THE UNFORGETTABLE PARTNERSHIPS

KEN BARLOW & MIKE BALDWIN

Ken and Mike (Johnny Briggs) spent 20 years at each other’s throats. Often their fist fights (right) were over women, such as Mike’s affair with Ken’s wife Deirdre and Ken dating Mike’s ex Alma, who was won back by Mike. But their relationship ended poignantly when Mike died in Ken’s arms on the cobbles after a heart attack.

ENA, MINNIE & MARTHA

These elderly widows (played by Violet Carson, Margot Bryant and Lynne Carol) would sit round that small table in the Rovers snug, gossiping, in the early years. When Martha died of a heart attack in the snug in 1964, Ena was heartbroken – and so were millions of viewers.

KEN AND DEIRDRE

Ken Barlow (William

Roache) has had many relationships in his 60 years on the Street but he’ll be forever linked with Deirdre. Their first nuptials in 1981 (right) coincided with the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana – and their second, in

JACK & VERA DUCKWORTH

Pigeon fancier Jack and gobby Vera (Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn) became an iconic couple over their 30 years, known by their first names alone. Son Terry was a rogue, but Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) later became like a son after he began lodging with them.

2005, came just a day before Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles. Although Ken and Deirdre both had affairs when married to each other, their love endured, and Ken was lost when Deirdre passed away in 2015 after the death, aged 60, of actress Anne Kirkbride.

STAN & HILDA OGDEN

Workshy Stan and busybody Hilda (left, played by Bernard Youens and Jean Alexander) bickered a lot. But heart-rending scenes after his death in 1984 showed Hilda’s love for him, as she sat by his grave to say she’d never remarry.