Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Coronation Street commissions portrait of William Roache MBE

30/11/2020

Coronation Street commissions portrait of William Roache MBE to mark the occasion of his 60th anniversary in the long running drama serial

Legendary actor William Roache MBE celebrates 60 years in Coronation Street on 9 December 2020.

To mark the occasion, Coronation Street has commissioned Manchester based classical portrait painter, Michael Koropisz, to paint a portrait of Bill which will hang in pride of place in his Cheshire home. Michael specialises in grand, elegant portraits of notable figures who commission his work for their own homes or private collections.

The portrait was unveiled live earlier today (30 November) on ITV's This Morning as TV reporter Sharon Marshall interviewed Bill about his Coronation Street career, retaining his status as the longest serving actor in a continuing drama in the world and how he only ever expected to play Ken Barlow in the Manchester based programme for 6 weeks!

Adhering to the Government's health and safety guidelines for TV production, Bill was filmed by This Morning unveiling the portrait which Michael was able to paint during lockdown. Fortunately, Bill had undertaken sittings for Michael in January and February of this year, which meant Michael had already made important decisions about how he was to capture Bill.

In keeping with social distancing guidelines, 25 year old Michael, who achieved a Fine Art and Art History degree in 2018, taught himself to paint in the traditional style whilst studying at the Manchester School of Art. He was present in Bill's garden to see first-hand the reaction to his work.

Commented William Roache:

I cannot thank ITV enough for their wonderful anniversary gift. It is an honour to have a portrait painted and is always a joyful reminder of my sixty years in Coronation Street, something that I will always treasure. Thank you, ITV, and artist Michael Koropisz.

Commented Michael Koropisz:

I am so grateful to have received this prestigious opportunity. This has been a great experience, not only because of its significance, but because it led to a wonderful, unprecedented, life-long friendship with myself, William and his family. I would also like to thank everyone at Coronation Street for their support and send my congratulations. And to William I send my compliments with this message - William, I lay the first stroke of paint as your artist, and the last as your friend. Here's to the 60 years!

Bill's portrait was commissioned by the Coronation Street production team overseen by Managing Director for Continuing Drama and Head of ITV in the North, John Whiston.

Commented John Whiston:

Bill Roache has been the essence of Coronation Street for 60 years so what better way to capture the essence of Bill than in a specially commissioned portrait. The portrait will celebrate on canvas the fact that Bill appeared in the very first episode of Coronation Street and is still going strong today and will be a fitting tribute to someone who has inspired and welcomed to the show many generations of new actors.
LINK: https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/coronation-street-commi...
See more stories from itv

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

16/07/2026

SMPTE Kicks Off 110th Anniversary Campaign

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Cox Media Group Taps Waymark for AI Ad Creation Tools

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Parks: Cable Broadband Sub Losses Slow Down

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

CatchLight, Sony Launch Initiative to Help Local Newsrooms

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

XR Launches XR ONE Ad Ops Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions Partner to Provide...

Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...

16/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App

Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App Brie Clayton July 15, 2026 0 Comments Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...

16/07/2026

XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage Interfaces

XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage In...

15/07/2026

Inside DAZNs Multi-Market World Cup Effort With CTO Sandeep Tiku

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a big deal for DAZN, which has distribution rights in three markets: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Each requires a different editorial app...

15/07/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Qumulo's Chris Horn on Powering Global Media Workflows Across Edge, Core, and Cloud

As sports-media organizations manage rapidly growing content libraries and incre...

15/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Inside the HBS Non-Live London Production Hub

HBS director of digital Johannes Franken talks SVG Europe through the operation built to serve FIFA World Cup 2026 rights holders remotely from Stratford, east ...

15/07/2026

IBC2026 to Spotlight AI, Live Sports Production, Creator Economy, and Trust in Media

IBC has unveiled the conference program for IBC2026, with this year's event ...

15/07/2026

Vanessa Paradis Tour Adopts Sennheiser Spectera Wireless Ecosystem for 2026 Production

Software-defined wideband RF platform supports 96-kHz monitoring, streamlined fr...

15/07/2026

Telos Alliance Integrates AudioShake Source Separation Into Minnetonka AudioTools Server

New AI-powered module enables broadcasters and content owners to extract dialogu...

15/07/2026

AIMS Schedules Second IPMX Product Certification Event for August

Weeklong gathering at EBU headquarters will test new IPMX capabilities and expand certified product ecosystem...

15/07/2026

Force Tech Appoints Bryan Adams as Vice President of Integration

Force Tech has announced the appointment of Bryan Adams, CTS, as Vice President of Integration. Adams will oversee AV and broadcast integration project delivery...

