Corrie Bill: I'm deaf!

CORONATION Street favourite Bill Tarmey has admitted he's not heard a single line of the soap for years . . . because he is DEAF.

The star-who plays pensioner Jack Duckworth in the ITV1 show-revealed his hearing became so bad that during filming he needed a prompt man to tell him when to speak.

Now the 68-year-old actor has had two invisible hearing aids fitted.

Bill confessed: "I have 80 per cent deafness in my right ear and 70 per cent in my left. I am virtually deaf."

Struggle

It has meant that for years Bill has struggled to understand what his soap co-stars have been saying-including the relentless nagging of former wife Vera, played by Liz Dawn.

A source told us: "Bill had a prompt man who would stand out of shot of the camera and tell him when he had to deliver his next line.

"Nobody at Corrie minded helping him because he is such a legend and a great bloke to work with."

Now Bill-who first appeared in Corrie back in 1979-has state- of-the-art hearing aids so small that viewers can't see them.

The delighted star said: "I can hear again-it's brilliant. They are like little earwigs that fit inside the ear.

"You can barely see them and I can hear properly again."

The TV legend blames his loss of hearing on the years he spent working in noisy clubs and performing as a cabaret singer before Coronation Street.

Bill has been dogged by ill health. He had a stroke when he was just 36 and underwent a quadruple heart bypass in 1986, nearly dying of a viral infection afterwards.

In 2002, he needed another bypass and had to be brought back to life when his heart stopped after an eight-hour operation.

The source added: "It is fantastic news that Bill has got hearing aids. He reckons he can now hear a pin drop."

• I can't Corrie on!

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