Bill Roache dismisses Ken Barlow death speculation

ill Roache has dismissed speculation that Coronation Street\'s Ken Barlow is to die anytime soon, insisting he will be on the soap until show bosses no longer want him.

The 87-year-old star - who has played Ken in the ITV soap since its first episode on December 9th 1960 - had to recently reassure one of his friends that his alter-ego isn\'t going to pass away in the near future, after viewers grew concerned when Ken coughed in a recent scene.

He said: "Someone rang me up to say, \'I gather you\'re dead.\'

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"What happened was, Ken was out looking for Daniel and Peter had to say, \'Your father has been out looking for you and he\'s really tired.\'

"It was just to show that I\'d caught a bit of a cold. And just before one scene the director said, \'Bill, will you just cough in this scene.\'

"I said, \'Yeah OK.\' And that\'s it. There is no follow up.

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"While I can do it and while they want me I will be there."

Bill does regularly exercise and is part of a Fun Fit group, which seems him and others play basketball, run around, and do star jumps, among other aerobic activities.

Speaking on \'Lorraine\', he added: "I do a thing called Fun Fit. It\'s an hour, there\'s a group of us, young kids and up to me. We are broken up into teams and have to do star jumps, running, a bit of basketball, and a bit of tig and running around.

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"It\'s fun, you enjoy it, but you\'re absolutely knackered afterwards. It\'s aerobic and it\'s great."

Bill recently admitted he believes meditation is the secret to a long life.

He said: "I call it a tea break from life and what you need is a place in your home where you can leave all your worries behind for five minutes.

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"You can\'t stop your thoughts, so let them go through. You need to control what you\'re thinking about."

Bill also believes that ageing depends on an individual\'s mindset and places importance on cell renewal.

He explained: "Ageing is a belief process, if you think you\'re going to get slower as you get older, then you will slow down.

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"Your cells renew themselves all the time, so if you slow down, the cell renewal process slows down."