Deirdre Barlow

Deirdre Barlow
Anne Kirkbride as Deirdre Barlow (2010).
Coronation Street character
Portrayed by	Anne Kirkbride
Introduced by	Eric Prytherch
Duration	1972, 1973—
First appearance	20 November 1972
Classification	Present; regular
Book appearances	Coronation Street: The Complete Saga
Spin-off appearances	Ken and Deirdre's Bedtime Stories (2011)[1]
Profile
Alias	Deirdre Hunt (Maiden name) Deirdre Langton (Married name) Deirdre Rachid (Married name)
Date of birth	8 July 1955
Home	1 Coronation Street
Occupation	Receptionist
Family Husband Ray Langton (1975–78) Ken Barlow (1981–90, 2005—) Samir Rachid (1994–95) Father Donald Hunt Mother Blanche Hunt Daughters Tracy Barlow Granddaughters Amy Barlow Aunts Beryl Linfield Cousins Bradley Linfield

Deirdre Anne Barlow (née Hunt, previously Langton and Rachid) is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV Granada soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Anne Kirkbride, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode that was aired on 20 November 1972.^[2]

Storylines

Deirdre wastes no time chatting up Alan Howard before she knows he is married. In the past, Deirdre's boyfriends have included Billy Walker (Ken Farrington), Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) and Dave Barton (the actor who played Dave, David Beckett, is now Anne Kirkbride's partner). In a number of early scenes, Deirdre repeatedly mentions a former boyfriend known as 'Seb H'.

It is not long before she sets her sights on Billy Walker, a man nearly 20 years her senior. She is not intimidated by Billy's domineering mother Annie Walker (Doris Speed) who disapproves of Deirdre as she feels Deirdre is from the wrong side of the tracks. The wedding is meant to be a low key affair, paid for by Billy but it is called off. Billy subsequently leaves to run a wine bar in Jersey.

In March 1977, Ray and Deirdre move into No. 5 Coronation Street, shortly after their daughter Tracy (Christabel Finch) is born on 24 January. However, their wedded bliss does not last. Deirdre is sexually assaulted under the viaduct at the end of the street whilst walking home. It has a profound effect on her, and the following month, she contemplates suicide, standing on the parapet of a motorway bridge. She only snaps back to reality when a lorry driver asks her for directions. However, the marriage never recovers, and by September 1978, Ray is having an affair with a waitress, Janice Stubbs. When Deirdre finds out, they decide to start afresh and move to Holland, as Ray has been offered a job there, but at their farewell party in November 1978, Deirdre decides not to go and Ray leaves alone. Deirdre and Ray subsequently divorce.

Deirdre is blocked in by timber and believes Tracy is trapped underneath. (1979).

In 1979, Deirdre is touched when Sally Norton (Yvonne Nicholson) brings Tracy a doll but makes excuses to stop Sally taking Tracy out. Later, Deirdre leaves Tracy outside the Rovers whilst she visits Annie for knitting patterns, but they are disturbed by a terrible crashing sound. Deirdre goes outside to find a lorry had spilt a load of timber into the front of the Rovers, crushing the front of the pub. Deirdre hysterically claws at the timber screaming for Tracy, who she believed was underneath.

After this, Deirdre dates Mike Baldwin and attempts to reconcile with Billy Walker (her ex-fiancé), but soon realised that Ken Barlow (William Roache) is better suited to her. In January 1980, she strongly hints to Ken that if he proposed to her, she would not say no. This scares Ken away - he feels he is too old for her and would be unsuitable as he has already been married twice. In January 1981, Ken asks her out again and their romance is briefly revived -until Deirdre has a fling with Dirk van der Stek (Lex van Delden), a Dutch colleague of Ray's. However, Deirdre is still attracted to Ken, and when Dirk leaves, she hints that she is still available. They go out for a meal and agree to see more of each other without getting tied down.

In 1981, over 24 million viewers watched Deirdre's wedding to William Roache's character, Ken Barlow (which generated higher ratings for ITV than the wedding of Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer).^[3][4] Ken eventually adopts Ray and Deirdre's daughter, Tracy, and they live with Uncle Albert (Jack Howarth) in Number 1.

