Keith Duffy: 'I'd return to Coronation Street'

Keith Duffy: 'I'd return to Coronation Street'
Keith Duffy: 'I'd return to Coronation Street' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Keith Duffy has admitted he'd love to return to Coronation Street. The Boyzone singer - who played Rovers Return barman Ciaran McCarthy for two years - said bosses at the ITV1 soap had often asked him if he would consider coming back in the future and he gave them a resounding 'yes'. "I loved it up there... I loved the Northerners!" said Keith, speaking before his reformed boy band went on stage at Wembley Arena. He also praised Coronation Street producers for taking on raw talent rather than stage school actors, and used Kym Marsh as an example of rags to riches success. "Kym's done really well," he said. "She's had a really tough life, having two kids at a very young age which is never easy. "Stage school pupils have a certain way of acting, but it's also good to show real emotion from real life experiences." Keith joined bandmates Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham on stage at Wembley, and wowed fans with a mixture of old classics such as Love Me For A Reason and Picture Of You and covers including a show-stopping Queen medley. And Keith said there was no sign of the lads changing their stage name, despite starting out 16 years ago. "Manzone - it sounds like a porn website!" he laughed.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.