{"id":206538,"date":"2025-06-23T02:01:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T02:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206538\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T02:01:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T02:01:18","slug":"itv-coronation-street-star-dies-penniless-on-benefits-after-23-year-stint-on-soap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206538\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV Coronation Street star dies penniless on benefits after 23-year stint on soap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Adamson died at the age of 72 in 2002 and was a \u201cvirtual recluse\u201d in his last years after his acting career fell apart.<\/p>\n<p>14:53, 22 Jun 2025Updated 14:54, 22 Jun 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_corrie.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Adamson died at the age of 72 in 2002 and was a \u201cvirtual recluse\u201d in his last years after his acting career fell apart.\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Peter Adamson died at the age of 72 in 2002 and was a \u201cvirtual recluse\u201d in his last years after his acting career fell apart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">An ITV Coronation Street star has died penniless on benefits after 23 years on the soap. Len Fairclough actor Peter Adamson died at the age of 72 in 2002 and was a \u201cvirtual recluse\u201d in his last years after his acting career fell apart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Adamson died alone and penniless in hospital \u2013 while he was on living on benefits &#8211; while suffering from stomach cancer. The 72-year-old was one of Britain&#8217;s most popular stars, but his career was ruined after he was accused of child abuse in 1983.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The shamed TV star became withdrawn after the scandal, barely seeing anyone and when he died in Lincoln County Hospital he was alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/new-uk-heatwave-set-hit-31907956\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">READ MORE New UK heatwave set to hit next week with 22 counties in England roasted<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A spokeswoman for Granada TV said: &#8220;We heard about Peter&#8217;s death from his brother Clifford, who rang to tell us. We had heard he was ill, but didn&#8217;t know what was wrong. We&#8217;re very sorry to hear of Peter&#8217;s death and send our sincerest condolences to his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Peter was one of the big stars of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/coronation-street\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Coronation Street<\/a> in his role as Len Fairclough.&#8221; A spokeswoman for Lincoln County Hospital said: &#8220;I confirm that we did have a patient called Peter Adamson, who died last Thursday.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">His acting career crumbled when he was accused of indecently assaulting two young girls at a public swimming pool. Despite being cleared, Street bosses decided to sack him after he sold his story to a newspaper for an estimated \u00a3110,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Scriptwriters killed off Len by writing a dramatic scene in which he died of a heart attack while at the wheel of his car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">In the aftermath of his exit from Weatherfield, Adamson struggled to find work after the scandal and spent his last years living on benefits in a rundown one-bedroom flat in Welton, Lincolnshire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">After the trial Adamson said: &#8220;The jury exonerated me but I still feel sullied and dirty today. I am not a paedophile. I have four grandchildren I love dearly. But to some I am guilty.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Adamson died at the age of 72 in 2002 and was a \u201cvirtual recluse\u201d in his last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,236,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-206538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-coronation-street","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114730217278767265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}