Bill Roache shares secrets to positivity as star opens up about life tragedies

He’s had more than his fair share of tragedy in life. But Corrie’s Bill Roache has somehow managed to remain positive.

Now the Ken Barlow actor has written a book called Life and Soul on how to deal with whatever the fates throw at you.

While he is the world’s longest-serving actor in a recurring role – “my ambition now is to still be playing Ken when I reach 100” – he has suffered a string of personal tragedies.

His daughter Edwina, with his second wife Sara, died in 1983 at just 18 months from acute bronchial pneumonia.

He was devastated. “A child shouldn’t die before its parent. The grief was ­terrible,” he says. “But Sara and I grieved in the same way which brought us closer together.

“Up to the funeral, it was really bad. The thought of having to carry her tiny coffin was almost too much to bear. But I woke up on the day of the service and saw what I can only describe as Edwina’s face surrounded by a white light. I found that hugely comforting.

“Then, in time, you gradually accept that, while you’ve lost the physical person you knew and loved, the true being has gone back home to the heavenly realm from which they came. In that way, we’re all immortal. I know she’s in a safe place.”

More tragedy was to follow with Sara’s sudden death in 2009.

“We were sitting up in bed and she suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence,” says Bill, 87. “It was as if someone had flicked a switch.

“There’s a name for it but, in layman’s terms, it’s the adult equivalent of cot death.”

Ten years on, he still misses her in so many ways. “Sara did everything,” he says. “She paid all the bills, cooked all the meals, bought all my clothes. She ran me. And that left me free to concentrate on my work.

“But it was much more than that. We were partners, best friends. She was only 58, a wonderful woman.”

Their daughter Verity was working for an interior designer in London at the time. A couple of days before her ­mother’s unexpected death, she had been overwhelmed by a chilling feeling of impending disaster.

“I broke down in tears at work and retreated to my parents’ home in Wilmslow to get myself together,” she says. “I remember holding my mother so tightly that she had to ask me to let her go.

“Then, the very next morning, Daddy came into my bedroom and told me the terrible news. It took me a long time to get over it. But, slowly, I got used to what had happened, ­although to this day I talk to her in my head.”

Her father says: “Verity’s intuition had been so powerful. I still marvel at her premonition. Losing Sara was such a shock although gradually I began concentrating on the good times we shared.”

More tragedy was to come when Bill’s long-time screen partner Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre Barlow, died in January 2015.

He says: “Annie was my third ‘wife’. We were together for 35 years. Professionally, we got on well, our acting styles were similar. And she was a beautiful person, very caring, full of humour. I still miss her.”

And then, in March last year, his daughter Vanya, died. She was the younger sister of actor Linus, 55, from Bill’s first marriage to actress Anna Cropper.

“She’d been ill for about three years with a blood disorder that affected her liver so her death didn’t come as a total surprise,” says Bill. “She’d been admitted to hospital. Verity had been at her bedside.

“But, by the time my son Will and I reached Chichester, it was four in the morning. Vanya had died 15 minutes earlier. That was pretty tough. She was just 50.”

Bill has managed to get through these terrible events with the help of an inspirational doctor – a ­homeopath and a spiritualist – who he met more than four decades ago and who opened his eyes to the meaning of life.

“I was successful. I had money,” says the star. “But I was desperately unhappy. I was not being a good, faithful husband and I was drinking too much. I was lost.

“But, in time, the doctor taught me how to become a more aware, more understanding person. If you’re expressing your true nature, you’re happier, your immune system works better, you become a wiser, more knowing person.

“And that’s helped me through the bad times. I’ve lost two children, a much-loved wife and a screen partner but, after the inevitable grief, I’ve been able to ­enjoy the happy memories.

“I send messages of love to them as love is a great communicator, the most powerful force in the cosmos. And that comes from the self-knowledge, the knowing, that sustains me.

“I am not a religious man. I do know, though, that there is a creator of all that exists whose energy is love. And that’s what I try to explore in the book.”

Verity, 38, describes her dad as “an inspiration” She adds: “He radiates love, peace and calm which has an incredible effect on those around him. Our family is so awesome. I try to live by our credo, ‘Fulfil the claims of the day.’ We only have now.” Her father agrees. “Live in the moment,” says Bill.

● Life and Soul: How to Live a Long and Healthy Life by William Roache £10.99.