Ken Barlow: A fascinating prism?

(This post was originally posted by me on the Coronation Street Blog in November, 2010.)

Many people have long thought the character of Ken Barlow as boring. Joe Moran of the Guardian doesn't think so. In this piece, he talks about how Ken is reflective of his generation. He was a student, wanting more than his working class roots.Yet those roots kept him on the ground instead of achieving and lofty upperclass (or at least upper middle class) life. He still believes in the rights of the everyday person. He sticks with the intellectual snobbery and doesn't buy into the upwardly mobile trend for voracious consumerism. But because Ken never did get all that far from his roots, the public has seen him as dull, boring, and even cowardly when he just can't bring himself to follow his dreams.

By the way, William Roache became the record-holding actor playing a single role for the longest period of time on November 22, 2010 though he was given the award a month earlier. Coronation Street is also now the longest running soap currently on television after the American soap, As The World Turns finished it's 54 year run in September 2010.