Alan Rothwell obituary

Actor who played Ken Barlow’s younger brother in Coronation Street and appeared in Brookside, Heartbeat and Emmerdale The actor Alan Rothwell, who has died aged 89, found fame playing Ken Barlow’s younger brother, David, in Coronation Street. He was seen in the TV soap’s first episode, on 9 December 1960, as the cheerful, likable engineering firm apprentice, mending his bicycle in the Barlows’ living room, just as Ken’s new girlfriend arrived. While his university educated brother would fail to fulfil his highbrow ambitions, David quickly achieved his. He became an amateur footballer with the fictional Weatherfield County, scoring on his debut, then moved to the bright lights of London when a League team signed him in mid-1961. This departure from the programme gave Rothwell a chance to get wider television experience. He walked straight into a leading role in Top Secret (1961-62) as Mike, the nephew of a British agent (William Franklyn) who teams up with an Argentinian business executive (Patrick Cargill) in Buenos Aires to fight crime. He had two short stints in Coronation Street for “visits home” over the next few years before returning permanently in 1965. David Barlow’s profes