Post by sootycat on Oct 24, 2008 10:54:37 GMT
From DS
Coronation Street stalwart William Roache has revealed that former colleague Patricia Phoenix refused to talk to him for two years following a feud over a scene in the soap.
Roache, who has played Ken Barlow for 48 years, claimed that Phoenix disagreed with the script of a heated exchange between her character, Elsie Tanner, and Ken.
"Very early on... Ken was a young student married to Val, and Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner had accused my wife Val of something which I can’t remember," Roache recalled to BBC Breakfast. "Ken had a scene in the Rovers where he told them off… leaving them with egg on their faces."
He explained that in rehearsals, Phoenix – who died of lung cancer in 1986 - said to the director: "I don’t think she would take it from this young man. I think as he’s leaving I want to say ‘Aah, go on, get off’."
Roache went on to say: "Now that may not seem much, but what it did it completely invalidated the scene; it totally ruined it. When we came to it, or just before, I tried to argue with the director, but he went with Pat, and Pat said ‘Look, Bill, you know when I say 'aah, go on, get off', will you pause for a minute because I want to pick up an ashtray and threaten to throw it at you?'
"Well, I have never thrown a tantrum in my 48 years on the Street, but that was a 'no' and I said 'No, Pat, I will not. You know what you have done here and as far as I’m concerned, you’re unprofessional'."
He added: "She didn’t talk to me for two years, but after that we became great friends and we were fine."
Coronation Street stalwart William Roache has revealed that former colleague Patricia Phoenix refused to talk to him for two years following a feud over a scene in the soap.
Roache, who has played Ken Barlow for 48 years, claimed that Phoenix disagreed with the script of a heated exchange between her character, Elsie Tanner, and Ken.
"Very early on... Ken was a young student married to Val, and Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner had accused my wife Val of something which I can’t remember," Roache recalled to BBC Breakfast. "Ken had a scene in the Rovers where he told them off… leaving them with egg on their faces."
He explained that in rehearsals, Phoenix – who died of lung cancer in 1986 - said to the director: "I don’t think she would take it from this young man. I think as he’s leaving I want to say ‘Aah, go on, get off’."
Roache went on to say: "Now that may not seem much, but what it did it completely invalidated the scene; it totally ruined it. When we came to it, or just before, I tried to argue with the director, but he went with Pat, and Pat said ‘Look, Bill, you know when I say 'aah, go on, get off', will you pause for a minute because I want to pick up an ashtray and threaten to throw it at you?'
"Well, I have never thrown a tantrum in my 48 years on the Street, but that was a 'no' and I said 'No, Pat, I will not. You know what you have done here and as far as I’m concerned, you’re unprofessional'."
He added: "She didn’t talk to me for two years, but after that we became great friends and we were fine."
