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| Deirdre Barlow | |||||||||||||
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 Deirdre Barlow in 2008 |
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| Coronation Street | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Anne Kirkbride | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 1972, 1973- | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 20 November 1972 | ||||||||||||
| Book appearances | Coronation Street: The Complete Saga | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 8 July 1955 | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | Council Worker | ||||||||||||
| Residence | 1 Coronation Street | ||||||||||||
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Deirdre Anne Barlow (née Hunt, previously Langton and Rachid) is a long-running fictional character on the British soap opera Coronation Street. In the past, Deirdre has been employed at the Corner Shop, first helping Renee Bradshaw and Alf Roberts in the 1970s, and then Dev Alahan two decades later. Currently, however, she works at the council offices as a legal secretary.
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Background and arrival
She has been played by actress Anne Kirkbride in episodes since 1972. Deirdre Hunt came to our screens in 1972 as "a young 18 year old 'dolly bird', someone that liked a bit of fun".1. 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, 19732. In the past, Deirdre has been employed at the Corner Shop, first helping Alf Roberts in the 1980s, and then Dev Alahan two decades later. Currently, however, she works at the council offices as a secretary.
Deirdre's trademarks include a gravelly, scratchy voice (intensifying over the years 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. Interestingly, Anne Kirkbride does not wear glasses at all, opting for contact lenses. For the first couple of years, Deirdre's glasses on the show did not have any sort of lenses.3
Relationships
Deirdre wasted no time chatting up Alan Howard before she knew he was 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's partner). In a number of early scenes Deirdre repeatedly mentioned a former boyfriend known as 'Seb H'.
It wasn't long before she set her sights on Billy Walker, a man nearly 20 years older than her. She wasn't intimidated by Billy's domineering mother Annie Walker who heartily disapproved of Deirdre as she saw her as being from the wrong side of the tracks. The wedding was going to be a low key affair, paid for by Billy but it was suddenly called off. Billy subsequently left to run a wine bar in Jersey.
Deirdre then decided she'd been attracted to one of her bosses, Ray Langton, all along. Ray was also quite a bit older than her but they got married and were quite happy for a time. Deirdre was far from the quiet, submissive type as Ray initially thought and wasn't afraid to stand up to him when she had to. In March 1977 Ray and Deirdre moved into No. 5 Coronation Street, shortly after their daughter Tracy was born on 24 January. However, the wedded bliss was not to last. Deirdre was sexually assaulted under the viaduct at the end of the street whilst walking home. It had a profound effect on her, and the following month she contemplated suicide, standing on the parapet of a motorway bridge. She was only snapped back to reality by a lorry driver asking for directions. However, their marriage never recovered, and almost inevitably, by September 1978 Ray had started an affair with a waitress Janice Stubbs. When Deirdre found out, they decided to start afresh and move to Holland, as Ray was offered a job there, but at the farewell party in November 1978, Deirdre decided she couldn't go and Ray left alone. Deirdre and Ray then divorced.
It was after this that Deirdre first dated Mike Baldwin, and attempted reconciliation with Billy Walker (her ex-fiancé), but she soon realised that Ken Barlow was better suited to her. In January 1980, she strongly hinted to Ken that if he asked her to marry him she wouldn't say no. This only scared Ken away - saying he was too old for her and would be unsuitable as he was already twice-married. In January 1981, Ken Barlow asked her out again and their romance was briefly revived - until Deirdre had a short-lived fling with Dirk van der Stek, a Dutch colleague of Ray's. However, Deirdre was still attracted to Ken, and when Dirk left she hinted that she was still available. They went out for a meal and agreed to see more of each other without getting tied down.
In an episode in 1981, over 24 million viewers watched Deirdre's wedding to William Roache's character, Ken Barlow (which received higher ratings in Britain than the wedding of Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer).4. Ken eventually adopted Ray and Deirdre's daughter, Tracy and they all lived together with Uncle Albert in Number 1.
By February 1982 Deirdre's thoughts had turned to having another child. Ken firmly dismissed the possibility, saying he didn't want the responsibility. In May 1982 there were a spate of muggings in the area. Deirdre's suspicions were aroused about local boy Ray Attwood when a detective asked youth club organiser Ken if he noticed seen anything suspicious. Ken refused to contact the police, citing it as a betrayal of confidence until he had substantial evidence, but after Betty Turpin was mugged, Deirdre went against Ken's wishes - and it transpired that Ray was responsible for the muggings. Ken felt Deirdre had betrayed him. However, in the same month Ken relented and agreed that they should try for a baby.
The marriage got into trouble when Deirdre, feeling insecure, began an affair with ex-boyfriend Mike Baldwin in late 1982. The story ran on into 1983 and was a ratings winner, the first Corrie story to be written about in length in many of the country's newspapers. The episode in which Deirdre broke off with Mike Baldwin after reconciling with Ken was a national event (including being announced on the scoreboard during a Manchester United match, with the words "Ken and Deirdre reunited. Ken 1 - Mike 0" leading to cheers from the spectators).citation needed
At Ken's urging, Deirdre ran for local council and much to his surprise, won. Ken wasn't keen on all the time she was spending on council business and they rowed frequently about it. Deirdre couldn't leave her constituents to their problems, though, and persisted even if Ken felt neglected. As a result, Ken had an affair with his secretary, Wendy Crozier, and Deirdre started divorce proceedings in 1990. True to form, however, the rifts in their tempestuous relationship healed and they got back together.
