Editing Ken Barlow (section)

===Characterisation===
{{Quote box
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|quote="Ken has always been very earnest and honourable in his views, and he's tried to do the right thing. The trouble is that like any other human being he is flawed: we all are. When it came to the sort of job he would do, it was clear that teaching fitted perfectly with him as a person. Not only did it help satisfy him intellectually, it also allowed him to help others and at the same time give him a degree of control, which he probably always wanted. I always thought of him during that first decade as a young man who had a very stubborn streak in him when it came to his principles and what he thought was right."
|source=— Roache on Ken's early characterisation.<ref>[[#refMyLife|Roache 2010]], p.95.</ref>}}

Tony Warren created Ken as a "[[zeitgeist]]" of modern times in 1960,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/308516/The-secret-life-of-Ken-Barlow|work=[[Daily Express]]|first=Jane|last=Warren|title=The secret life of Ken Barlow|date=16 March 2021|accessdate=23 February 2023}}</ref> and it has been suggested that Ken is a "prism through which to read the political and cultural history of the last half century".<ref name="guardian">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/nov/17/coronation-street-ken-barlow-bore |title=In praise of Ken Barlow |first=Joe |last=Moran |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=17 November 2010 |access-date=29 April 2011<!--archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5yJsPUx8X?url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/17/coronation-street-ken-barlow-bore-->}}</ref> In the soap's early years, Ken was frequently presented as resenting what he saw as the anti-intellectual, repressed climate around him, and author Dorothy Hobson has suggested that Ken was ashamed of his working-class roots.<ref>[[#refDorothy|Hobson 2003]], p.117.</ref> Roache concurs that Ken obviously had higher aspirations than "being stuck in Coronation Street", but notes that "he was also portrayed as a nice young guy who was happy to help out if he could."<ref>[[#refMyLife|Roache 2010]], p.54.</ref> Roache considers himself "the guardian of Ken", responsible for ensuring that his actions and dialogue remain true to the character. This responsibility led to a two-year quarrel with his co-star [[Pat Phoenix]], when she insisted that her character, [[Elsie Tanner]], undermine Ken in an argument. Annoyed at Ken being belittled and the scene stripped of its "dramatic impact", Roache rowed with Phoenix, who did not speak to him again—outside of their scenes together—for two years.<ref>[[#refMyLife|Roache 2010]], pp.83–85.</ref>

''[[The Guardian]]''{{'s}} Joe Moran likened Ken to [[Richard Hoggart]]'s scholarship boy, "the 'uprooted and anxious' figure whose education had alienated him from his working-class origins."<ref name="guardian"/> Moran suggested that Ken has led "what Hoggart once called a 'carousel life', a life not of the upward trajectory of the professional career but of living from year to year and taking whatever job turns up." Moran added that Ken "refused to go along with the last half century's stress on consumer aspiration and meritocratic elitism", but added that by modern standards, "Ken has wasted his education and his life. He has played little part in 'wealth creation' [...] and is still stuck in the same house he lived in when he was a student, leading his carousel life, stoically and decently."<ref name="guardian"/>

Ken's political stance is [[Centre-left|left]]-[[Liberalism|liberal]]. He has been described as the most famous fictional reader of ''The Guardian'', a newspaper that attracts readers of the mainstream left of British political opinion.<ref name="guardian"/> Ken has had several forays into journalism for left-wing publications over the years, and was occasionally shown to be frustrated that his political views were not shared by others.<ref name="left"/> A scathing article he wrote for a newspaper, in which he labelled his neighbours as "lazy-minded, politically ignorant, starved of a real culture and prejudiced against any advance in human insight and scientific progress", led to clashes with his father and a fistfight at the [[Rovers Return Inn|Rovers]] with [[Len Fairclough]] ([[Peter Adamson (actor)|Peter Adamson]]).<ref name="left">{{cite web |title=Corrie's Ken Barlow takes a stroll down memory lane |url=http://www.getreading.co.uk/entertainment/film_and_cinema/s/2083764_corries_ken_barlow_takes_a_stroll_down_memory_lane |work=[[Reading Post]] |date=9 December 2010 |access-date=29 April 2011 |archive-date=26 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226224433/http://www.getreading.co.uk/entertainment/film_and_cinema/s/2083764_corries_ken_barlow_takes_a_stroll_down_memory_lane |url-status=live }}</ref> Although Ken has occasionally espoused socialist ideology, Roache suggests that he is really more of a "liberal, fair-minded guy [...] always looking to right the wrongs of society",<ref>[[#refMyLife|Roache 2010]], p.120.</ref> and "a man of integrity who fights for what he thinks is right".<ref name="Kay32">[[#refKay|Kay 1991]], p.32.</ref>