By February 1982, Deirdre suggests they have a baby but Ken firmly dismisses the idea, saying he does not want the responsibility. In May 1982, there are a number of muggings in the area. Deirdre's suspicions are aroused about local boy Ray Attwood (Joe Searby) when a detective asks youth club organiser Ken if he noticed anything suspicious. Ken refuses to contact the police, not wanting to betray Ray's confidence until he has evidence, but after Betty Turpin (Betty Driver) is mugged, Deirdre goes against Ken's wishes - and it emerges that Ray is the mugger. Ken feels Deirdre has betrayed him. However, later that month, Ken agrees they should try for a baby.

The marriage gets into trouble when Deirdre, feeling insecure, has an affair with ex-boyfriend Mike Baldwin in late 1982. The story runs on into 1983 and is a ratings winner, the first Corrie story to be written about in the country's newspapers. The episode in which Deirdre breaks off with Mike after reconciling with Ken is a national event. The episode in 1983 when she ends her affair with Mike and reconciles with Ken was the highest rated episode and the news was so big it ended up being announced on the scoreboard during a Manchester United vs Arsenal match at Old Trafford, with the words "Ken and Deirdre reunited. Ken 1 - Mike 0" leading to cheers from the spectators.^[5][6]

At Ken's urging, Deirdre runs for local council and wins. Ken is not happy about the amount of time she spends on council business and they row frequently about it. Deirdre can't leave her constituents to their problems, though, and persists, despite Ken feeling neglected. As a result, Ken has an affair with his secretary, Wendy Crozier (Roberta Kerr), and Deirdre starts divorce proceedings in 1990. Deirdre dates plumber Dave Barton (David Beckett) and later con-man Phil Jennings (Tommy Boyle), who tricks her into investing in his nightclub.

In 1994 Deirdre leaves town to look after an ailing Blanche (Maggie Jones), foiling a potential reunion with Ken. In the interim, Deirdre falls in love with Samir Rachid (Al Nedjari), a Moroccan man she meets while on holiday. Deirdre brings Samir to Weatherfield, insisting that it is much more than a holiday romance. Everyone is shocked when Deirdre marries Samir in November 1994 and Tracy (Dawn Acton) nearly does not go to the wedding, disgusted with her mother's antics. Deirdre and Samir decide to move to Morocco but tragically, she is widowed when Samir is killed by thugs the day before he is due to donate a kidney to Tracy (who had suffered kidney failure after a drug overdose). Deirdre is devastated by his death, the transplant is successful but Deirdre can't help wishing Tracy had died, instead of him.

Deirdre and Ken look to be getting back together after Samir's death but when she discovers, in 1995, that Ken has got hairdresser Denise Osborne (Denise Black) pregnant, she refuses attempts at a reconciliation. Ken had always refused to have a baby with her and this is quite a blow to Deirdre.

Jon implicates Deirdre in his numerous scams. They split up after she finds out he is still married to another woman. When she gives him money towards a mortgage and then tries to take it back, she is charged with theft. Jon portrays her as the brains behind the fraud but she had known nothing about it. The jury return a guilty verdict on Deirdre's charge of fraud. The judge states that Deirdre is a manipulative woman who had tricked Jon into securing her a mortgage. She is sent to prison for 18 months while Jon walks free.

While in prison, Deirdre repeatedly protests her innocence to the other prisoners' annoyance. She is regularly mocked and taunted by cell mate Jackie Dobbs (Margi Clarke) (whose teenage son Tyrone (Alan Halsall) soon moves in with Jack (Bill Tarmey) and Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn)) whose taunts include a comment that Deirdre's late husband Samir had been "run over on the camel" (in reference to him being Moroccan).

The British public started a campaign, pleading with Granada Television to "free the Weatherfield One."^[7] The Home Secretary even involved Prime Minister Tony Blair, who, with a touch of irony, attempted to intervene on Deirdre's behalf. Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin fight to free Deirdre, and they are successful when another woman tricked by Jon comes forward and makes the police realise that he is the con man that Deirdre claimed. Deirdre is released and Jon is finally brought to justice. Mike Baldwin comes to her rescue with legal fees and a place to stay, much to the chagrin of Ken and Mike's wife, Alma (Amanda Barrie). The traumas of the past year and daughter Tracy's wedding to Robert Preston (Julian McKay) leads Deirdre to reunite with Ken at a Valentine's disco in February 1999.

