EXCLUSIVE It’s been more than 20 years since Kevin Kennedy left his role as supermarket manager Curly Watts on Coronation Street but the soap legend has admitted he would be open to a return to the part that made him famous
Kevin Kennedy will forever be remembered as Coronation Street icon Curly Watts – even though it’s more than 20 years since he left the ITV soap.
The actor, 65, played supermarket manager and astronomy enthusiast Curly, whose real name was Norman but who received his nickname for his poker-straight hair, from 1983 until 2003. As he celebrates 50 years in showbiz with a new stage role, he still cannot believe the kind of attention he received when he was in his heyday with the programme and admits that it did come at a cost eventually.
He says: “When I joined, there were only four channels. When you’ve got almost a third of the population watching one episode of Coronation Street, that’s actually mind-boggling.
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“But you can’t think of it like that at the time, you don’t think of it like that. When you’re working, you mix with the same people. You don’t really think about the outside world. It’s only when I would travel out of that inner-circle that I realised just how huge it was.
“The writing was excellent, and it still is, but like everything, it’s been diluted because of the choice people have now. But I just dealt with [the fame] in all kinds of ways. When I wasn’t feeling particularly sociable I had to keep myself to myself. If you can go out and handle it, that’s fine. It was extraordinary. It did have a toll on me eventually in one way or another.”
Kevin had a well-documented struggle with alcoholism but has now been sober for almost 30 years and heads up the Kennedy Street Foundation with his wife Clare. However, he is not sure how he would get through it all if it were happening to him today.
He says: “Fame is totally different because there’s cameras everywhere, social media, word travels fast, and that can be a good thing and a disastrous thing. I don’t know how I’d have dealt with it today. I’ve got two girls and they’re the same age as I was when it was all really happening to me.
“I do wonder sometimes, how did I cope with it at that age? But you just do. I was very resilient.” On screen, Curly is best known for his romance with Raquel Wolstenhulme, whom he later married. The relationship did not work out but Kevin still has fond memories of working with Sarah Lancashire, who played the ditsy Rovers barmaid before going on to take on leading roles in dramas such as Happy Valley.
Kevin says: “Sarah was extraordinary. That whole story, to me and Sarah and Philip Middlemiss, who played Des Barnes, it was a really slow burn and the writing was just excellent.” Sarah left Coronation Street in 1996, but Raquel made a comeback on the eve of the new millennium in what became the soap’s first two-hander.
Almost 30 years later, Kevin is pleased to say that he and Sarah are still on good terms away from the cobbles. He says: “The two-hander was a total honour. That was the first episode that brought Coronation Street into a new century.
“Working with Sarah was always fun. We’re still friends now. We’re not in each other’s pockets but there was a time when we were both in the West End and we’d go to see each other’s shows and have lunch together, and text each other about the audiences we’d had!
“But that’s the thing about Coronation Street. It’s a very unique experience. I could meet a cast member tomorrow and we’d just pick up the conversation where we left off.”
Sarah is one of several actresses who left the soap and went on to enjoy an award-winning career in television, along with the likes of Michelle Keegan, Katherine Kelly and Suranne Jones.
Kevin says: “Corrie has been about strong women from the beginning, and I think that spills out into reality. Sarah, Suranne and all the other women have just gone, ‘Right, I want to do something else,’ and they go and do it.
“They grasp the opportunity. I’ve always been a theatre actor so that was natural to me, and I play music, so when I left, musicals came along.”
Curly left Weatherfield in 2003 for a new life in Newcastle with then-wife Emma (Angela Lonsdale) but Kevin says he would be open to the idea of a return.
He says: “I think any character going back to a soap after this length of time has a beauty to it because the audience knows who they are , and they also know what’s been going on while he’s been away.
“They’d wonder what his reaction is going to be to this street that he left a long time ago. I think that’s the essence of that story. It’d be an honour, and it’d be great because I could see my old pals!”
Kevin started his showbiz career in 1976, when he joined Paris Valentinos alongside Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke, who would later go on to form part of The Smiths.
But alongside his TV fame, Kevin is still a keen musician, having previously released two albums and starred in musicals like Rock of Ages, We Will Rock You and the short-lived Corrie musical Street of Dreams.
Now, the TV star is preparing to take on the role of seedy theatre manager Mr Isaacs in The Picture of Dorian Gray , a brand new musical based on the Oscar Wilde novella. The story centres on a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth, and Kevin thinks the piece is just as relevant now as when the book was first published almost 140 years ago.
He says: “It’s about what can and will happen if there’s no checks and balances on your actions. It’s also a, it’s a cautionary tale of ‘Be careful what you wish for…’ Do you really want to live forever? Do you really want to get away with everything you possibly can?
“We’re not here to be moralistic, but it’s theatre at its best where we just show the audience and let them come to their own conclusions. It rings a lot of bells with a lot of people for different reasons.
“The music—Mark [J Middlemiss, composer] has done a tremendous job on the music, it’s of that era, it’s very foggy and gas lit. It has a music hall kind of feel to it, big orchestra, big sound, and it’s true to its original roots, and that’s, why I thought this would be good fun.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray is touring the UK until March 2027. For tickets and more information go to https://www.doriangraythemusical.com/
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