Alan Bradley (Coronation Street)


Alan Bradley is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street, played by Mark Eden. He first appeared in 15 January 1986 and became the show's main antagonist until the character was killed off in 8 December 1989, just two episodes after the series celebrated its 3000th episode.
The character's story arc began with Alan visiting Weatherfield to reconcile with his long-lost daughter Jenny, following the death of her mother and his ex-wife Pat – who was reported to have been killed in a car accident. This works successfully and Alan subsequently moves into Weatherfield to live with Jenny and her foster mother Rita Fairclough, whom he gradually establishes a relationship with as the pair end up falling in love with each other. Alan later plans to marry Rita in a surprise wedding between them, but is left unhappy when she doesn't go through with it and prefers for them to remain partners.
Throughout his time on the show, Alan exhibits a volatile and temperamental streak due to his psychopathic nature. This proves evident at the times where the character inflicts his behaviour onto Rita's several friends and neighbors alike. During the course of his story arc, Alan has an affair with local barmaid Gloria Todd ; beats up her troublesome customer, Terry Duckworth, at The Rovers Return Inn public house for badmouthing him; repeatedly clashes with the pub's landlady Bet Lynch ; sparks a feud with Jenny's boyfriend Martin Platt ; threatens to hurt Rita's business partner Mavis Riley and her husband Derek Wilton for intruding on his plan to make changes at Rita's shop called "The Kabin"; planned to buy the Weatherfield garage from its departing manager, Brian Tilsley, until the latter decided to stay in the street with his wife Gail and cancelled the sale before Alan could bid for the new ownership; harbored unrequited romantic feelings for his client Carole Burns ; dismissed Jenny's engagement to her fiancé Patrice Podevin after she ran away to France to stop her father controlling every aspect of her life; tried unsuccessfully to go into partnership with his boss Dave Craig upon creating his own business, initially dubbed "Bradley Securities Limited" and later renamed "Weatherfield Security Systems"; and attempted to rape his receptionist Dawn Prescott after she rebuffed his efforts to spark a romance between them.
The follow-up of his attempt to rape Dawn proved to be Alan's downfall, after Rita finds out about just not the incident and his other misdeeds – but also learns that Alan had fraudulently posed as her late husband, Len, and mortgaged her house without her own consent to start his own business. When she reports his crime to the building society to stop him from further exploiting her assets, Alan tries to kill Rita and is consequently arrested as a result. He is soon released and Alan proceeds to torment Rita for months, which leads to her having a breakdown and fleeing to Blackpool. Because of this, Alan becomes shunned in Weatherfield and practically loses everything – including his daughter – all around him. He eventually tracks down Rita after uncovering her whereabouts from The Rovers' landlord, Alec Gilroy, and travels to Blackpool in a bid to prove to the community that he didn't kill her. The character's attempt to force Rita in returning to Weatherfield with him leads to Alan chasing her onto an oncoming Blackpool tram, which narrowly misses Rita and ends up fatally hitting Alan – consequently killing him off and thus ending his reign of terror for good.
Depicted as one of the best soap villains of all time and in the programme itself, the character Alan Bradley served as an inspiration for future antagonists on the show; including Richard Hillman and Pat Phelan.

Storylines

Backstory

Alan Bradley was born on 20 July 1939. At somepoint he married a woman named Pat, and in 1971 she conceived a daughter – which they named Jenny. During that time, Alan became his own master; he liked the free life of a bachelor and spent little time at home. In part this was because his job installing air conditioning systems took him all over the country. In 1978, Alan and Pat split up and he left home – not to see Jenny again for eight years. He and Pat were subsequently divorced. By the end of 1985, Alan was living in digs in Scarcroft – near Leeds.