15/07/2026

USA Sports and Bundesliga Announce Exclusive Multi-Year U.S. Media Rights Agreement

USA Sports has announced an exclusive English-language agreement with the Bundes...

15/07/2026

Inside ITV Sport's Stunning FIFA World Cup Studio in New York City With Paul McNamara

ITV Sport's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage has been produced from one of the m...

15/07/2026

CatchLight, Sony Launch Equipment Initiative for Local Visual Journalists

Program will provide professional camera kits, training, and technical support to participating local newsrooms...

15/07/2026

CornerstoneSF Installs FOR-A HVS-Q12 Switcher in New UHD Production Facility

San Francisco church becomes first U.S. deployment of the 2 M/E production switcher...

15/07/2026

Steve Bornstein Joins Advisory Board of Scott Cokers New Global MMA Promotion

Former ESPN and NFL Network executive to advise startup league on media, distribution, technology, and fan engagement...

15/07/2026

Space City Home Network Executive Producer John Valek on Leaning Into Innovation, Access, and Opportunity

The Houston-based RSN is the live-game home of the Astros and Rockets...

15/07/2026

Freqport unveil the Dual FreqInOut FO1-2RK

Launched alongside new FreqSoft installer Designed to bridge the gap between hardware and software, Freqport's FreqInOut FO1 unit provides a simple way ...

15/07/2026

Expressive E's Summer Offers

Save up to 55% on software until 23 July 2026 Expressive E have just launched their Summer Offer sale, with discounts of up to 55% now applied across their ...

15/07/2026

Peel Stems 2 from zplane

Real-time stem-separation tool updated zplane have recently released a new and improved version of their real-time stem-separation plug-in which they say ma...

15/07/2026

Baby Audio SubCulture

A new benchmark in bass enhancement Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...

15/07/2026

DMC Production Reimagines Live OB with Calrec

DMC Production's AR 1 and AR 2 units reverse the conventional OB workflow, keeping all production-critical processing at the venue while operators work remo...

15/07/2026

FCC to Vote on Replacing National Broadcast Ownership Cap

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/07/2026

ATSC Updates Industry Audio Loudness Guidance

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/07/2026

GigaCloud and Cubbit partner to deliver sovereign and res...

GigaCloud, a leading Ukrainian cloud service provider, and Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced a new Business Alliance Part...

15/07/2026

SMPTE Launches 110th Anniversary Campaign to Advance Its...

SMPTE, the global society for media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced the launch of the SMPTE 110th Anniversary Campaign, a fundraising...

15/07/2026

STUDIO TECHNOLOGIES UNVEILS MODEL 762 STEREO LEVEL CONTRO...

Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, unveils the new StudioComm Model 762 Stereo Level Control, ...

15/07/2026

COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried

COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried Brie Clayton July 15, 2026 0 Comments Producer, Virtual Events (Hybrid | Full-time | ...

15/07/2026

SIMBA powers new streaming delivery network with Broadpea...

Brazilian media organization builds nationwide CDN with Broadpeak's high-performance software for low-latency streaming and new content distribution service...

15/07/2026

DHD Introduces Discovery Utility for Network-Connected Au...

DHD announces a new utility designed to increase the efficiency of its audio mixing systems during initial installation and subsequent configuration. Anyone w...

15/07/2026

BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026 Breaking t...

BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026, Breaking the 1:1 Channel-to-Server Ratio New innovations liberate broadcasters from legacy playout infrastructur...

15/07/2026

S&P Analysis: Three Quarters of Americans Watch Live Sports

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/07/2026

Scripps Sports, Ion Score Women's Volleyball Rights

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/07/2026

NVIDIA Introduces New Jetson Thor Computers to Advance Mainstream Robotics and Edge AI

General-purpose robots and autonomous machines are moving from research labs to ...

15/07/2026

Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Origins premieres on Sky and NOW on 28 July

Wednesday 15 July 2026 Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Or...

15/07/2026

Audiences to get behind-the-scenes access to Trinity College Dublin's Old Library in new RT series

Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...

15/07/2026

Building Ireland explores the River Shannon region from Leitrim to Limerick in a new series

Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...

15/07/2026

NVIDIA and Japan Bring Full-Stack AI and Robotics to Every Industry

Home to leading manufacturers, robotics pioneers, infrastructure builders and iconic gaming companies, of course, Japan is one of the world's centers of AI ...

14/07/2026

Bowling Green State Upgrades Doyt Perry Stadium With New Daktronics LED Display

South end zone videoboard, cloud-based control system will be ready for 2026 football season...

14/07/2026

Mizzou Athletics Launches Connected Digital Platform

Redesigned website, enhanced mobile app unify content, ticketing, and personalized fan engagement...