List of Coronation Street characters (1999)
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1999, by order of first appearance.
Jessica Lundy
Reverend Jessica Lundy, portrayed by Olwen May, was a pastor who was best known for wedding Hayley Patterson and Roy Cropper, despite it being illegal due to Hayley being transsexual. Even Les Battersby almost made the wedding a failure as he ran into the church and protested.Jessica next appeared as the pastor to christen baby Bethany Platt ; Hayley and Bethany's teenage mother Sarah-Louise's best mate Candice Stowe were godmothers and Roy was godfather. Bethany's uncle David was intending to be godfather, but he jealously did a runner from the church. The christening party was also ruined when Candice's mother Marion turned up and angrily dragged her daughter away, and David turned up in a police car as he was caught shoplifting.
Jessica's surname was credited in her first two appearances, but on her last appearance, her first name was revealed.
Nita Desai
Nita Desai arrives in January as a new assistant at the Corner Shop, which her family later take over. Nita was played by Rebecca Sarker.Ravi Desai
Ravi Desai took over the management of the Corner Shop on Coronation Street in January 1999. Played by actor Saeed Jaffrey, Ravi left Weatherfield due to family issues later in the year, and sold his empire of corner shops in the area to his nephew, Dev Alahan. In June, 2019 Dev receives a phone call and learns that Ravi is dying and he takes his children Aadi and Asha to see him in India. However, when Dev returns in August, he reveals Ravi is still alive and well.Darren Dobbs
Darren Dobbs is the father of Tyrone Dobbs who appears on 25 January 1999 to take his wife Jackie home to Liverpool. Darren made a return in September 2018 to tie in with ex wife Jackie's death among Darren's return he had revealed to Tyrone that he and Jackie weren't actually Tyrone's real parents.Vikram Desai
Vikram Desai was played by Chris Bisson. Vikram is Dev Alahan's cousin and he used to own the shop with Dev and worked with Sunita. During his time in Coronation Street he dated Leanne Battersby and Maria Sutherland. In 2000 he briefly dated Candice Stowe but he later learns that she is under the age of consent. In 2002 he was forced to smuggle drugs in from abroad then again, but this time he asked Steve and Karen McDonald if they wanted a free holiday and they accepted. When they came back Steve discovered powder at the bottom of his suitcase and inside was drugs, and found out that Vikram had done it. Karen was horrified as well as Steve and he dumped the drugs in the canal and told Vikram to leave Weatherfield for good, and if he comes back Steve said he will kill him. He now lives in India.Vikram was mentioned when Sunita's aunts came to stay in 2010, after Dev said that they were even worse than him.
[|Tom] Ferguson
Tom Ferguson, played by actor Tom Wisdom, is the son of Duggie Ferguson, who arrives later in the year. Tom is a hairdresser, and worked at Audrey Roberts' salon until he quit in January 2000 and left Weatherfield to get away from his father.Boris Weaver
Boris Weaver was a butcher who worked for Ashley Peacock at Elliott and Sons butchers. Boris appeared for the first time in 1999 and appeared recurrently and made his last appearance at Christmas 2004, at Ashley's wedding to Claire Casey. From then on, Boris was still referred to and looked after the shop when Ashley was away. In later years both Kirk Sutherland and Graeme Proctor successively worked for Ashley at the shop, it is assumed that Boris was no longer an employee there.Danny Hargreaves
Danny Hargreaves is played by Richard Standing between 1999 and 2001. A market trader, Danny meets Sally Webster at work and begins a relationship with her. Danny and Sally fell in love and got engaged, but he jilted her on their wedding day after discovering that Sally had had a one-night stand with ex-husband Kevin.Beryl Peacock
Beryl Hayden Peacock is the sister of Fred Elliott. Beryl and her husband Sam had raised Fred's son, Ashley Peacock, as their own. Beryl first appeared when Ashley asked her for the truth about his parentage and she was forced to tell Ashley that she was actually his aunt, not his mother. Beryl made her most recent appearance at Fred's funeral in October 2006.Beryl did not attend Ashley's funeral when he died in a tram crash in December 2010.
