Coronation Street star Bill Roache says he’s looking to a healthy future on the cobbles and aims to still be playing resident Ken Barlow when he’s 100.
And Bill – who already holds the world record for the longest stint on a soap – only has a decade to go.
The actor, who turned 90 last Monday, told the Mirror: “Someone said to me, ‘Look, Bill, you’re in the Guinness Book of Records, you’ve got the MBE, you’ve been in Coronation Street for over 60 years, what else is there?
“I said to him, ‘I would like to be the first centenarian who is still cast in an ongoing drama’.
“That’s my aim, to be 100 and still working on Coronation Street.
“While they want me and while I can do it I’ll continue to do it.”
Bill celebrated his birthday with a new version of his book Life and Soul, which is about staying young – and says a little bit of what you fancy does you good.
He said: “People go to the gym everyday and jog everyday and they diet all the time. I believe in enjoying life in balance.
“My work involves standing most of the day. Even at home I stand a lot. On top of that I play golf, which I enjoy.
“I’m in very good health. I feel good. My dieting, again, is all balance.
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“I know what’s good for me. But I’ll have a little bit of what’s bad for me – because you should enjoy your life – but then I’ll compensate. I try to eat as sensibly as possible.
"But also the big thing in life is enjoy it.”
Bill, who has been married twice, said the greatest moments of his life were the birth of his five kids.
He said: “It was really moving.
“Giving birth is a wonderful, miraculous experience.”
And the star says he loves meeting older fans. He added: “When you meet them, you see happiness in their eyes and they love it and they almost treat you as part of their family.”
- The new paperback edition of Life and Soul, by William Roache, published by Hay House, is out now.
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