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"Coronation Street star Alan Halsall has pledged a long-term commitment to the ITV soap. The Tyrone Dobbs actor, who joined Corrie in 1998, hopes to equal his late friend Bill Tarmey&amp;#039;s 31-year service to the Manchester-based serial.   &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m starting my 15th year, which just feels crazy to me,&amp;quot; he told the Radio Times. &amp;quot;Bill desperately wanted to get to 30 years and, in the end I think he did 31.  &amp;quot;And recently, I&amp;#039;ve started to realise that I&amp;#039;d quite like to do 31 years and emulate Bill Tarmey. I don&amp;#039;t think I&amp;#039;ve any chance of catching Bill Roache \u2013 I don&amp;#039;t think they&amp;#039;d have me that long, to be honest. But if I could get to those years of service that Bill Tarmey [did], then I&amp;#039;d be thrilled.&amp;quot; Giving an insight into his close friendship with Tarmey, Halsall recalled: &amp;quot;When I started on Corrie, I&amp;#039;d just left school. I&amp;#039;m a Salford kid born and bred and I&amp;#039;d grown up watching Coronation Street.    &amp;gt; Coronation Street&amp;#039;s Alan Halsall &amp;#039;hit hard&amp;#039; by Bill Tarmey death &amp;gt; Bill Tarmey 1941-2012 - Obituary for Coronation Street&amp;#039;s Jack Duckworth &amp;gt; Corrie&amp;#039;s Bill Tarmey, 1941-2012: Jack Duckworth&amp;#039;s finest moments &amp;quot;So there I was with this dream job and I&amp;#039;m going out drinking and getting recognised and Bill sat me down and told me about all the options of how my life could go.  &amp;quot;And then he said, &amp;#039;But you&amp;#039;ve got no choice - you&amp;#039;re going down this road!&amp;#039; He steered me along the path of my career.  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m so lucky to have had Bill. He took me under his wing and if it hadn&amp;#039;t have been for him, I don&amp;#039;t think I&amp;#039;d be stood here right now.&amp;quot;  The 30-year-old added: &amp;quot;Bill was very much like a father figure to me both on and off screen. He&amp;#039;d often ring me up of a night and, even after he&amp;#039;d retired, we&amp;#039;d meet up every other Thursday in the pub to have a beer.   &amp;quot;He was a huge part of my life. He knew what I thought of him and I knew what he thought of me. It&amp;#039;s not something we ever hid. He knew how much I loved him and vice versa.&amp;quot;  However, Halsall, nominated for &amp;#039;Serial Drama Performance&amp;#039; at this year&amp;#039;s National Television Awards, admitted that he would find it difficult to speak about Tarmey in his acceptance speech should he win the gong. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d like to [dedicate the award to Bill], but I honestly think that if I went up there and tried to speak about Bill, it would feel too raw,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;gt; Coronation Street: Big new Tyrone, Kirsty twist revealed &amp;gt; Coronation Street wedding will shock fans, says Alan Halsall &amp;gt; Coronation Street&amp;#039;s Jenne McAlpine confirms Tyrone backlash Watch Alan Halsall discuss Tyrone&amp;#039;s upcoming wedding to Kirsty with Digital Spy below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/coronation-street/news/a452023/coronation-streets-alan-halsall-plans-to-hit-31-year-milestone/>