Belinda Peach
Belinda Peach appears briefly at the Freshco's Summer Ball where she tries to woo Ashley Peacock. Ashley is amused by Fred Elliott's attempts to pair him with Belinda, despite him attending with Maxine Heavey. Maxine gets annoyed by Belinda's overly friendly manner and pushes her in the direction of Curly Watts.Doreen Heavey
Doreen Heavey is the mother of Maxine Peacock, played by actress Prunella Gee, who had three spells on the Street between 1999 and 2004; the third of these covering the period of her daughter's death at the hands of Richard Hillman in early 2003, after which she moved back in with her ex-husband Derek, Maxine's father, in order to give their relationship another go. Doreen was last seen in November 2004 when she, Ashley Peacock and her grandson Joshua went to lay flowers on Maxine's grave on what would have been her 29th birthday. She told Ashley that she liked his new fiancée Claire Casey and gave him her blessing to marry Claire.Vinny Sorrell
Vinny Sorrell, played by James Gaddas appeared for a period of 15 months between 1999 and 2000. He has an on/off relationship with Natalie Barnes throughout, and works alongside her at The Rovers Return Inn as a barman and cellarman. Vinny departs Weatherfield in November 2000 after his affair with Natalie's sister Debs Brownlow is revealed. Vinny moves to Southampton with Debs where she gets a new job. Unbeknownst to Vinny, Natalie is pregnant with his child and she gives birth to their daughter, Laura, off-screen in 2001.Daniel Cross
Daniel Cross, played by George Sorby, was a 4-year-old schoolboy who was lost on Coronation Street after wandering away from the school playground. He was later taken home by Ken Barlow.Kathleen Gutteridge
Kathleen Gutteridge is the biological mother of Ashley Peacock. She is first mentioned when Fred Elliott reveals that he is Ashley's father. Fred tries to talk him out of finding her as it would hurt Ashley's adoptive mother, in reality his aunt, Beryl Peacock. Kathleen had abandoned Ashley when he was born and Fred gave him to his sister, Beryl and her husband Sam.When Kathleen and Ashley eventually meet, Ashley is very bitter towards her. However, they are able to eventually reconcile and Kathleen attends Ashley's wedding to Maxine Heavey. Fred tries to woo Kathleen again, but she turns him down.
Gwen Davies
Gwen Loveday is a machinist at Underworld, played by Annie Hulley for a period of eight months from 1999 to 2000.Duggie Ferguson
Douglas William "Duggie" Ferguson was played by John Bowe.An ex-rugby league player who went into the printing business, Duggie Ferguson first came to Coronation Street after tracking down his son Tom - who worked as a hairdresser for Audrey Roberts. Tom blamed his father for his mother's death and did not want him around. Duggie was hurt by this and bought into a local development on Victoria Street to be close to Tom but there was no reconciliation and Tom left Weatherfield and moved to Leeds.
In late 1999 to early 2000, Duggie turned property developer and employed Steve McDonald as foreman for the building of his Victoria Street complex - those who rented the commercial units included Sally Webster and Danny Hargreaves, butcher Fred Elliott, and Vikram Desai and Steve, who started up their own mini-cab firm.
Early in 2000 Duggie started a relationship with Debs Brownlow, sister of The Rovers landlady Natalie Barnes. Debs came to Weatherfield to be near her sister after many years working on a cruise ship as a hairdresser. Debs helped Duggie overcome his emotional block concerning women and the couple were happy until Duggie started to develop another property and tried to forcibly evict tenants including Toyah Battersby and Phil Simmonds. Both felt that they had been treated badly, especially when Duggie employed Vinny Sorrell to evict Phil from his home. Phil went to the press and the adverse report caused Duggie's financial downfall, forcing him to sell the home that he had shared with wife Laura. Dev Alahan bought Duggie's home for a quick sale before putting it back on the market and making a tidy profit. Duggie was forced to move in with Debs, hoping to use it as an office for his business contacts but Debs had a fling with Vinny - Natalie's lover and Duggie's employee. Duggie was furious when Vinny and Debs left town with £400 of rent money.
In December 2000, Natalie decided to sell and The Rovers came under threat by a chain who planned to turn it into a "fun pub" named the Boozy Newt. Duggie stepped in to help the Rovers avoid this but could not buy the place alone so Fred and Mike Baldwin invested in The Rovers with Duggie. Neither of the trio wanted to run the place so they employed Liz McDonald to run it. Liz moved into The Rovers with resident barmaid Toyah but her reign as manager was short as, after numerous disagreements with the trio, and husband Jim being transferred to a prison in Leicester, she quit and left Weatherfield. Mike's new wife, Linda, took the helm of The Rovers, but her heart was not in it and Duggie persuaded his partners to sell their shares to a 'mysterious owner' - Duggie snapped up their shares and became sole owner of the Rovers.