Author Graeme Kay discussed Ken's evolution within the show: "He began as a bit of a prig, in the eyes of working-class father Frank, but matured into a sound family man, only to go astray. He changed from teacher to newspaper owner, through various jobs, but threw that away too. He has always liked to see himself as a big fish in a small pond, with his steely, domineering manner and feeling of superior intellect."<ref name="Kay32"/> Little suggested that Ken has transformed from an angry young man who never fitted in and was always challenging the system, into a bore next door, eventually discovering that he could not change the world after all. Little dubbed Ken ''Coronation Street''{{'}}s elder statesman and lynch-pin, a one-man [[Greek tragedy]], and the greatest survivor in Weatherfield.<ref>{{cite news |last=Little |first=Daran |title=Ken Barlow in the Coronation St files: Angry Young Man who's turned into the bore next door. |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/KEN+BARLOW+IN+THE+CORONATION+ST+FILES%3A+Angry+Young+Man+who%27s+turned...-a0125615729 |work=[[Daily Mirror]] |date=2 December 2004 |access-date=16 February 2009 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305015633/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/KEN+BARLOW+IN+THE+CORONATION+ST+FILES%3A+Angry+Young+Man+who%27s+turned...-a0125615729 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The character has a reputation amongst critics as boring and a man of morals; Moran dubbed him the archetypal boring man.<ref name="guardian"/> Chronicling the history of ''Coronation Street'' in 2007, [[Virgin Media]] stated, "Perhaps unfairly dubbed boring, Ken is ultimately an intelligent man, frustrated by the cards life has dealt him&nbsp;– although the hair, clothes and strong morals haven't helped."<ref>{{cite web |title=Coronation Street: Who's Who? |url=http://www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/soaps/coronation-street-history2.php |publisher=[[Virgin Media]] |date=25 January 2007 |access-date=3 June 2009<!--archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5yJatQAea?url=http://www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/soaps/coronation-street-history2.php--> |archive-date=13 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213203205/http://www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/soaps/coronation-street-history2.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Popular perception of Ken as being boring originated, in Roache's view, around the time of the Ken–Deirdre–Mike love triangle storyline. He denies the label, particularly given that Ken has had numerous romantic dalliances during his tenure.<ref>[[#refMyLife|Roache 2010]], p.131.</ref> Karen Price of the ''[[Western Mail (Wales)|Western Mail]]'' called him the Street's resident intellectual, who has never quite managed to break free from his roots.<ref name="welsh">{{cite news |last=Price |first=Karen |title=Meet the man behind Corrie's Ken Barlow |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/2008/10/04/meet-the-man-behind-corrie-s-ken-barlow-91466-21952303/ |work=[[Western Mail (Wales)|Western Mail]] |date=4 October 2008 |access-date=16 February 2009<!--archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5yJarFlGN?url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/2008/10/04/meet-the-man-behind-corrie-s-ken-barlow-91466-21952303/--> |archive-date=14 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214013346/http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/2008/10/04/meet-the-man-behind-corrie-s-ken-barlow-91466-21952303/ |url-status=live }}</ref>