Ken Barlow

Kenneth "Ken" Barlow is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, played by William Roache. He was created by Tony Warren as one of Coronation Street's original characters. December 2025 marked Barlow's 65th anniversary onscreen. He debuted in the soap's first episode on 9 December 1960. Having appeared in the role continuously since then, Roache is the longest-serving actor in a televised soap opera, and was honoured at the 2010 Guinness World Records ceremony for the achievement; the record was previously held by the actor Don Hastings from the American soap opera As the World Turns. Roache stated in 2010 that he had no plans to leave the role and would remain in Coronation Street for as long as the producers would have him. In November 2020, Roache was again presented with the Guinness World Record for the longest-serving TV soap star in the world for his six decades in Coronation Street. Ken Barlow was introduced as the educated son of a working-class family. In being portrayed as arrogant, moralistic, and a political activist, he differed from the other characters in the soap opera, who were predominantly working class. The character developed a reputation as a ladies' man. Plots saw Ken dating numerous women, marrying four times to three different women. These were Valerie Tatlock in 1962, Janet Reid in 1972, Deirdre Barlow in 1981 and again in 2005. He fathered four children with three women (Lawrence Cunningham in 1961 from Ken's affair with Susan Cunningham – though he never knew about Lawrence until 2010 – twins Susan Barlow and Peter Barlow in 1965 from Ken's marriage to Valerie Tatlock, and in 1995 Daniel Osbourne from Ken's relationship with Denise Osbourne), as well as later adopting Deirdre's daughter Tracy Barlow. Of the many women Ken has been...