Two celebrity weddings take place this week - with much in common. But, as each is shown on television will viewers be able to tell fact from fiction?

The setting is Weatherfield not Windsor, but when Ken and Deirdre tie the knot - for the second time - in Coronation Street on Friday there will be eerie echoes of another wedding that day.

To be fair, the soap couple set the date first. Granada had booked the register office before Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles - or Chaz 'n' Cammie as they've been dubbed by one soap magazine - announced their nuptials.

The double wedding is appropriate enough as, for some time now, the story of the British monarchy has resembled a long-running soap with the family rows, divorces, adultery, rebellious children and tragic deaths. Soap writers have only to look at Palace life to draw inspiration for their fictional plots.

Ken (played by William Roach, the only surviving original Street cast member) and Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) are soap royalty, with coverage of their wedding almost certainly drawing more British TV viewers than that of their royal rivals.

Small screen spectators will be able to compare and contrast the two ceremonies by switching between channels on Friday night as BBC1 screens highlights of the royal do at the same time as ITV1 broadcasts the Weatherfield wedding.

You may not be able to tell the difference between the two events. Both couples will be surrounded by children, relatives, friends and a few people they have to invite for contractual reasons.

Both Ken and Charles went on bended knee - not easy at Ken's advanced years - to propose. Both are marrying divorced women. Both have children and relatives whose behaviour has been colourful, to say the least. Both Deirdre and Camilla will have an ex-husband (and, in Deirdre's case, a few ex-lovers) among the guests.

The run-up to the big day has been fraught with difficulties for both pairs. Ken and Deirdre's attempt to get married last month was ruined when her dying ex-husband, Ray Langton, turned up unexpectedly and almost ran down his daughter Tracy and his granddaughter. The wedding was postponed.

The royals were beset by problems over the legality of their wedding and objections from the public. There was even a switch of venue. Nobody had a bad word to say about the Barlow's reunion, apart from the odd snide comment from Deirdre's sharp-tongued mother Blanche.

The main difference is that Camilla's future in-laws won't be at the civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall. The Queen and Prince Philip are staying away, although they will attend the blessing afterwards in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. Rumours that they've opted to attend Ken and Deirdre's wedding instead are completely unfounded.

The bride's mother will be at Weatherfield register office. Blanche Hunt wouldn't miss the chance to see her daughter remarry Ken, with whom she first walked up the aisle 24 years ago. And here's another eerie coincidence, that wedding took place just a few days before Charles made Diana his bride.

Ken, whose comments are always made in the full knowledge that a microphone will pick up every word, has enjoyed a varied and exciting career as social worker, taxi driver, male escort, supermarket trolley dolly and reporter. Charles, of course, has never had a job.

Ken's love life has been just as colourful as his CV with a tally of 24 ex-girlfriends, although I don't know who's been counting the notches on his bedpost.

His first wife Val was electrocuted by a dodgy hairdryer which, I suppose, was a fitting way for a hairdresser to go. Other conquests who've swooned over Ken on the famous cobbled street include town hall clerk Janet Reid, Wendy Crozier and another hairdresser Denise Osbourne, with whom he had a son Daniel.

Deirdre had an affair with factory owner Mike Baldwin before marrying 22-year-old Moroccan, Samir. He died after being mugged, but not before donating a kidney to Tracy, who'd suffered renal failure after a drugs overdose.

She also took up with pilot Jon Lindsay, only to discover that he was really a tie salesman and embezzler. Deirdre ended up behind bars until a Free The Weatherfield One campaign got her released.

Tracy, now a single mother, could give princes William and Harry a run for their money in the tabloids with her exploits. Let's hope she behaves herself at the reception. At a previous wedding, she drugged poor Roy Cropper, took him to bed and claimed he'd made her pregnant. Falling out of a nightclub drunk or going on holiday with your girlfriend is pretty mild behaviour compared to that.

After the ceremony, it will be back to the Rovers Return for the Barlows, their friends and neighbours for a pint of Newton and Ridley's and to tuck into Betty's hotpot. She'll put a little model bride and bridegroom on the top to mark the special occasion. The Windsors will adjourn to a very large room in their castle for a wedding breakfast for 750 relatives, guests and friends.

Then Ken and Deirdre will honeymoon in Corfu, while Charles and Camilla enjoy themselves on the Balmoral estate.

There are no problems concerning what to call Deirdre after Friday. She'll be Mrs Barlow, whereas Charles and Camilla have been through all that tricky business about whether to call the bride Consort or Queen. Perhaps they could put it to the public vote like Pop Idol or Fame Academy.

* The Royal Wedding with Charles and Camilla: BBC1 from 12.30pm and ITV1 from 2.15pm, with highlights on BBC1, 7.30pm. Ken and Deirdre's wedding is in Coronation Street on ITV1 at 7.30pm, followed by When Ken Met Deirdre, 8.30pm.

Published: 02/04/2005