Corrie fan called Ken Barlow describes torment over living with same name as soap star
EXCLUSIVE: A Coronation Street fan called Ken Barlow has described the torment he has faced for six decades over having the same name as the soap character
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He was seven years old when Coronation Street first appeared on TV and he asked his mum if people would ever stop making jibes about his name.
“Don’t worry,” she told him, “the programme won’t last long…”
As the ITV soap celebrates its 60th anniversary this week, it seems she was mistaken.
Mirror reader Ken Barlow, who was born in Salford, has faced six decades of people Corrie-ing on about his name.
“Now, I pre-empt the cracks. When I introduce myself I add, ‘Ken Barlow – as in Coronation Street ’.
“I watch every episode otherwise I wouldn’t know what people are on about. Folk are always saying, ‘Oh, I saw you last night and you were in trouble’. I got a lot of stick when he was fighting with Mike Baldwin.”
Sharing a name with the soap’s longest-running character, played by William Roache, means Ken has many anecdotes over mix-ups.
The retired community psychiatric nurse says: “One man I was caring for was found on a roof and told the fire brigade, ‘I’m not moving until you fetch Ken Barlow’.
“The firefighters thought it was one of his delusions. One of them knew me, fortunately.
“When a GP asked me to visit a lady I delivered my card. Her daughter shouted through the letterbox, “You’re not coming in – Ken Barlow keeps having affairs’.”
Unlike the Street’s Casanova, Ken, 67, has been married for 44 years. “My wife is Jackie, although everyone asks, “how’s Deirdre?”
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