The Road to Coronation Street a Londoner most famous for her role as Kat Moon in "EastEnders", "religiously" watched YouTube footage of early episodes to master the "old-fashioned Mancunian" accent as she described it. Wallace also briefly had sessions with a dialect coach before filming commenced. James Roache plays his father William Roache in the drama. The elder Roache has played Ken Barlow in "Coronation Street" since its inception. As well as acting in "The Road to Coronation Street", James was filming scenes for "Coronation Street" in a non-regular role as Ken Barlow's grandson at the same time. Celia Imrie played Doris Speed, who played
The Only Way Is Essex introduction of several new cast members including James Locke, Dan Osborne, Jack Bennewith and Abi Clarke. Twin sisters Amy and Sally Broadbent were also confirmed to have joined the cast however after two episodes, Lucy Mecklenburgh announced on Twitter that they had been used by the show to create storylines and had been dropped from the cast. The series saw the departures of numerous long serving cast members such as Kirk Norcross, Debbie Douglas and Mick Norcross, Billi Mucklow and Danni Park-Dempsey who all announced their departures midway through the series. The ninth series began airing from 2 June 2013