Ken Farrington has hit out at ‘Coronation Street’ for losing its "humour".
The 82-year-old actor portrayed Billy Walker – the son of famous soap stalwart Annie Walker (Doris Speed) – on and off in ‘Corrie’ from 1961 to 1984, but he has insisted the soap’s current crop of characters are simply "not funny".
When asked if he still watches ‘Corrie’, he replied: "I don’t watch it because I’m in France a lot of the time and I don’t get the chance to see it, but what little glimpses I do see they’re [the characters are] all different. They’re not funny.
"I don’t see much humour in it anymore."
The former ‘Emmerdale’ star – who appeared as Tom King in the ITV soap from 2004 to 2006 – has called on ‘Corrie’ to revive the "tremendous strain of humour" the show once had, rather than concentrate on outdoing other soaps with "extraordinary storylines".
He said: "What happens with the soaps is they’re all in competition with each other and one of them gets a good idea, the other one then pinches it and then they go in battle against each other to try to outdo each other with extraordinary storylines.
"And it loses its reality, because in the old days, it [‘Coronation Street’] was almost documentary. It was in black and white, which helped because the colour makes it a bit too glamorous.
"It had a documentary-feel about it. A tremendous strain of humour running through it."
Ken rarely keeps in touch with his former ‘Corrie’ and ‘Emmerdale’ co-stars because he spends a lot of time out of the country and a number of them have died, but he used to take Doris out before she passed away in November 1994 aged 95.
Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke, he added: "I used to [keep in touch], but some of them are dead now. I used to go to see Doris Speed quite regularly and when she was in a home I used to go and take her out for lunch.
"They’re all up in Manchester and I’m down south and in France a lot of the time now.
"The same applies in ‘Emmerdale’."
Ken Farrington: Corrie has lost its humour
