Corrie legend Ken Morley is convinced he was the first celebrity victim of the coronavirus. The veteran actor, who played Reg Holdsworth in the soap, says he cheated death when he was hospitalised for three days.
He believes he fell victim to an early strain of the illness – 12 months before the world had heard of Covid-19. He said: “I can honestly say I’ve never felt as close to the final curtain.” Ken, 77, fell ill at Christmas 2018 while starring in Cinderella in York – ironically playing Ugly Sister Covonia.
He was staying in a university area of the city, and medics told him the then-unnamed illness had mainly hit Chinese students living there.