BOUNCING on a bed with Hilda Ogden is just one of the highlights of Roy Barraclough's 35 year Coronation Street career.

For the actor who is best-known for playing the scheming Alec Gilroy also picked up a few choice cameo roles during his time with the Street.

The bed salesman who had to test a comfortable couch with headscarved Hilda was just one of the roles Roy got to play.

Eventually his versatility caught a Street producer's eye and he became Roy of the Rovers -- one of the pub's best-loved landlords, Alec.

Preston-born Roy, 68, said: "It was great fun working with actors like Julie Goodyear and Bill Tarney.

"We all got on very well.

"Alec got some great one-liners.

"At first I just used to throw in these lines in rehearsal, then the writers started putting them in regularly."

Despite a recent return to the Street Roy has ruled out another comeback in the soap.

"That era has gone now," he said.

"The show has moved on. I would feel a bit like a dinosaur if I went back.

"I also feel they don't use the older actors as much. I think that's sad and the show doesn't have the same appeal.

"I don't watch it now because all my old mates are only playing tiny bits.

"It's a shame because they brought such a wealth of experience and colour to the programme."

Roy certainly arrived on the Street with plenty of experience.

He had already given the public a taste of his characterisation skills playing Cissie to Les Dawson's Ada -- a pair of Northern battleaxes.

He first met Les, who became a close friend, in 1971 and the pair rapidly formed a double act in Sez Les and The Les Dawson Show.

Roy said: "We worked together on and off until about two years before his death in 1992.

"He was such a lovely man.

"He was just the same on screen as off it, with a very naughty sense of humour.

"Cissie and Ada came about because we were both great fans of Norman Evans' Over the Garden Wall sketches.

"Les and I got into this routine off-camera and the producer thought it would be a great idea for the show.

"I wasn't quite sure if the public was ready to see us in frocks, but it went down so well it became an established sketch in the show."

Since Coronation Street, Roy has made a successful return to his first love, the theatre, and is set to play the womanising Lord Brockhurst in The Boy Friend, which looks set to tour to London's West End.

To catch the show at Salford's Lowry Theatre, from April 14-19, call 0870 1112000.