The latest in a series of bizarre comments from actor William Roache
William Roache MBE, who plays Ken Barlow in Coronation Street, is no stranger to controversy.
The grandson of a Freemason who was interested in hypnotism, theosophy and esotericism, Roache is a vegetarian and spiritualist who was photographed participating in Druid rituals in the 1970s.
Last year, the soap actor also predicted that the world would “move to a higher vibration” and undergo fundamental changes on 12th December. The cobbles of the famous street on which he appears did not move and nor did the world end.
Aside from acting and forecasting the world’s future, Roache is a director of the Ridings Publishing firm. Other directors of this loss making business number the estate agency tycoon Owen Oyston, who though convicted of rape in 1996 still refuses admit his guilt, and Stuart Hall OBE, who is currently awaiting trial for rape and indecent assault.
Equally, a fellow Coronation Street actor, Michael Le Vell, appeared at Manchester Crown Court last week for a brief hearing relating to the 19 child sex charges brought against him. Mr Roache has worked with and been a friend of Le Vell, who plays the programme’s Kevin Webster, since 1983.
It is surprising, therefore, that Mr Roache, who was bankrupted with debts of some £300,000 in 1999 following a libel action against a newspaper that described him as being “dull”, has given several interviews sharing his views on celebrities, sex and paedophiles. In one, he stated:
“What’s happened in the UK is that there has been a pendulum swing post Savile… If you’re a celebrity, you get pilloried”.
In another, to New Zealand TV, when asked about abuse, he added:
“Everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives”.
When quizzed further, he said of abusers:
“Whether they’re proven guilty or not, we should not be judgmental about anybody, ever”.
Though Mr Roache, who gained the nickname “Cock Roache” after openly admitting to having slept with over 1,000 women, may have led a life that is far from dull, he might be wise to be a little more restrained with his words.