Roy Barraclough will be remembered for his comedy work with the late Les Dawson, especially for their Cissy and Ada routines and of course as Alec Gilroy, the landlord of the Rovers Return, Weatherfield rogue and and husband to the outrageous Bet Lynch in Coronation Street

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Roy Barraclough MBE was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1935 where he also spent twelve years as a draughtsman in a preston engineering factory whilst also performing in local amateur dramatics, 

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The Preston-born actor made his debut appearance as Alec in 1972, but it wasn’t until 1975 that he became a more regular Corrie cast member. Alec and Bet were the ultimate odd couple and the pair quickly became icons of the cobbles, with their stormy marriage providing fertile ground for comedy writing. Alec’s miserly attitude was a perfect contrast to Bet’s lively outlook on life, and with his pompous and unscrupulous attitude, the pint-sized, chain-smoking talent agent could have easily been turned into a caricature. But Barraclough always grounded his character in the minutiae of everyday life.

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However, the actor constantly had itchy feet to get back to stage work. For a couple of years, he was appeased when the Street’s producers allowed him eight weeks away from the studios. Then, in 1992, Barraclough decided to call time on his run in the soap. He was back briefly three years later before returning full-time for another three-year run (1996-98).

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 Roy fell in love with the theatre through visits to Preston’s Royal Hippodrome and Blackpool’s Grand. During 12 years of working as a draughtsman at a Preston engineering factory he acted with local amateur dramatics groups in his spare time and spent a summer as a holiday-camp entertainer on the Isle of Wight.

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In 1962, he turned professional by joining the repertory company at the New Theatre, Huddersfield, as stage manager, and within two weeks was acting. He sometimes played the piano, too, most notably accompanying the comedy star Hylda Baker. He moved on to the Victoria theatre, Stoke, where he was upset by poor reviews of his performance as Falstaff in Henry IV, but one of his contemporaries, Ben Kingsley, encouraged him to carry on. In 1966, Barraclough joined the company at Oldham Coliseum theatre, performing alongside Knox and Goodyear, who had both already made brief appearances in Coronation Street.

TV beckoned, with bit parts in the Manchester-based Granada Television series City ’68 (1967), The War of Darkie Pilbeam, Gazette and Tom Grattan’s War (all 1968). Then came the regular role of Harry Everitt, the scruffy husband of Lorna (played by Kathy Staff), in Castle Haven (1969), an ITV daytime serial about the residents of flats in two large Victorian houses in a Yorkshire coastal town

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Both comedy and drama roles followed on screen. He played Frank Wilgoose, the lodger of a feuding married couple, in the sitcom The More We Are Together (1971), and gained a legion of young fans in the children’s series Pardon My Genie (1972-73) as Mr Cobbledick, owner of a hardware shop where the polishing of an old watering can released a 4,000-year-old genie (played first by Hugh Paddick, then Arthur White).

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An even bigger audience saw him alongside Dawson. He joined the comedian in 1972 for the fourth series of Sez Lez, when their Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebotham characters emanated from an impromptu performance they did while waiting to record a sketch, based on their shared love of the variety performer Norman Evans’s Fanny Fairbottom routine. Barraclough fashioned Cissie as the more refined of the pair, influenced by an aunt of his “who always thought she was slightly above the rest of the family”. Together, they “mee-mawed” (mouthed words) and adjusted their bosoms. Sir Ian McKellen rated the pair the 10th best drag act ever. The partnership with Dawson continued until the comedian’s sudden death in 1993.

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Later TV parts included the corrupt Blackpool mayor Onan Van Kneck in the comedy-thriller serial Funland (2005) and the Reverend Barticle in All the Small Things (2009), the writer Debbie Horsfield’s drama about a church choir. He enjoyed a short run in Last Tango in Halifax as Maurice (2012-13), the lifelong friend of Derek Jacobi’s septuagenarian enjoying a twilight-years romance, which was ended by his character’s death. He also had a cameo as himself in the 2002 film 24-Hour Party People.

In 2006 Barraclough was appointed MBE for his services to drama and charity work, and last year he took the role of senior menswear salesman Mr Grainger in the BBC’s one-off revival of Are You Being Served?

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The episode of Coronaton Street broadcast on ITV on 1st June 2017 was dedicated to Roy

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His panto appearances included:

1962 - Cinderella - The Palace Theatre Blackburn

1963 - Aladdin - The Palace Theatre Blackburn

1964 - Babes in the Wood - Huddersfied

1966 - Cinderella - Oldham Coliseum

1967 - Aladdin - Oldham Coliseum

1968 - Robinson Crusoe - Oldham Coliseum

1973 - Jack and the Beanstalk - Oldham Coliseum

1974 - Robinson Crusoe - Oldham Coliseum

1975 - Cinderella - Oldham Coliseum

1978 - Babes in the Wood - Bradford Alhambra

1979 - Cinderella -Theatre Royal Norwich

1980 - Emu in Pantoland - Kings Theatre Southsea

1981 - Emu in Pantoland - Blackpool Grand

1982 - Jack and the Beanstalk - Davenport Theatre

1983 - Aladdin - Blackpool Grand

1984 - Cinderella - Swansea Grand

1985 - Aladdin - Davenport Theatre & Theatre Royal Nottingham

1986 - Babes in the Wood - Dartford Orchard Theatre

1992 - Mother Goose - Wolverhampton Grand

1994 - Aladdin - Alhambra Bradford

1995 - Aladdin - Palace Theatre Manchester

2005 - Santa Cluas and Jack Frost - Mayflower Theatre Southampton

2006 - Santa Claus - Liverpool Empire

2007 - Santa Claus - Alexandra Theatre Birmingham

2009 - Santa Claus - The Mayflower Theatre Southampton

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