Les Battersby-Brown

Infobox soap character
color=#F0E68C
series=Coronation Street
name = Les Battersby-Brown


first = 4 July 1997
last = 6 May 2007
born=
spouse = Janice Lee (1994–2003)

Cilla Brown (2005—)
children = Greg Kelly
Leanne Battersby
Chesney Battersby-Brown (adoptive)
occupation = Roadie
portrayer =Bruce Jones
residence = Out of Weatherfield
romances = Yana Lumb

Leslie "Les" Battersby-Brown (né Battersby) is a fictional character on the British ITV soap opera "Coronation Street". He was played by Bruce Jones.

Information

Les first appeared in 1997 with his wife Janice, teenage daughter Leanne (from his first marriage) and stepdaughter Toyah (from Janice’s previous relationship), and they were known as the "family from hell". Les had spent six months in Strangeways prison for breaking and entering. In 1998, Les discovered that he had a son, Greg. Greg turned out to be psychotic and abused his girlfriend, Sally Webster, until he was imprisoned.

Les was frequently in trouble. He assaulted neighbour Curly Watts and was at loggerheads with another neighbour, Des Barnes, until one night when he helped Des out of a difficult situation. After the break-up of his marriage, he was sent to prison for six months for assaulting a police officer who was living with Les's wife Janice at the time.

Despite their constant rows and nagging, Les truly loved Janice (despite struggling to show it at times). When he embarrassed his wife by buying her a deep-fat fryer for their anniversary, it became obvious that their marriage was failing.

In 2001, Janice had finally realised that she’d had enough of Les’s antics and inability to show affection, and she embarked on an affair with their lodger, Les's biker friend Dennis Stringer, who was dating Eileen Grimshaw at the time. They admitted their love and moved in together.

On New Year's Day 2002, Les drove under a viaduct and sat in his car while trying to kill himself by excessive alcohol drinking. He was eventually rescued by Dennis, who turned up on his motorbike and drove Les away with the intention of taking him to hospital. On the way, they were involved in a car crash which killed Dennis and left Les with a broken arm.

Despite many an attempt to woo back Janice (to no avail), Les met loud-mouthed Cilla Brown in a local pub. She turned out to be the mother of Street resident Fiz Brown, and had left her young son Chesney alone in their home for days while she was in bed running Les ragged.

In no time, Cilla and Chesney moved in with Les (much to Fiz’s disappointment), but in 2004 she took a six-week break and dumped Chesney on Les, after a fiery row. In this time, he finally came close to winning back his true love, Janice, after she decided to cancel their divorce proceedings to re-unite with Les, but Cilla came on the scene and lured him back with her larger bust and by pretending to have come into money. Janice swore never to get involved with Les again, and divorced him. Around the same time, Les discovered his daughter, Leanne, lap-dancing in a nightclub, and brought her back to Weatherfield.

In 2005, Les and Cilla decided to get married for the “luxurious” presents they would receive from their guests. Les’s dream came true when his favourite band, Status Quo, popped in the Rovers after a concert in the area. As he approached the band with records for them to sign, they, in turn, thumped him (as they recognised him as the lunatic who jumped on stage in a concert some twenty years previous, causing a permanent neck injury to lead singer Francis Rossi). He didn’t lose his faith in the Quo, and didn’t anticipate that they would soon meet again.

Cilla, however, quickly smelt a way to make money from this and told a reluctant Les to contact his solicitor in regards to suing the band for assault. In order to avoid the bad publicity, the band were eager to settle the case with Les quickly and quietly, but Cilla’s dreams of riches were quickly dashed when Les, rather than accept a cash offer, settled for the band to play at the wedding reception.

On her hen night, Cilla found a younger bloke on her last night of freedom, but was interrupted by a drunk Les coming home, and she passed the man off as her son, Billy, who had turned up for the wedding. Les was too drunk to say anything and fell asleep, while the man ran off in disgust. The real Billy turned up on the wedding day morning, but told Les, who was baffled upon realising that the two men were different, that perhaps he was too drunk to even remember what he looked like. Les agreed and shrugged it off, and nothing more was said.

Marriage to Cilla Brown

Les and Cilla finally arranged their wedding day, despite the fact that the priest was a de-frocked clergyman, and they had to distract the real vicar while they “married.” Cilla smashed Tracy Barlow’s window (due to the fact that she wouldn’t hand over the bouquet of flowers for the ceremony because Cilla wouldn’t pay up) and then ran to Dev Alahan’s shop and stole some flowers, before jumping into the wedding car heading towards the church.

Les was driving when he spotted a member of Status Quo, took his eyes off the road to stare in amazement, and crashed into their van (with the other band member inside).

Les put on a neck brace before “tying the knot” with Cilla, and they became known as the Battersby-Brown family.

The Quo turned up at a back room in the reception (where the presents were being kept) to rest. Les walked in, and told his idols that his dream was to trash a room with expensive things in. He duly wrecked everything, and threw a wedding-present TV out of the window as Cilla walked in to inform him that he had just trashed the presents! She went berserk and started attacking Les as the Quo watched in bursts of laughter, and the reception ended with the band agreeing to put past differences with Les behind, performing “Rockin’ All Over the World” with Les as a member of the band.

Cilla then went on the honeymoon with her friend, Yana Lumb, rather than Les.

Surprisingly it is only Les that has had affairs in the marriage, the first time with his ex-wife, Janice Battersby during a drunken one-night stand; Cilla showed Les mercy although giving him a hard time first but forgave him. The second time was when Les suspected Cilla of cheating (when she wasn't). Cilla's best friend, Yana Lumb took pity on Les and showed anger at an absent Cilla who didn't ever confide in her. Yana and Les eventually slept together behind the sofa in the living room, only for Cilla's son Chesney to catch them. Cilla soon found out and pretended that she had malignant cancer, leaving Les devastated and guilty and ready to do anything for his "ill" wife. Cilla got Les and Yana to go into a bathtub full of mushy peas in the cold wind out on the street to raise money to send her on holiday. Cilla revealed that she lied about the cancer. After much grovelling, Cilla forgave Les and smacked Yana on the face, but also forgave her.

A few days later, Les and Cilla made the marriage legal by registering at a local registry office.

Departure

Actor Bruce Jones was suspended from the show in March 2007, following Sunday newspaper allegations of drunkenness and inappropriate comments made in the presence of an undercover reporter. [ [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/a44465/coronation-street-suspends-bruce-jones.html igital Spy] ] In May, it was confirmed that he would not return, and the character of Les would be written out later in the year. [ [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/a58479/bruce-jones-to-leave-coronation-street.html Digital Spy] ] His absence has so far been covered by a storyline of Les going away on tour as a roadie for tribute band "ZZ Top O' The Morning".

Since his departure, Les has never been seen and has only been mentioned once or twice, by Fiz and Chesney.

References

External links

* [http://www.corrie.net/profiles/characters/battersby_les.html Les’s profile at www.corrie.net]
* [http://bank-b-gone.com/les_battersby/balladoflesbattersby.html The Ballad of Les Battersby] sing-along pub song by Dan LaRocque