Bill Roache's psychic powers

ill Roache has "extraordinary" psychic powers.

The 88-year-old soap star studied astrology in the 70s and did a reading for Thelma Barlow - who played Mavis Riley on the soap from 1971 to 1997.

Speaking to the Distinct Nostalgia podcast, she recalled: "When I first went into the programme I was very nervous of talking to people and the very last person I plucked up the courage to talk to was Bill Roache.

"He was doing a serious study of astrology at the time and he was doing charts for some of the cast. He was taking exams and he wanted one or two more people, so I plucked up the courage to ask if he would like to do mine."

The 91-year-old actress was left astonished by his "scarily accurate" reading as he knew things about her that she had never revealed.

She continued: "He knew nothing about me at all. He did it and I came across it the other week and it is so extraordinary. I remember at the time thinking, \'Gosh, this is extraordinary.\' It was all scientifically worked out, or mathematically.

"He said within the first page, \'There seems to be no influence of a father in your life\'. My father died three weeks before I was born, so I never knew him. Obviously something made Bill write that, but he had no idea about my background or anything."

Thelma - who went on to star in \'Dinnerladies\' - revealed she plans to get in touch with Bill to chat about his accurate predictions.

She added: "I must write to Bill and tell him I fished it out after 50 years and chat to him about it."