Bill Roache used to 'really fancy' Queen Elizabeth

Bill Roache used to "really fancy" Queen Elizabeth.

The 'Coronation Street' legend - who has played Ken Barlow in the ITV soap since it was first broadcast on 9 December 1960 - has admitted the 95-year-old monarch "was very attractive", and he has enjoyed meeting her eight different times.

He said: "I’ve met the queen eight times. I first met her when I was 21 and I was in the Army and we had the day with her which was very nice.

"I really fancied her! I don’t know if that’s heresy but she was very attractive."

The queen turns 96 on Thursday (21.04.22), and Bill will celebrate his 90th birthday on Monday (25.04.22).

Bill spoke about his adoration of the royal in new ITV documentary 'Happy Birthday Bill', in which he was shown a picture of a party the queen attended, which featured a goat who smoked.

Speaking on the doc ahead of his latest milestone, he added: "This is the party with the Queen! I remember being there because she was fascinated by the regimental goat.

"The goat ate cigarettes, two cigarettes a day, and she was feeding him."

The queen paid a visit to Bill's second home, Coronation Street's Weatherfield, in July last year, where she met Bill and his co-stars Barbara Knox (Rita Tanner), Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) and Helen Worth (Gail Platt) outside the Rovers Return at Manchester's MediaCityUK.

Elizabeth looked delighted to meet the 'Corrie' quartet, and during her cobbles visit - to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary - she learned how the soap adapted its filming process amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The queen last visited Weatherfield in 1982 - at the old set in Manchester's Granada Studios - alongside her late husband Prince Philip, who died aged 99 in April 2021.