Corrie legend Ken Barlow set for heartbreaking storyline as he’s forced to rely on carer
Coronation Street's Ken Barlow is heading for health woes which will see him requiring a carer after he falls down the stairs, prompting fans to worry about his future
Coronation Street’s legendary Ken Barlow is heading for health issues that could leave fans worrying that it is the beginning of the end for the 92-year-old on the ITV soap.
Bill Roache has played Ken on the cobbles for 64 years but his character is heading for a fall, down some stairs, which will lead Ken requiring the help of a carer as he struggles to overcome the effects of taking a fall. A TV insider has said that the storyline will be “heartbreaking” for Ken, who had been stoic in his independence during his time in Weatherfield.
The TV source told The Sun : “For this to happen to him is heartbreaking. [Ken has] always been known as a bit of a ladies man and has had so many love interests over the years. It’s going to knock the wind out of him.”
Ken Barlow (Bill Roache) will require the help of a carer after falling down stairs
There is more to the storyline that Ken’s struggles and needing a carer to help him, as the source added that soap bosses are “hoping it will highlight the plight of older people and the care they need from family members when something like this happens.”
The fall might bring to the end any antics that new Coronation Street star Helen Lederer is hoping to bring with the 69-year-old actress playing Ken’s latest love interest Elspeth. Helen has said that she hopes that soap bosses give them a racy storyline, saying: “We do need to see the upstairs. It is about time there was some older love on Corrie.”
Elspeth and Ken meet at a singles cocktail night and soon get romantic. Helen says of her confident cobbles character: “I am a woman who is bold and who has needs and I am just going to go for them.” But she reassures fans: “I am not going to kill him off in the bedroom. I just want a nice snuggle.”
The ITV soap is a far cry from Helen’s beginnings on stage when she was a stand-up comic alongside Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson and Ben Elton in London’s Comedy Store. Speaking about joining Corrie, Helen said: ” Coronation Street, of all the soaps, is the most substantial and ironic with such humour, it’s really a class act. So when you get the call for Coronation Street, you drop everything. To be offered a part playing a role opposite William Roache is even more exciting.”