The 'Free Deirdre Rachid' campaign was likened to the 'Free George Jackson' campaign in 1984 after Brookside character George Jackson was wrongly imprisoned for a warehouse robbery. Unlike Deirdre, innocent George however was unsuccessful and was forced to serve his sentence out.

In December 2001, Deirdre once again becomes dissatisfied with Ken. After a row with him and his son Peter (Chris Gascoyne), Deirdre sleeps with Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin), her boss at the Corner Shop. Afterwards, Dev rejects Deirdre and they keep their liaison a secret for over a year, until Dev starts dating her daughter, Tracy (Kate Ford). This prompts Deirdre to confess her fling with Dev to Tracy and Ken. Ken forgives her and they stay together, dealing with the trials and tribulations of their children's turbulent love lives, rather than their own.

Eventually, Deirdre and Ken are engaged again, and tie the knot in an episode on April 8, 2005. The marriage is supposed to coincide with the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles, just as Ken and Deirdre's first marriage coincided with Charles and Diana's nuptials, but scheduling conflicts due to Prince Charles going to the funeral of Pope John Paul II end up throwing the date off by one day. Nearly 12 million people watch the television event. Only nine million watch the royal nuptials; Ken and Deirdre's second ratings victory against the royal family makes the national newspapers.^[8]

Deirdre's ex-husband, Ray Langton, returns to the Street in 2005, after last appearing in 1978, and announces he is dying from stomach cancer. He dies at Deirdre and Ken's wedding reception held at the Rovers Return Inn.

After weeks of turmoil at No. 1 Coronation Street, Ken offers Deirdre a shocking ultimatum. During a blazing row, he announces that if she left, he would be gone by the time she got back. True to his word, Ken leaves and begins rebuilding a relationship with his estranged son Daniel Osbourne (Dominic Holmes), and his mother, Denise Osbourne. Deirdre, full of resentment, promises to confront Denise, and on 11 May 2007, matters come to a head. The pair row in front of an audience at the Rovers Return, an argument which results in Deirdre slapping her nemesis, who is then ushered out by Ken.

Deirdre has since tried to mend her relationship with Ken and even apologises for her behaviour in the Rovers', but she fails to convince him to come back to her at that time. Since then, Ken has returned to No.1 and reconciled with Deirdre.

In July 2009, it is revealed that Deirdre has to re-apply to her job at the council as they are to cut down the number of workers, due to the credit crunch. In August, she is made redundant and confides in Betty that she does not know what do to.

When Peter decided to open a bar with girlfriend Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) with George Wilson (Anthony Valentine) (Simon's other grandfather) investing in it Ken is so against the idea that he calls a meeting at The Rovers and has an article written in a newspaper which also details Deirdre's relationship with Jon Lindsay and Tracy murdering Charlie Stubbs. Deirdre and Ken fall out for a period, however, Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) helps them reconcile by making them realise that they are lucky to have each other.

On 4 May 2010, Deirdre is dealt a blow when she discovers that mother Blanche has died in Portugal. She and Ken are even more surprised to learn that she had been romantically involved with a man called Arnold. She flies out to Portugal to meet him, in learning more about her mother's final days. At Blanche's funeral, she is happy to see Tracy in attendance, and gives an emotional eulogy at the service paying tribute to her mother's unique character.

Deirdre is delighted when Tracy is released on Christmas Day 2010, making Christmas hard for the McDonalds. Despite knowing of her manipulative personality, Deirdre is highly supportive of her release. However, her happiness does not last long when returning home on New Year's Eve, she and Ken discover Tracy's body in a pool of blood with Steve standing next to it. Tracy is then rushed to hospital. When she awakes from her coma, she claims that Becky McDonald (Katherine Kelly) is responsible for her injuries. To Deirdre's disbelief, Ken asks Tracy if she is definitely sure that Becky did attack her. Becky is then was escorted to the police station for questioning. Deirdre stands by Tracy and accuses both Steve and Becky. However, all of Deirdre's accusations are proved to be wrong when Claire Peacock (Julia Haworth) later confesses to attacking Tracy after feeling guilty for letting friend Becky taking the blame. Claire says she attacked Tracy because she had insulted her late husband Ashley (Steve Arnold), who died in the tram crash.

