Coronation Street's Les Battersby star announces new sporting career move at age of 70
Coronation Street's Bruce Jones is set to chance his arm in wrestling at the age of 70
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Coronation Street icon Bruce Jones, who played Les Battersby on the show, has announced he's set to make his wrestling debut at the age of 70.
The actor started working on the show back in 1997.
However, he left under a cloud in 2007 with ITV chiefs opting to write his character out.
Jones is known for his honest opinions, as well as his love of rock band Status Quo.
This is not a drill. This is not a parody.
— SOVPRO (@sovpro) November 1, 2023
From the infamous cobbles of Weatherfield, The Champion of the Rovers Return, THE Les Battersby makes his SOVPRO debut on Feb 18th
Tickets below 👇 pic.twitter.com/7KwKb6Kk30
And Sovereign Pro Wrestling have now announced Jones is set to chance his warm in wrestling.
They tweeted: "This is not a drill. This is not a parody.
"From the infamous cobbles of Weatherfield, The Champion of the Rovers Return, THE Les Battersby makes his SOVPRO debut on Feb 18th."
Bruce himself then confirmed the news, saying: Come and join the wrestlers and me as Les 18th February 2024 for my debut with SOVPRO."
And wrestling fans have now responded to the surprising development.
"They don't call him Les Battersby for no reason," one quipped, referring to his Corrie character.
Another joked: "But who will he be facing in that most dangerous of matches, the Coronation Street Fight? My money is on Fred Elliott."
A third stated: "This might be the strangest thing I've ever seen and I'm so for it."
Jones was suspended by Corrie back in 2007.
Since then, he's appeared in shows such as Benidorm - as well as Celebrity Wife Swap and Celebrity Big Brother.
Jones also found one of the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper back in 1977, too.
He was initially questioned before Peter Sutcliffe was charged with the crimes.
In 2013, Jones candidly opened up on his battle with depression.
"There were times I didn’t want to be in the dressing room, I just wanted to go home," he said.
"I was suffering depression but didn’t realise I was ill."
He added: "It’s a terrible disease. You don’t know you’ve got it, but it’s got you.
"Basically I was schizophrenic, my only defence was that I was an actor.
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Bruce Jones played Les Battersby on hit ITV show Coronation Street
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"I could pretend to be somebody else. I could put a set of clothes on and take them off.
"There’s no way out of it... unfortunately I decided I would drink my depression away."