1986–1989

In January 1986, Alan was tracked down by social services when Pat was killed in a road accident. He learned that Jenny, now fourteen, was living in Weatherfield – a fictionalized district in Greater Manchester – with her foster mother, the local shopkeeper Rita Fairclough. The news prompted Alan to go to Weatherfield from Leeds and collect his daughter, but Jenny resented him for abandoning her. With Rita's help, Alan convinced Jenny to give him a chance. He got a transfer to Weatherfield and got a flat near the street so that Jenny could live with him without changing school.
Alan had been seeing a lot of Rita and he was attracted to her, up to the point where he regularly visits her at the latter's own shop – The Kabin. While she also had feelings for him, Rita was shocked to learn that Alan exhibits a masculine and aggressive streak – as it often reminds him of her late husband Len. By the time their interaction became passionate, Alan had doubts about his relationship with Rita and began two-timing on her with her friend Gloria Todd – who works as a barmaid at the local public house, The Rovers Return Inn – after finding her a flat in his building. Gloria was youthful and glamorous; a woman he could more easily take charge of than he could Rita. This escalated when Alan learned that the street's troublemaker, Terry Duckworth, was pestering Gloria. He later confronted Terry and warned him to stay away from Gloria, but soon learned that Terry was causing trouble for Jenny as well. When Alan confronted him again in The Rovers to warn him off Jenny and then Terry called him a "demolition man", Alan lashed out at Terry and brutally attacked him before being kicked out by the pub's landlady – Bet Lynch. Later on, Alan apologized to Gloria for losing his temper and explained that he previously had a two-year suspended sentence for assault – further claiming that its relation to his past is still hanging down on him.
By then, Alan begins to date both Gloria and Rita without either's knowledge – and eventually sleeps with Gloria due to Rita wanting to take her own romance with Alan slowly. The women eventually conferred and realized that he was two-timing them. When Rita told Alan that she was awareness of his two-timing behaviour, he admitted to sleeping with Gloria and was forced by Rita to choose which of the two he wishes to be with. He ended up choosing Rita, after Gloria ended her relationship with Alan beforehand upon confronting him about his affair. Alan and Rita managed to slowly rebuild their romance and put their rocky start behind them.
By September 1986, Alan was made redundant and his pride kept him from telling Rita; however, she discovered this from fellow resident Mavis Riley. A new job soon came up for Alan in Liverpool, and Rita convinced him to take it even though it meant three months in Dubai; Alan agreed to take the job and later arranges for Jenny to move in with Rita.
In January 1987, one year since he first came to Weatherfield, Alan returned to the news that Jenny had been in a car crash. When he visited his daughter, Alan learned that she has been dating her schoolmate Martin Platt and suspected that he caused the crash with the knowledge that Martin normally goes speeding in his car. Alan later confronted Martin and was ready to thump him, but Jenny then admitted that she'd been driving. Martin and Jenny confessed to the police, with a little persuasion from Alan, but Rita refused to press charges so nothing came of it. Alan thanked Rita and told her he would compensate her from the money he was earning in Dubai. He then continued to woo Rita and sought to take the next step by proposing to her. Despite expecting Rita to say yes because of their similar age, Alan was astonished when she said no – with Rita stating that she preferred for them to carried on as partners.
Following his return from Dubai, Alan moved in to Rita's house and began to spend more quality time with Jenny – which partly helped took his mind from the disappointment of Rita politely declining his proposal. Alan soon took an interest in The Kabin, opening a video library and electric till within the shop to modernise the establishment. His changes worried Mavis Riley, as she suspects that Alan was worming his way into The Kabin – just as he similarly did to Rita's affections – and might plan to have her replaced. Mavis soon confined to her husband Derek Wilton about her suspicions and he questioned Alan about this on Mavis' behalf. In response, Alan threatened Mavis and Derek to stay away from him; Rita soon learned what Alan was doing and told him to not make any more changes at her shop.
Soon enough, Alan felt emasculated by being second to Rita financially and decided to buy Tilsley's Garage when Brian Tilsley – the namesake owner of the place – made plans to move down south with his wife Gail, but at the last minute the couple pulled out of the sale and Alan became unhappy that his chances of buying the garage were ruined. He nevertheless still had his heart set on marrying Rita and, thinking she needed more convincing, booked a surprise wedding for them at the Weatherfield Register Office; he later planned to lure Rita there under the pretext that they had been invited to a friend's wedding. When they got there, Rita couldn't believe it when the penny dropped that Alan had actually planned for her own surprise wedding with him. Alan was then surprised, however, when Rita promptly got back into the taxi she came in. This left Alan feeling humiliated, as he slowly came to realize that Rita would probably never marry him.
By the time Jenny turned sixteen, she decided to leave school – though but Alan wanted her to stay and complete her A-Levels. Alan and Rita later found out that Jenny had gone to France to escape them trying to tell her what to do. Alan furiously went to France to find her, but he came back empty-handed. She returned to the country in October 1987 with the news that she was marrying a French student, Patrice Podevin, after they engaged in a relationship during her time in France. Alan thought Jenny was too young and immature to get married and refused to give his blessing. While Rita opposed Alan's views and gave Jenny her own blessing, Alan proved to be right when Jenny cheated on Patrice with another boy called Gary Grimshaw ; this resulted in Patrice breaking off his engagement to Jenny and Alan later comforted her when her ex-fiancée went back to France on his own.
While he managed to reconcile with Jenny in light of her broken engagement, Alan became bored with merely running the video library and sought to expand his lifestyle. In 1988, he found a job fitting burglar alarms. Alan soon wanted to go into partnership with his boss Dave Craig and asked Rita to loan him £6,000 to buy into the business, but Dave wasn't interested. Alan decided to set up on his own business, creating Bradley Securities Limited, and used Rita's money to buy a company car. Despite her reservations, Rita gave Alan a chance to try out his luck and helped him set-up his potential business in Len's but agreed to give Alan a chance, setting him up in Len's old Builder's Yard – which Alan would use to start making money for himself, Jenny, and Rita altogether.
In the summer, Alan started to ignore Rita and became romantically interested with one of his clients – Carole Burns. This continued when Alan left Rita, telling her that he was tired of the way she "coldly" puts him down. In response, Alan demanded that he return the money that she had loaned to him; he reluctantly complied and Alan was later forced to vacate the yard. Alan later moved out of Rita's house upon complying with her demands, and his business was effectively over as the bank and Carole both refused him a loan. In November 1988, he left Carole and again returned to Rita and Jenny. They were initially skeptical towards Alan until he explained that he didn't come back to reclaim the money that he borrowed from her and she took off him, by announcing his plans to set up a shop without needing a penny from her. Without Rita's knowledge, he stole the deeds to No.7 and mortgaged the house for £15,000 by posing as Len – as his name was on the deeds to Rita's house. With the cheque in hand, Alan told Rita the bank had given him a loan; Rita believed him and Alan later transferred his business to a shop unit in Curzon Street, renaming it Weatherfield Security Systems to cover his tracks with the building society.
