Coronation Street star William "Bill" Roache joined This Morning as he shared his own memories of VE day, serving in the Army, and 60 years as Ken Barlow. The 93-year-old actor is one of the original faces of Coronation Street , and has been a star on the ITV soap for over 60 years. As celebrations kick off for the 80th anniversary of VE day, Bill sat down with hosts Rylan Clark and Emma Willis as he shared his experience of VE day as a 13 year old boy. He recalled: "All I knew about VE day, instead of going into the classroom, we were told to go into the assembly hall which is usually good news, it meant we’re going to have a holiday, which we did. "But first of all… Germany has surrounded and then they said you’ve got a holiday. We all went off to Llandudno, we had milkshakes and cream buns all day!" The actor continued: "We were protected out there, the horrors of the war weren’t really discovered until later on, but I knew it was a very happy place. On the 8th of May in subsequent years the street parties continued and people got to know each other and help the social thing of each area. It was wonderful. They got bigger and bigger and better and better." Bill attended a boarding school in North Wales, and shared how he was very "protected" there, with food not being an issue. He added: " The only thing I knew about the war, because I was in boarding school in Wales, was no sweets. I didn’t see a sweetshop full of sweets, where you can go in and buy whatever you wanted until I was 16." Rylan then asked if he ever understood what was happening, or the extent of the war. Bill replied: " I did understand to a large extent, my father had maps in the drawing room. I knew something good was happening in the war, but the only thing we really knew about the war was lack of sweets… We saw a German fighter fly over us once when we were playing rugby." He then joined the national service at 18 years old, calling himself the "black sheep" of the family as the rest were doctors. He was commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He was promoted to lieutenant after a year and left the army with the rank of captain after serving for six years. After leaving the army, that's when his acting career began. Reflected on the early days, Bill shared: "I went to school and I remember on a Monday we had to have a hobby… We wanted something easy… "It happened to be the dramatics society, I joined and we became the highlights of that. I never seriously thought about it as a job until I came out of the army at 25 and then I did a few film bits. It was wonderful to work for £8 a week." He spent two years working in theatre and doing a "few film bits", before he landed a role filming for the play of the week. While filming, Tony Warren who was writing Coronation Street at the time took the casting director down and said "he’s the one I want for Ken Barlow". Bill revealed: " When it was offered to me I didn’t want it, because the play of the week was the highlight, my career was going to take off so I said no." He originally thought it would only last a few weeks, so decided to do it, before announcing "I'm still here!" The hosts then congratulated him on being the longest serving actor on an ongoing drama in the whole world as Bill gushed: " I love Coronation Street, I really do it has been my life, 60 odd years."