<P> After leaving the army, Roache turned to acting . He appeared in various stage productions, then had uncredited roles in several films, and later small parts in television serials including Knight Errant Limited and Skyport . </P> <P> He played the minor role of a space centre operator in the Norman Wisdom film The Bulldog Breed . Shortly before joining Coronation Street at the beginning of the programme in 1960, Roache played the leading role in a Granada Television play called Marking Time, transmitted on ITV in 1961 . In an interview with the Liverpool Post in 2007, Roache recalled "I played a young soldier in Germany who fraternised with a German girl, although I can't remember now how it ended . It was highly prestigious, though, and I have tried to hunt it down but there is no trace of it ." He added: "But Tony Warren, who created Coronation Street, saw it and thought I was right for Ken Barlow". </P> <P> Roache is now the world's longest - serving television actor in a continuous role (as of March 2018) after the cancellation of the American soap opera in 2010 As the World Turns, where Don Hastings played Bob Hughes since October 1960 without a break . </P> <P> On 16 October 1985 just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his debut on Coronation Street, he appeared as the special guest on the TV show This Is Your Life . </P>

Who is the longest actor in coronation street
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