The son of British actors William Roache and Anna Cropper, the attractive sandy-haired Roache gained prominence with his strong performance as a clergyman struggling with his vocation and his homosexuality in Antonia Bird's "Priest" (1994). While the film won critical acclaim, it was also the subject of controversy in the USA. Attacked as anti-Catholic by Cardinal John O'Connor of New York and as presenting a biased view of the clergy by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, "Priest" was far better received in England where it stirred little protest.

Roache began his career as a