Our tribute to actor Johnny Briggs
We pay tribute to Johnny Briggs, who, as Corrie’s womanising wheeler-dealer Michael Vernon Baldwin, brought us three decades of top-class soap...
If you merged Mike Baldwin into Johnny Briggs, you wouldn’t know where the join was,” joked actress Amanda Barrie (Alma Baldwin), as she paid tribute to her former on-screen husband, who died last month. “Johnny was like a naughty schoolboy.”
It was this sense of cheekiness – both on screen and off – that made Mike Baldwin a Coronation Street legend. A baddie, no doubt, but a baddie with charm and, when called for, a vulnerability, which raised him far above the run-of-the-mill soap rogue. Such was his legacy that Johnny’s death made front-page news, despite Mike departing our screens 15 years ago.
Early fame
Johnny started his career as a child actor, attending the famous Italia Conti theatre school. Dozens of film and TV roles followed, including three Carry On films. In 1972, he made his move into soap – not as Mike, but as a similar rough diamond, Crossroads’ Clifford Leyton, who he played for two years. Then, in 1976, Corrie beckoned. With the Street’s ratings softening in the south, producers decided to bring in a bit of cockney charm to the show. Fuelled by his desire for women and wealth, Mike soon caused a stir.
“Mike’s got it made, hasn’t he?” joked Johnny. “He’s this good-looking young guy, he has all the girls he fancies working at the factory – he’s like God!”
The love of Deirdre
It was in 1983, with Corrie at the peak of its 80s popularity, that Mike cemented his place in soap history. His affair with bored housewife Deirdre gripped the nation. Famously, when Deirdre chose hubby Ken, it was announced at Old Trafford to 56,000 footie fans. The fling sparked a feud that lasted until Mike’s death – and Johnny loved the storyline.
“There were 21 million viewers that night,” he recalled. “And over the years I’ve had the joy of thumping Ken at least four or five times, and got paid for it – it’s one of the rare times where I’d hope they’d need another take!”
The drama continued to come thick and fast onscreen – including four weddings and 23 girlfriends. Off screen, Johnny was dad to six children, splitting his time between his home in the West Country and a holiday home in Florida, where he could indulge in one of his biggest passions: golf.
Sad goodbye
Johnny made the decision to escape the “hectic schedule” of Corrie in 2006. His exit saw Mike battle Alzheimer’s, before dying in the arms of Ken.
The actor was made an MBE in the New Year Honours list in 2007, and roles followed in Marple, Holby City, Doctors and ITV soap Echo Beach.
When his death was announced by his family last month “following a long illness,” his cast mates, including Bill Roach (Ken), paid warm tribute to him.
“Mike Baldwin and Ken Barlow were arch-enemies for many years,” reflected Bill. “But I was so fortunate to work with him for so many years.”
Sue Nicholls, who starred with Johnny as Audrey Roberts, called him “a great friend” and admired that “he played the part of Mike Baldwin so well that, despite all Mike’s ducking and diving, you were always on his side”.
Amanda Barrie added that she’d miss the “fun times” with the “silly old twit”, while recalling her own death scene in 2001. “When Alma was dying, everyone was around her bedside,” she said. “Bill was a bit upset, but I don’t think Johnny was at all! I knew he was thinking, ‘How long is she going to take to die? I’ve a golf game to get to!’”