Alan did everything to keep the truth from Rita, whilst also trying to retain his "family man" relationships with both her and Jenny in the process. He had all letters from the bank re-directed to the shop and handled all mail and phone calls himself. The business grew more successful when Alan employed Martin to be his assistant, partly at Jenny's urging, and later hired the newly-arrived Dawn Prescott to become his receptionist. Alan quickly fancied Dawn and asked her out, telling her Rita was just his landlady, but she wasn't interested.
This only encouraged him and he soon confined to Dawn about his feelings to her in March 1989. When she again rejected his romantic appeals, Alan loses it and attempts to rape her – but she manages to escape by rushing out onto the street. The incident proved to be Alan's downfall as Dawn not only told Rita about his attempt to rape her, but she also exposed his fraudulent scheme by telling Rita about the letters and phone calls that were asked for Leonard Fairclough. This prompted Rita to investigate Alan's activities, and she was gobsmacked to learn what he had done. On the night Jenny celebrated her eighteenth birthday, Rita confronted Alan for his deceit and he admitted to committing fraud behind her back – while at the same time argued with Rita about how his actions have led to the success of the business he started months ago. Alan was totally unfazed with the way how Rita reacted towards discovering his lies, but his mood changed when he learns that she had just stopped this from going any further; Rita had earlier visited the building society and, after finding out the conditions of Alan's bank loan, exposed his deceit by confirming Len's fate. Alan grew enraged when Rita ended their relationship by telling him that he is finished and that his time was up. In response, he lashes out at Rita just as she goes over to answer Jenny on the phone – as Jenny had wanted to check and see if her father and foster mother were alright. After stopping Rita from answering the call, Alan went physical on her – hitting Rita and then trying to suffocate her with a cushion. However, Rita is saved when Jenny and Martin – returning from her birthday party – came in the house and found what Alan was doing to her; Alan promptly flees from the house and drives out of Weatherfield, leaving Jenny and Martin to check up on Rita and she was taken to hospital.
The next day, Alan found himself wanted by the police – after Rita told them about what he did and Jenny learned about her father's activities. He phoned Jenny and asked her to meet him at a train station, with his passport and money. Jenny reluctantly met up with her father at his request, but the police followed Jenny without her knowledge and Alan was arrested when Martin and the police caught up with him. As he was taken into custody, Alan believed that Jenny shopped him to the police and disowned her – but then learned that nobody grassed him up and that Jenny had actually been monitored for his guard to be dropped. Alan was soon charged with deception and actual bodily harm and spent six months on remand. When Jenny later visited Alan in prison, he asked her to beg Rita to play down what had happened; however, Jenny refused when she realized that her father was only thinking about himself and ignored his wishes.
In October 1989, Alan's trial emerged. He pleaded guilty to deception and actual bodily harm in a bid to avoid going to prison. This worked successfully as Alan was given two years in prison, but ended up walking free that very day – as he had served enough time in prison at the point when he was recently on remand without bail. Rita was horrified by the verdict and became convinced Alan was going to take revenge on her. Her fears quickly proved to be correct when Alan resorts to torment Rita out of spite for the way she destroyed his business and ended their relationship. He first visited Rita while she was alone at her house, claiming that he was there to see Jenny, and tensions grew when she asked him to leave – only for Alan to ignore and then intimidate Rita, which led her mortified and desperately afraid. Alan later moved into a bedsit near the street and landed himself a job at the building site near Rita's house, wanting to stay close to her. When Jenny confronts her father about what he was doing, Alan told his daughter that he is staying in Weatherfield and claims to still love her – as well as caring for Rita as well; Jenny reluctantly accepted this and Alan's false claims ended up sparking trouble between his daughter and Rita, up to the point where Jenny wrongly asserts that Rita was being vindictive and turns against her.
When Rita learned that her shop had been vandalized, she quickly suspected Alan of being the culprit and the police were called in to taken him for questioning – but Alan proved to be innocent when the police caught gang of children trying to sell videos that were stolen from The Kabin. A few weeks later, Rita disappeared without a trace and Alan was again questioned by the police; he was once more cleared when any evidence of his alleged involvement proved insufficient. He was nevertheless suspected by his fellow neighbors of killing Rita and burning her at the building site. Alan later went to The Rovers and ended up being drunk, which prompted Rita's longtime companion Percy Sugden to confront him about her fate. When Percy continued to pester Alan over what he supposedly did to Rita, he threatens to beat up Percy – which prompted his friends Don Brennan and Alf Roberts, along with Terry's father Jack, to all stand up to Alan. At the point where Alan was being hounded by everyone in The Rovers, he grabs a bottle and prepares to attack them until Jenny's best-friend Sally Webster rushes into The Rovers – telling them that the police have founded something at the building site. This causes everyone to rush outside, assuming that Rita's body is found; Alan reluctantly joins them after Alf's wife and Gail's mother, Audrey Roberts, sarcastically asks if he is bothered enough to feel curious in knowing what the police will find at the site. It soon transpired that Rita had actually gone over to Blackpool to recover from a breakdown, which occurred in light of Alan's treatment towards her. Despite this and the fact that was found at the building site, Alan lost his job because of the trouble it had caused with the police.
Alan became overly bitter and swore revenge on Rita, blaming her for ruining her life. He soon learns of Rita's whereabouts after overhearing The Rovers' landlord, Alec Gilroy, confining to Ben about his knowledge that Rita is in Blackpool. Alan later follows Bet to Blackpool, with the intent on finding Rita and taking her back to Weatherfield to prove to everyone that he didn't kill her. He barged into the hotel where Rita was staying in, only to instead find Bet staying there and Alan threatened her – demanding to know where is Rita. Although Bet was unwilling to tell him where she is, Alan deduces that Rita is coming back to the hotel after finding her clothes in the wardrobe. He then goes back to his car to await for her arrival, just as Rita is walking back from the seaside town up towards the hotel. In that moment, Alan spots Rita and orders her to get in his car. When she silently refuses, Alan drags her into the passenger seat – only for her to instantly get out just as he starts to walk back into his seat. Alan promptly chases Rita across the road, where they end up walking into an oncoming Blackpool tram – which narrowly misses Rita and ends up slamming onto Alan, killing him. The tram promptly stops at the impact of hitting Alan, and Bet rushes outside to comfort Rita.

