DID you enjoy bringing in the New Year?
Hopefully, yours was much better than Deirdre Barlow’s was in 1990.
Her festive celebrations had been ruined by husband Ken’s revelations that he’d been having a three-month affair with secretary Wendy Crozier (Roberta Kerr).
No sooner had Ken (William Roache) admitted to Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) that he’d been unfaithful, than he found himself out on his ear, with his heartbroken wife soon asking him for a divorce.
Although Ken lived with Wendy for a while, he soon regretted having cheated on Deirdre and moved into a bedsit by himself.
He tried to win Deirdre back — with the help of his adoptive daughter Tracy — but he couldn’t convince her to give him another chance . . . not yet, at least.
In the meantime, he was devastated by their split, even almost committing suicide by overdose, although he was saved by Bet Gilroy (Julie Goodyear) who had heard his movements inside No 1.
The battling going on between Ken and Deirdre affected Tracy, turning her into a troubled and rebellious teen.
While the 90s began on a sour note for the Barlows, the Websters were celebrating the birth of a baby girl, Rosie, on Christmas Eve, 1990.
There had been drama as Sally (Sally Dynevor) had given birth in the back of Don Brennan’s taxi on the way to hospital, but their daughter was the perfect Christmas present and the new parents were delighted.
In true soap fashion, one birth during the holiday season wasn’t quite enough, and baby David was born to Gail (Helen Worth) and Martin Platt (Sean Wilson).
Gail had started dating Martin — 10 years her junior — the year before and initially considered a termination when she discovered her pregnancy, as she feared that Martin was too young to want to become a father.
He stopped her from having an abortion, however, and they married in 1991.
Martin eventually adopted Gail’s other children, but Nick would eventually revert to using the name Tilsley again to benefit from his grandmother’s estate when she passed away.
Nick was usually defiant of his mother and Martin, and eventually left for Canada, where he stayed with Gail’s half-brother Stephen.
When he returned to Weatherfield, he left his mother dismayed as he fell in love with Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson), whose family Gail considered to be below hers.
Although Martin would cheat on Gail a couple of times, leading to the end of their marriage, the couple would remain good friends, and he was there to support Gail when the news broke that Sarah Louise (Tina O’Brien) was pregnant — at the age of just 13.
More on that in the next decade…
On the subject of babies, Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard) was left heartbroken when, on New Year’s Day, 1992 — what is it about that time of the year in soaps? — she went into labour prematurely.
She gave birth to a daughter, Katie, who died the next day.
As if that wasn’t bad enough for Liz, she also had the ordeal of being assaulted by her husband.
Backed into a corner, she’d had to admit to Jim (Charles Lawson) that, years before, she’d had an affair with his best friend.
Incensed, Jim pulled Liz out of the car and punched her before abandoning her outside a petrol station.
She later found herself having to take out a restraining order against her husband as he started smashing the back windows of the house and trying to get in after she had changed the locks.
They certainly had their fair share of ups and downs, and she eventually took pity on him when he was temporarily paralysed after an accident at his building site.
She moved in to look after him but then fell for Jim’s physio, Michael.
Leaving behind a devastated Jim, Liz and Michael left Weatherfield together.
Happier news came when the Websters welcomed new arrival Sophie, in 1994, and the same year saw Deirdre wed Samir Rachid (Al Nedjari), a man she had met while she was on holiday in Morocco.
Now here was a relationship that would have had Ena Sharples gossiping were she still alive to see it!
You see, there was a very big age gap between the pair as Samir, at the age of just 21, was 18 years younger than Deirdre.
He adored her, however, and would do anything for her — he even donated a kidney to her daughter!
The couple had been living in Morocco and were on the verge of buying a bar there, when Deirdre heard that Tracy (Dawn Acton) was in a drug-induced coma, after taking ecstasy.
Although Ken and Deirdre had both been tested for their suitability to donate a kidney to Tracy, they weren’t compatible.
Samir was, though, and seized the opportunity to do something to help his wife’s family.
Don’t forget, though, nothing ever goes according to plan as the curse of the cobbles had other things in store for Samir.
Out for a walk, he was beaten up by a gang of youths and taken to hospital.
A distraught Deirdre was told that he’d never recover, and she had to give her permission for the kidney transplant to go ahead.
Afterwards, she refused to see her daughter, thinking that the wrong person had died.
Tracy moved to Blackpool soon after her recovery.
Ken and Deirdre would, of course, later reunite, although not before Ken had another son, Daniel, with hairdresser Denise Osbourne (Denise Black).
Daniel’s mother was, shall we say, a flight risk, and left Ken’s name off Daniel’s birth certificate.
This meant that Ken was denied any parental rights to his son and was, at times, even unsure where he was living.
