Bill Roache thinks ‘Coronation Street’ can "go on forever".
The 87-year-old soap veteran – who appeared on the cobbles as Ken Barlow in the very first episode back in 1960 – has reflected on what makes the ITV show so endearing for viewers.
He said: "You can have police dramas, hospital dramas, all sorts of things. We’re just about people in general so you have all of that, you have police and hospitals as part of it.
"As long as the stories are character-based it could go on forever. Well, 60 years in television terms is almost forever, isn’t it?"
‘Corrie’ will air its 10,000th episode tonight (07.02.20) with an hour-long special, and Bill still has fond memories of the very first edition.
He reflected: "Episode one, 9th December 1960, was live, a lot of things were back then, even some commercials.
"So that’s how we did it, we used to go out on Friday and Monday at 7pm, and we did the Friday episode live. Then we recorded the others ‘as live’.
"That went on for about three months, and then a strike knocked that out of sync. After that we then recorded the episodes, but in a way that couldn’t be edited. So it was almost like doing it live."
The 10,000th episode will air at 7.30pm, and boss Iain MacLeod previously suggested the team were working on a cobbles "classic".
He said: "It’s an astonishing landmark. And at the start of the year, we have our 10,000th episode that we are intending to mark with something ‘classic Corrie’ that has a comedic and character driven vibe."
The soap will also be recognising its 60th anniversary this year, and the executive producer promised "something more explosive" than the 10,000th episode celebration.
He added: "The expectation from the audience now with anniversaries isn’t necessarily death and destruction, but that a spectacle is attached to it.
"We have some fairly novel ideas that we are exploring at the moment, so that should be exciting."
Bill Roache: ‘Coronation Street can go on forever’