Legacy

Later on, Alan is confirmed to have officially died and news of his death becomes public knowledge in Weatherfield – with Jenny becoming devastated to learn about her father's death. She later attends his funeral with Martin and Sally, along with the latter's husband Kevin, supporting her in attendance. The impact of Alan's torment on Rita and his subsequent death continues to negatively affect her relationship with Jenny. However, they eventually reconcile when Jenny comes to accept that her father had truly never loved her and this signals the end of Alan's reign of terror once and for all.

Reception

The character Alan Bradley is well-received by critics. The episode that aired on 13 March 1989, where Alan tried to kill Rita by suffocating her, attracted over 25 million viewers when combining the original broadcast with the omnibus, while the following episode on 15 March 1989 with Rita in hospital and Alan hiding from the police, attracted 26.93 million viewers, which is the highest combined rating in the shows history. The episode that aired on 20 March 1989, attracted an audience of 19.01 million for its original Monday night broadcast and was the shows highest-rated single broadcast of the year.
The first episode of series 2 of Phoenix Nights contains a visual reference to the death of Alan Bradley, where flowers with a sign 'In Memory of Alan, 8 Dec 89', RIP' are tied to a lamp-post beside the tram line.
Both Eden and co-star Barbara Knox have stated that they regret the death of Alan, wishing that he had returned in some fashion at a later time. Alan Bradley has been consistently voted as one of Coronation Street 's greatest villains in several polls since.
On 8 December 2009, Mark Eden unveiled a blue plaque to mark the 20-year anniversary of the screening of the famous Coronation Street episode. The plaque is located outside The Strand Hotel, North Promenade, Blackpool which was the venue chosen for the filming of much of the footage.
In further episodes of Coronation Street references to Alan occur, most recently in the episode aired April 2015 when Jenny called into Rita's shop The Kabin, in which Norris Cole asked her if she was travelling to the shops by tram; intended as a cutting quip referencing the way Alan died. In June 2016, Alan's daughter Jenny would save her ex-boyfriend Kevin Webster's little son Jack from a tram – once again referring to Alan's iconic demise.