As fans will know, Ken and Daniel are in regular contact now — with a little dash of almost patricide thrown in as Daniel attacked his father with a book, causing him to fall down the stairs and later be hospitalised!
Back to the 90s, Denise was finally out of the picture, but before Ken and Deirdre would eventually be able to reunite, there was the small matter of Deirdre being wrongfully imprisoned for fraud.
She had fallen hook, line and sinker for “air pilot” Jon Lindsay (Owen Aaronovitch), who treated her to the high life, although it was with ill-gotten gains as John was a conman, who, unbeknown to Deirdre, had implicated her in his schemes.
She was sentenced to 18 months in jail — while Jon escaped with a suspended sentence — and the public were incensed.
Deirdre’s plight was front-page news in the tabloids — and even being discussed in broadsheets — and people were wearing T-shirts publicising the campaign and putting bumper stickers about it on their cars.
In fact, the reaction became so frenzied, PM of the time Tony Blair had to appease the nation by instructing Home Secretary Jack Straw to look into the case.
In the end, one of Jon’s wives came forward and said enough to have Deirdre proved innocent and she was released, reuniting with Ken at a Valentine’s Day disco.
While Ken and Deirdre were loved up again in the later 90s, Derek Wilton (Peter Baldwin) passed away of a cardiac arrest during a road-rage incident, in 1997.
Derek, of course, was married to Mavis (Thelma Barlow), who was absolutely distraught that he had passed away.
For the writers of the soap, it was just another character to kill off!
Derek’s departure did come just as another producer took over.
As is often the way when a new boss takes over, the actors find themselves wondering if their jobs are safe.
Peter Baldwin’s wasn’t.
Producer Brian Park joined the soap in 1997 and, including Derek, killed off a total of five characters on his arrival.
“Derek was probably past his sell-by date,” says Brian.
“I had to see the poor actor, Peter Baldwin, at 9am on the day I started.”
Unfortunately, the decision was made, and Derek met his maker.
Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley) also passed away in the late 90s, surrounded by his family, at Nick Tilsley’s 18th birthday party, on New Year’s Eve, 1998.
“Come on, Rip Van Winkle, time for beddybyes,” said his wife Audrey (Sue Nicholls) as she was preparing to leave at the end of the night.
To all the partygoers, you see, it just seemed as though Alf had fallen asleep in his chair, tired after some dancing.
Son-in-law nurse Martin soon had to break the news to Audrey that Alf had actually peacefully passed away.
The Story of Coronation Street: 60s saw ‘dreary and grim’ programme become a British telly icon
Unfortunately, Alf hadn’t renewed his life insurance policy and he had spent most of his savings on the salon.
He had also put aside £2,000 each for Nick, Sarah and David, which they were to receive when they reached 18.
Audrey was left with just £1,427.13, plus the house and the salon.
She faced a difficult period as she tried to get back on her feet after Alf’s death.
She did manage, however, and is currently still running the salon, with her grandson David a stylist there.
Now while all of this death and drama — unfortunately for characters on a soap — is very run of the mill, one of their storylines from the 1990s was anything but . . .
Hayley Patterson (Julie Hesmondhalgh) had first appeared on the soap as a supervisor in Firman’s Freezers, and later developed a relationship with Roy Cropper (David Neilsen).
After a few dates with Roy, Hayley told him that she had actually been born a man.
Roy did not take the news very well, asking her to leave him alone.
When she later moved to Amsterdam to have her sex-change operation, she wrote to Roy, just to let him know where she was, and to her huge surprise — and most likely Roy’s, too — he turned up to see her.
Although an odd couple in many respects — having a much more emotional than physical bond than many — Roy and Hayley were the real deal and eventually got married, in April 1999.
In the eyes of the law, they weren’t legally married, but Hayley changed her name to Cropper by deed poll, and as far as they were concerned, they were man and wife.
Hayley’s character was only ever intended to be short term, but the public liked the couple so much that her character was reintroduced.
Actor David has a deep affection for Roy and Hayley’s “absolutely beautiful” storyline and reveals that he had feared he, too, would be for the chop in his early days — but has his wife to thank for the fact he’s still there to this day.
“Roy was a psychopath,” the actor revealed of his 1995 arrival on the soap.
“He was stalking Deirdre and was a bit scary.
“It’s nice to play psychos, but they don’t ever stay around long.
“My wife is a special-needs teacher and she worked with people with autism.
“She said Roy could have Asperger’s syndrome, making him socially inept, not menacing.
“Nobody really knew what Asperger’s was back in 1995, so it’s my wife I owe it to.
“I wouldn’t like to live next door to Roy,” added David. “But he’s a very honourable man.”
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