Roy Barraclough
Roy Barraclough
Contact: c/o PBR Management
Played:
Roy Barraclough was born in Preston, Lancashire on 12 July 1935 and most of his spare time during childhood was spent at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool. After leaving school, he spent twelve years as a draughtsman in a Preston engineering factory and his evenings were spent in amateur dramatic groups. At the age of 27 he was offered a job as a holiday camp entertainer on the Isle of Wight and leapt at the chance. At the end of the season Roy got himself an agent but found getting work hard forcing him to return to being a draughtsman.
He was the approached by the Huddersfield Repertory Company and offered a job as a stage manager but after just two weeks later he was promoted to leading character actor. This was a great opportunity for him to learn his craft and after eighteen months he joined the prestigious Victoria Theatre in Stoke. Roy's confidence was shattered when he received poor reviews for his role as Falstaff in Henry IV but his co-star Ben Kingsley gave him encouragement to go on.
Roy then moved to the Oldham Coliseum where he worked with Eileen Derbyshire, Barbara Knox and Anne Kirkbride. He made his television debut in the Yorkshire Television series Castlehaven playing Kathy Staff's husband and went on to perform in Nearest and Dearest, Never Mind The Quality - Feel The Width, Pardon My Genie and Love Thy Neighbour. Around this time he met comic Les Dawson who became his best friend and they formed a double act. Other television roles following including George and Mildred, Three In A Bed, The Slipper and The Rose, Don't Touch Him, He Might Resent It, Sez Les, The Return of the Antelope and Lost Empires.
Roy made his Coronation Street debut in 1965 when he played a tour guide, the following year he returned and played I Spy Dwyer, who sold Stan Ogden his window cleaning round, a year later he was back as a vacuum salesman and again the following year as a bed salesman. In 1972 he returned to Coronation Street as Rita Littlewood's agent Alec Gilroy. He then played a role in the Julie Walters film Car Trouble. He returned to the Street as Alec on and off until 1986 when he became a regular with the show. Between Coronation Street appearances, Roy most famously played Cissie against Les Dawson's Ada - a pair of 'ailing' old Northern gosssips and battleaxes who would have even made Ena Sharples blush.
In 1992, Roy decided that acting full-time on The Street was too restrictive, and he left to appear in panto and later played Leslie H Flitcroft in Mother's Ruin; he also appeared in Radio 4 plays. However, like many other former Street actors, Roy discovered that an actor's life outside Coronation Street wasn't that comfortable - Mother's Ruin was cancelled after only six episodes, and a projected stage version of Billy Liar starring Jason Donavon failed to materialise. After some intermittent appearances in 1995 and the QE2 video, he announced that he had signed a new contact with Granada.
He has also appeared on stage in Feed (written especially for him by Coronation Street writer Tom Elliott) and Death of A Salesman. On television he appeared in The Bounder, A Different Way Home, Foxy Lady and Peak Practice.
Roy is single and lives in Stalybridge with his terrier dog, Whiskey.
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