Here's what the actor who played Coronation Street's Curly Watts is up to now

Coronation Street fans will remember Weatherfield's Norman 'Curly' Watts, and despite the character leaving the cobbles 21 years ago he is still a soap icon.

Kevin Kennedy played Curly on the long-running soap for 20 years. The character is remembered jumping from one failed romance to another before eventually finding love.

He first appeared on-screen during the summer of 1983 and went on to marry Rovers Return barmaid Raquel (Sarah Lancashire). Curly and Raquel soon became a jewel in Weatherfield's crown, and an iconic soap couple, but sadly they called in quits on their turbulant marriage after only five years.

Eventually though, Curly found happiness with his second wife and police officer Emma Taylor (Angela Lonsdale). The pair departed the cobbles and headed off to start a new life on Newcastle-upon-Tyne following a perjury incident in 2003.

Curly made a brief comeback on a DVD special in 2010 for the movie A Knight’s Tale where he revealed that he and Emma had split up - Curly was back on the market.

Since leaving Coronation Street 21 years ago, actor Kevin, 63, wrote and produced a show called Spanish Capers which aired between 2005 and 2007. He also played a part in Ben Elton’s musical We Will Rock You playing a hippie called Pop.

Other television appearances include a role in Blue Murder and Doctors both back in 2006 and Holby City in 2017.

In 2019, Kevin returned to television as he portrayed Clyde in Mrs Brown's Boys for one episode. The ex-Corrie star took to the stage again between 2018 and 2019 when he played Dennis Dupree in the musical Rock of Ages.

In 2020, Kevin uploaded a selfie to social media and confirmed he had landed a part in a film as he captioned the post: "On my way to film my first modest but important movie role!!!"

After leaving the Cobbles in 2003, Kevin also set up an addiction recovery charity to help others with addictive and mental health disorders after being on his journey of recovery from alcohol addiction for more than two decades.

They offer a helpline which is manned by trained coaches all in active recovery and have free virtual recovery coaching support, signposting and virtual workshops.

Kevin told the Manchester Evening News: "The Kennedy Street Foundation is my passion; all we want to do is help people who find themselves in the desperate situation I was in 22 years ago."

He added: "Our national recovery helpline is receiving calls every day and we really need to raise as much money as possible in order to be able to help each and every one start their own Road2Recovery."

Kevin is playing His Royal Highness, King Curlington in Cinderella at County Durham pantomime this year. He will then star in the Pretty Vacant UK tour which follows the story of punk and the new wave generation.

Coronation Street airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on ITV and ITVX