Creation

Background

Deirdre as she appeared in the 1970s.

She has been played by actress Anne Kirkbride in episodes since 1972. Deirdre Hunt came to our screens in 1972 as "a young 17 year old 'dolly bird', someone that liked a bit of fun".^[9] The character made a one-off appearance in episode 1236 on November 20 of that year. The producers and writers were convinced that the character had more mileage and Anne Kirkbride returned for a couple of appearances from episode 1272 on March 26, 1973 and as a contracted regular from episode 1288 on May 21, 1973.^[10]

Deirdre's trademarks include a gravelly, scratchy voice (intensifying due to actress Anne Kirkbride's real-life chain smoking) and very big glasses. She wore the same style of glasses for almost 30 years (in her youth she was nicknamed "Miss Sexy Spex"), before Dev Alahan crushed them with a box when she put them down for a second. Today, her frames are much smaller than they used to be. Actress Anne Kirkbride does not wear glasses away from the role, opting for contact lenses. For the first couple of years, Deirdre's glasses on the show did not have any sort of lenses.^{[citation needed]}

Casting

After leaving Oldham Rep at the age of 17 actress Anne Kirkbride featured in a Granada TV play by Jack Rosenthal titled Another Sunday and sweet FA, then auditioned for a part in a pilot for a new Granada series. It was then that Coronation Street's casting director took notice of her and offered her a bit part in the show.^[11] She was first seen doing her little part when character Elsie Tanner came into a pub to find husband Alan Howard drinking with Deirdre. Kirkbride said: "That was my first scene and I was petrified at the thought of coming into something I'd been watching since the age of seven." Kirkbride has remained with the show ever since.^[11]

In 2009 actress Kirkbride stated that she felt she was coming to the end of the road with the show but a spokesperson for the show insisted that there were no immediate plans for the actress to leave and said that she's expected to be in the cast when the show celebrates its 50th anniversary in December 2010.^[7]

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Webmaster (2007). "Coronation Street - Cast & Characters - Deirdre Barlow". ITV.com. http://www.itv.com/Soaps/coronationstreet/castandcharacters/atoe/DeirdreBarlow1.html. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
3. ^ Editor (1996). "ITV - CORONATION STREET". Solarnavigator. http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/television/coronation_street.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
4. ^ Clemmie Moodie (8 March 2005). "Getting married again... it's such a yawn". The Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-340519/Getting-married--yawn.html. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
5. ^ "Coronation Street: Who's Who?". Virginmedia.com. 25 January 2007. http://www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/soaps/coronation-street-history2.php. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
6. ^ Jack Kibble-White (June 2000). "EVERYDAY FOLK AND INFLATION". Off The Telly. http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/drama/soapinflation.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-03. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ ^{a b} Daily Mail Reporter (13 February 2009). "'I don't want to grow old on Coronation Street': Deirdre Barlow close to quitting soap after 36 years". TheDaily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1143136/I-dont-want-grow-old-Coronation-Street-Deirdre-Barlow-hints-shes-ready-leave-soap-34-years.html. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
8. ^ Martin Dunphy, Verne McDonald, and Dave Watson (29 December 2005). "2005 in review - Around the World". Straight.com. http://www.straight.com/article/2005-in-review-around-the-world. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
9. ^ Tvor (30 August 2007). "Character Study: Deirdre Hunt Barlow". Corrie Blog. http://www.corrieblog.tv/2007/08/draft_character_2.html#more. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
10. ^ "Home Page - ITNSource". ITN. http://www.itnsource.com. Retrieved ?. 
11. ^ ^{a b} Life in the Street. Boxtree Limited. 1991. p. 36. ISBN 1-85283-161-8. http://www.book-info.com/isbn/1-85283-161-8.htm. 

External links

• Profile of Deirdre Barlow at ITV Soaps
• Profile of Deirdre Barlow at What's on TV