Jack Duckworth and Me - My Life on the Street and Other Adventures

Actor Bill Tarmey is better known as Jack Duckworth, one of Britian's best loved soap characters. Bill first made an appearance as Jack Duckworth in Coronation Street in November 1979, when his formidable on-screen wife Vera, dragged him to Brian and Gail Tilsley's wedding, only to have him sneak off for a pint at the first opportunity.

In Jack Duckworth and Me - My Life on the Street and Other Adventures, Bill tells the full story of what it has been like to play this loveable rogue for nearly half his life.

He exposes the comical on set japes behind the scenes, including getting fits of the giggles with Curly Watts and Alec Gilroy, just what it was like playing the Romeo to Bet Lynch and Dulcie Froggat, together with more emotive times such as when Bernard Youens, who played Stan Ogden, passed away.

Another highlight is the intriguing account of Bill's early years being raised in the streets of post-war Manchester, with bombsites for playgrounds and an ex-Navy grandpa who taught him how to box.

Destined to become a master asphalter just like his father, Bill never gave up his passion for singing, and by the late sixties he had made a name for himself in the unforgiving environment of the Working Men's Club circuit. Taking work as a TV extra, Bill quickly found himself treading the famous cobbled streets, and became a natural in his newly created role of Jack, that has been uncanny in mirroring Bill's own life for its lurches of fortune.

Filled with stories to please both Corrie fans and lovers of British Television the world over, Jack Duckworth and Me - My Life on the Street and Other Adventures is a warm hearted and substantial autobiography and is THE soap star memoir the nation has been waiting for.

After playing what is probably the country's favorite soap character for thirty-one years, Bill leaves Coronation Street in December 2010.