In the interim Deirdre fell in love with Samir Rachid, a native of Morocco whom she met while on holiday there. Deirdre brought Samir back to Weatherfield insisting that it was much more than a holiday romance. Everyone was shocked when Deirdre married Samir and Tracy nearly didn't go to the wedding, utterly disgusted with her mother's antics. Deirdre and Samir decided to leave the prejudice and negativity behind and move to Morocco. Tragically, Deirdre become a widow when he was killed by thugs on the day before he was to donate a kidney to her daughter, Tracy (who had suffered kidney failure after a drug overdose). Deirdre was devastated by his death, the transplant was still successful but Deirdre couldn't help wishing Tracy had died instead of him.
Deirdre and Ken looked to be making their way back together after Samir's untimely death but when Deirdre discovered in 1995 that Ken had got hairdresser Denise Osborne pregnant, she refused attempts at a reconciliation. Ken had always refused to father a baby with her when she wanted one and this was too much of a blow to Deirdre. It was after this that she made the mistake of getting involved in a very precarious relationship...
Imprisonment: "Free The Weatherfield One"
The most controversial storyline Kirkbride had to play was when her character was sent to prison in 1998 for a crime she did not commit. Deirdre had begun a relationship with bogus 'airline pilot' Jon Lindsay, who treated her to an extravagant lifestyle funded by crime and deception. She remained oblivious to the truth about her boyfriend but learned the hard way when she was falsely accused of fraud.
Jon had implicated Deirdre in his numerous scams. As she gave him money towards a mortgage and then tried to take it back, she managed to get herself charged with theft. He portrayed her as the brains behind the fraud but the reality was that she had known nothing about it. Deirdre was tried, convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Deirdre repeatedly protested her innocence to the annoyance of the other prisoners and to her cell mate Jackie Dobbs.
The British public started a big grassroots campaign, pleading with Granada Television to "free the Weatherfield One." The Home Secretary even involved Prime Minister Tony Blair, who, with only a touch of irony, attempted to intervene on Deirdre's behalf. Ken and Mike Baldwin fought constantly to free Deirdre, and they were successful when an ex-wife of Jon's came forward to testify that Jon Lindsay was the con man that Deirdre said he was. Deirdre was then released after several weeks, and Jon was finally made to pay for his crimes. Mike Baldwin again came to her rescue with legal fees and a place to stay, much to the chagrin of Ken and Mike's wife, Alma. The traumas of the past year and daughter Tracy's wedding to Robert Preston led Deirdre to reunite with Ken at a Valentine's disco in 1999.
Reconciling with Ken Barlow
In December 2001, Deirdre once again became dissatisfied with her life with Ken. After rowing with Ken and his son Peter, Deirdre slept with Dev Alahan, her boss at the Corner Shop. Afterwards, Dev rejected Deirdre and they kept their liaison a secret for over a year, until early 2003, when Dev started dating her daughter Tracy. This prompted Deirdre to confess her fling to Tracy and Ken. Ken forgave her and they subsequently lived happily together, dealing with the trials and tribulations of their children's turbulent love lives rather than their own.
Eventually, Deirdre and Ken were engaged to be married yet again, and tied the knot in an episode on April 8, 2005. The marriage was 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 ended up throwing the date off by one day. Nearly 13 million people watched the television event. Only nine million watched the royal nuptials; Ken and Deirdre's second ratings victory against the royal family made the national newspapers.5
Deirdre's ex-husband Ray Langton returned to the Street in 2005, after last appearing in 1978, and announced he was dying from cancer. He died at Deirdre and Ken's wedding reception held at the Rovers Return Inn.
Charlie Stubbs' murder
In January 2007, Tracy murdered her cheating lover Charlie Stubbs and made it look like self-defence. Deirdre was taken in by her daughter's lies and stood by her. Although Deirdre did her best to defend her daughter in court, she became aware of the truth about Charlie's death on 25 March 2007, when Tracy explained she killed him in cold blood in a special 'two-hander' episode.6 Consequently, she ended up having a panic attack in the witness box. Tracy was found guilty of the murder of Charlie in April 2007. Her fifteen year sentence devastated Deirdre and left her relationship with Ken on rocky grounds.
Separation and reconciling with Ken Barlow
After weeks of turmoil at No. 1 Coronation Street, Ken offered Deirdre a shocking ultimatum. In the middle of a blazing row, he announced that if she left, he would be gone by the time she got back. True to his word, Ken Barlow left and began rebuilding a relationship with his son Daniel Osbourne, and his mother, Denise Osbourne. Deirdre, full of resentment, promised to confront Denise, and on 11 May 2007, matters came to a head. The pair rowed in front of an audience at the Rovers Return, an argument which resulted in Deirdre slapping her nemesis, who was then ushered out by Ken.
Deirdre has since tried to mend her relationship with Ken and even apologised for her behaviour in the Rovers', but she failed to convince him to come back to her at that time. Since then Ken has since returned to No.1 and has reconciled with Deirdre.
References
- ^ http://www.corrieblog.tv/2007/08/draft_character_2.html#more
- ^ Home Page - ITNSource
- ^ http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Deirdre_Barlow
- ^ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Coronation%20Street
- ^ http://www.straight.com/article/2005-in-review-around-the-world
- ^ http://www.tv.com/sun-25-march-2007/episode/1008140/summary.html
External links
- Profile of Deirdre Barlow at What's on TV
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 6 January 2009, at 23:49.
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