AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
It became one of the soap’s most famous storylines. Deirdre Barlow found herself at the centre of a torrid love triangle with her husband Ken and lover Mike Baldwin. The whole nation was gripped by the scandal, not to mention the press. A spokesman for Granada TV was forced to make clear there would be no “unpleasant scenes, no X-certificate stuff” as the affair hotted up. And a scandalised bishop warned “too much realism” could be a turn-off for fans of the show.
Deirdre and Ken wed in 1981 and, with him adopting her daughter Tracy, everything seemed rosy.
But by the end of 1982, Deirdre embarked on a torrid affair with smooth-talking factory boss Mike when she began to find her husband boring.
With plodding Ken oblivious to her deceit, viewers were left on tenterhooks as Deirdre’s clandestine relationship with the cockney charmer continued.
In 1983 the affair was no longer a secret when prim Emily Bishop heard Deirdre set up a dinner date with her bit on the side. Although a long-term pal and Tracy’s godmother, Emily couldn’t betray her Christian beliefs, refusing to condone the behaviour.
A showdown between the two women ensued, with Emily giving Deirdre a firm talking to in a bid to save her ailing marriage.
By this point, Deirdre’s affair was the talk of the land. Sunday Mirror agony aunt Claire Rayner advised the secretary to “cool it”, saying: “You won’t solve your boring marriage in someone else’s bed. Talk to your husband about the way you feel and by communicating properly for a change.”
One viewer told actress Anne Kirkbride she was organising a petition to get her out of Weatherfield while others wrote “we thought you ought to know” letters to Bill Roache’s character Ken.
On-screen, Deirdre was beginning to feel conflicted about the affair and ended things with Mike, who had begged her to leave Ken and set up home with him.
Confessing all to her husband, she sobbed: “You never wanted me.”
In an emotional scene in the hallway of No.1 Coronation Street, Mike knocked at the door. Furious Ken ended up taking a swing at him, with a sobbing Deirdre getting caught in the middle.
“I put a lot of emotion and frustration into that because they made Ken into a bit of a nerdy character so Deirdre would go off with Mike and I got very cross,” Roache later said.
Star Kirkbride was voted TV Personality of the Year in 1983 but she didn’t love being in the spotlight off the cobbles saying: “I’m really a quiet, private person.”
Deirdre and Ken reconciled, which was news so big it was announced on the scoreboard at a match between Manchester United and Arsenal, the words “Ken 1 – Mike 0” drawing cheers from the spectators.
Ken and Mike would continue their feud for decades. “To this day I believe she chose the wrong man,” said actor Johnny Briggs, who played the factory boss. “But the writers got it right.”