bit tedious, but what can you do? He's an ex-teacher; he wants to be the voice of Weatherfield; a very good chap; a good friend; a principled guy. But he's a total mess with his family.

“Thirty-three girlfriends and three wives doesn't mean a Lothario; it's someone who is pretty useless with his women. With 'my' dysfunctional family - with my bigamist son, murdering daughter, mother-in-law Blanche and Deirdre - it's wonderful; and therein lies the story. Long may it continue.”

It's definitely given Bill a meaty 18 months or so. It's now quietening down, though, and he's got much of June and July off.

The less frantic schedule gives Bill the opportunity to do a few of his An Audience With William Roache evenings, where he talks to audiences about his life and work. On June 16 he was at Lowestoft's Marina Theatre.

He enjoys them enormously, but admits he wasn't convinced when the idea was initially mooted.

“I was giving an after-dinner talk at the Chester Literary Society and someone approached me. I said 'I couldn't do it; it's like a one-man show.' He said 'Yes, you could.' They told me about the format, and I did one up in Durham or somewhere and it was great.

“The first half I talk about my life up to and into Coronation Street, for about an hour, and then the second half is all questions. I was a bit worried the first time - to talk for an hour! - but I find they have to cut me short! The hour goes very quickly.”

Common themes pop up: such as the shooting schedule - filming takes place from 8am to 7pm, Sunday to Friday - what his colleagues are like, and “does Deirdre really smoke like that? Then you get the real experts who can go back to the 1960s. People can ask anything they like about my life; I'm totally in their hands, and I enjoy it”.

Coronation Street has a personality and self-confidence that many other soaps lack.

“Yes - because we're not a soap! Many people are too young to remember that in 1960, when we started, there wasn't such a thing as a soap. A soap is actually a very insulting term: something in between the commercials for soap powder.

“In 1960 it was a time of Look Back in Anger, Room at the Top, This Sporting Life, method acting, Marlon Brando, James Dean. We were of that genre. (Laurence) Olivier was going to be in it.

“We were at the forefront of what was called kitchen-sink drama: a highly respected drama serial. Then, of course, we've got surrounded and fallen into the genre of soap - and we have to accept that - but we've always felt there's something special, and somewhere in the centre of it I still feel that's there.”

But in the past hasn't he criticised the genre for becoming too violent and sensationalist in the battle for ratings?

“I was misquoted. What was happening was they'd asked me to do a launch for some DVDs (of historic episodes) that were coming out and they (the media) said 'Well, what is the difference?' and I said 'The Street is different now. In those days, blah, blah, blah . . .' And they quoted me, saying 'Bill Roache says The Street isn't what it was.'

“It wasn't what I said at all. The Street has to change. If it didn't change like it has, it wouldn't still be going. It's adapted and is a living story. So that was a misquote.”

Any violence or sensationalism is there only because the shows reflect changes in society.

“The values in life are not the same as they used to be when I was young, certainly. But it's no good moaning; you've got to deal with the here and now. I wasn't really criticising the soaps. What I used to say was that grandma could sit down with grandchild and watch Coronation Street. I suppose they still can, but the thing is that grandchildren nowadays are much more streetwise than we used to be. You can have lesbianism and all these things going on and it's just sort of accepted. The world is different.”

Speaking of different eras - and sorry to ask - Bill really can't be 75, can he?

“Yes! When I started, Ken was only 18 - a student - but I was actually 28. I'd done my five years in the army and three years in the theatre, so Ken is 10 years younger than me.”

In which case we demand to know his Peter Pan-ish secret.

“Ah, well. Bad living, I would say! I like my food and I don't get enough exercise, although I've got the William Roache Golf Classic tomorrow; but I haven't been out playing, so I'm unfit. I occasionally play a bit of squash. I don't drink and I don't smoke, though I used to.”

The golf day, in Cheshire, is raising money for The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust - the actor's its patron - and The Spinal Foundation Appeal, set up to treat severe back problems through endoscopic, minimally-invasive surgery.

Retirement isn't an option, he says. He's part of the fabric of The Street for as long as he can do it and as long as the producers want him.

“I've done 46 years, so the trial period has gone well! People say 'What do you do in your spare time?' and my answer is 'What is that?' I've got a book coming out in October, I'm doing these Audiences With . . . I have charity work, I've got four dogs, my children are all grown up but still need me - it's just so busy.”

The book is “part biography, part esoteric philosophy”, and will include things such as his views on reincarnation.

There have been conflicting reports about Bill being a Druid. The claim's been pooh-poohed in the past, but the company behind An Audience With . . . states in its blurb that he is “a member of the Druid order and has celebrated the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge”.

It's not true, he confirms.

“The Druid thing was 20 years ago. Part of my esoteric philosophy was looking at life and its meaning. I looked at Buddhism, Hinduism, (the Austrian philosopher) Rudolf Steiner. Druidism was part of a general search, but they (the media) still call me a druid and all that.

“A druid was a guru, a man of god, a great guy . . . yeah, I'd love to have been a druid! But far be it for me . . .”

Things Bill learned from his study will appear in his book - “a summary of how I see things at the moment”.

An incident that would have taxed the mellowest of people came about 15 years ago when Bill sued The Sun for suggesting he was as boring as the character he played. He won but, because he'd turned down an out-of-court settlement, was liable for his costs. Bill then unsuccessfully sued his lawyers for misadvising him. The B word - bankruptcy - later reared its ugly head.

Today, Bill takes an admirably phlegmatic view of that challenging time.

“Well, you can say you regret it, but in a sense I don't regret it. It wasn't a sensible thing to do; but life is about learning. It isn't the problems you get, it's how you react to them, how you handle them and what you learn from them. If you don't have problems, you don't really learn; you don't move forward. Anyway, that's way behind me now: all done and dusted.”

It's always worth fighting for your principles, though, surely?

“You can get silly about your principles. Yes, I felt it was wrong; I felt it was an injustice; but you should never go to law. Let it ride; let it go. What does it matter?

“It's a pride thing, really. If two people have got a problem” - neighbours arguing over a fence, say - “and you bring the lawyers in, their costs become more than the problem in almost every case. So why do it? Why not settle? - give away a bit more than you want to, have done with it and move on.

“Life's too important. Always give away a little more than you want to - and let that be a payment for the lack of aggravation you're going to have - and you'll find life a lot easier.”

William Roache lives in the Wilmslow/Alderley Edge area south of Manchester

He received the MBE at the turn of the century for his services to TV drama

He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards in 2000

This year he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Chester in recognition of his contribution to television

One of his sons is the actor Linus Roache