Ken Barlow star William Roache has been ont’ telly three times longer than I’ve been alive, so it is certainly not an exaggeration to call him a Coronation Street legend.

He’s been walking the cobbles since the very first episode in 1960 and is still going strong. Corrie without Ken Barlow would be like a digestive without the chocolate – they belong together.

Having made history himself as the world’s longest serving soap star, it was only right that he have a role in the upcoming history-making crossover of the ITV soaps.

Coronation Street and Emmerdale are set to merge for one night only on January 5, 2026, in an hourlong spectacular that has been aptly named Corriedale.

Though he only appears in one scene, it is safe to say the Ken certainly makes his mark as he interacts with an Emmerdale legend – none other than Eric Pollard star Chris Chittell.

Chris has played loveable rogue Eric since 1986, making him the Dales’ current longest-serving cast member – a worthy scene partner for Bill.

Though not as high in stakes or intensity as some of the other scenes in the special, which features explosions and car crashes and deaths, it is particularly special to director Duncan Foster, who admitted that it was his favourite scene in the whole episode.

The scene was so important for him to get right, that he refused to accept the first edit.

‘The first cut I saw of the scene, it’d been edited quite tightly, and I said, “No, no, no, no, we can’t do that. This is Eric Pollard and Ken Barlow in a scene. This is such an iconic moment. We have to give it every single second of television that we can give it,” and that’s what we did. So the scene that you see is pretty much as they played it, really,’ Duncan revealed to Metro and other publications at the Corriedale premiere.

It wasn’t just what was happening on screen that will live on in Duncan’s memory, as he opened up about a particularly poignant behind-the-scenes moment with Bill.

‘I’ve known Bill for over 25 years. He came onto set, he was a little bit emotional, he gave me the biggest hug, and, as he was hugging me, I was thinking, “you’ve never hugged me before in 25 years, Bill,”, he recalled.

‘He was just so thrilled to be in that one scene, and that is one of my favourite scenes.’