A FORMER editor of the Teignmouth Post leapt to the defence of Coronation Street star Bill Roache who played Ken Barlow, after he was branded ‘boring’ and hated by the rest of the cast.

Prolific writer Malcolm Lynch, below right, penned at least 75 scripts of the popular soap before retiring to Teignmouth and taking over the reigns of the local paper.

The real life drama was played out in a court when the actor successfully sued The Sun for the slurs.

Malcolm knew him well and declared back in 1991: ‘To say that Bill is boring in private life is to say that we all are boring – which we are.

‘The majority of us talk about the weather, cars, holidays, clothes, football, and Coronation Street – and that’s all boring.

‘It seems to me that for a national journalist to find a person non-boring he would require seductions, gambling debts and drug taking.

‘The majority of Fleet Street journalists I know are the most boring people you could imagine, and the sole topics of conversation revolve around expenses!

‘Bill pays a lot of visits to schools around Wilmslow where he lives, and they don’t find him boring.’

Malcolm made the point that if Ken Barlow was boring as a character, then it was the scriptwriters’ fault and they should be replaced.

He recalled that when he began writing Street scripts in 1968 Bill played a raw Manchester University graduate with a scarf wrapped a dozen times around his neck. He was a local teacher and decided to live where his roots and school were.

‘Ken was quite witty and played among heavies like Elsie Tanner, Ena Sharples, Len Fairclough, Stan Ogden and Hilda Ogden.’

For avid Street watchers here is a sample of a vintage Barlow quip taken from Malcolm’s archives.

‘Look mate....I’m an ordinary fellow with a wife and two kids and I teach at a technical college for a monthly wage. I’m not John the Baptist – I’m Ken Barlow!’

Malcolm also penned episodes of Emmerdale, Crossroads and Z Cars, along with several books, including The Streets of Ancoats.

He also quipped: ‘If anybody finds my scripts boring I’ll sue them for £50,000!’