At the end of 2001, the social club at Duggie's beloved Weatherfield Rugby League club came up for sale. Looking to raise money quickly, Duggie auctioned The Rovers - to Fred Elliott - for £76,000, only to find he had been gazumped for the Rugby Club by fellow ex-professional Marty Flynn. With time and money on his hands, he formed a business partnership with local financial advisor Richard Hillman. Together, the pair worked in converting an old house - "Oakhill" into luxury flats. Duggie was determined to cut corners, preferably without Richard's knowledge. However, Richard deduced Duggie's ulterior motives and confronted him at the building - where the two argued over the project's development. Duggie is unable to assuage Richard of his suspicions, and in response Richard declares their partnership to be over. As Richard begins to leave amid ignoring Duggie's desperate attempts to make him reconsider, telling his business partner "Get lost Duggie. You have the chance, and you blew it!!", Duggie unwittingly leans over a bannister - which collapsed and he plunged two floors. Duggie was critically injured and unconscious from the fall. Richard started to phone an ambulance, but then stopped upon dialing "99" on his phone. It was then that Richard, reflecting on Duggie's dodgy intentions and the fact that he made a fool of him by forging their business partnership in the first place, decided to instead get rid of his unwanted business partner for good - by leaving Duggie to die rather than help him. Putting his phone away, Richard professionally rifled through Duggie's pockets, and took his keys to infiltrate his house - where he managed to decode his safe and stash his cafe from the sale of The Rovers. Richard then left the house discreetly, and returned to the house to put the keys back in Duggie's pocket. There, Duggie is confirmed dead; Richard noticed that he had crawled to another room and died of his injuries. After leaving his body at the house for the night, Richard returned the following morning with his fiance Gail Platt - who has requested Richard to give her a tour around the house to see how his development is coming on. With reluctance, Richard complies and leads Gail to discover Duggie's body - where she discovers that he has already passed away. The couple subsequently phone the police, and Duggie's body is taken away in a private ambulance. It is then that Duggie's death becomes public knowledge around Weatherfield, and they arrange for his funeral a couple of weeks later; however, his son Tom never attended - as he was ostensibly too busy cutting hair on a cruise ship to attend his father's funeral.
Following the events of Duggie's death and funeral, Richard managed to cover-up his involvement behind the incident for over a year. During that time, he sought to correct Duggie's mistakes on his development and went as far as to solely incriminate the deceased publican at being responsible for the situation he was in. This impact led to Richard killing his ex-wife Patricia in May 2002 and Duggie's barmaid Maxine Peacock in January 2003, both in order to uphold his financial issues due to the effect his partnership with Duggie has caused. In 24 February 2003, over a year after Richard left Duggie for dead, his fiance-turned-wife Gail would ultimately discover the truth behind her husband's homicidal nature. When Richard admits to killing Patricia and Maxine that night, Gail questioned his previous claims about Duggie's fate. In response, Richard confesses to leaving Duggie for dead and robbing all the money from his safe in order to put his business development forward - though he also states that Duggie is to blame for the predicament he was in, and that he deserved his fate. After Gail declared their marriage to be over, Richard left the house and became the most wanted man in the UK - once the truth about his crimes, including Duggie's demise, were exposed. Eventually in March 2003, Richard got his comeuppance when he planned to kill Gail and her children - abducting them and then driving them into the canal, only for his stepfamily to escape to safety whilst he himself drowned.
Candice Stowe
Candice Marie Islandos was played by Nikki Sanderson. Candice first appeared in 1999 as Sarah-Louise Platt's best friend from school. She attempted to get Sarah to smoke. She and Sarah were both thirteen at the time. Candice was one of the first people Sarah told of her pregnancy. While many of Sarah's friends turned against Sarah, Candice stuck by her throughout the pregnancy and birth of her daughter Bethany Platt in 2000. Candice proved to be a good friend in times of crisis during Sarah's life, for example she and Todd Grimshaw were instrumental in Sarah being able to evade the clutches of her paedophile kidnapper Gary in July 2001. As they grew up Candice, Sarah and their friend Maria Sutherland began to turn the heads of the street's men and became increasingly popular with male viewers of the show.Dev Alahan
Devendra "Dev" Alahan is a fictional character from the long-running soap opera, Coronation Street. He is played by Jimmi Harkishin, and made his first appearance on 10 November 1999. He is the ex-husband of Sunita Alahan, and father to Amber Kalirai, Aadi Alahan and Asha Alahan, although Amber is not Sunita's daughter. Dev has had many affairs, including ones with Deirdre and Tracy Barlow, and a friendship with Stella Price, whom Dev later develops feelings for. In 2012, Dev discovered that Sunita had been having an affair with Karl Munro, and attacked him, though Karl's partner Stella slapped Sunita. In March 2013, Sunita was trapped in a fire at The Rovers Return Inn, which was started by Karl. Sunita would've made it, but Karl pulled out her oxygen tube and she suffered a cardiac arrest and died.Rebecca Hopkins
Rebecca Hopkins was a nurse, played by actress Jill Halfpenny, who had an affair with Martin Platt. Rebecca's husband [|Jerry Hopkins] was violent and after Martin helped Rebecca leave him, the pair fell in love and Martin was prepared to leave his wife Gail for Rebecca. However, when Gail's daughter Sarah-Louise fell pregnant aged just thirteen, Martin felt compelled to stay with his family and ended the affair. Rebecca left Weatherfield a few months later and moved to Dubai where she had been offered a new job, but the damage to the Platt's marriage was already done and Gail and Martin separated later that year. In December 2000, Martin spotted Rebecca whilst out Christmas shopping. He tracked her down to a friend's house where she was staying. They bade each other farewell tearfully but gave into their feelings for each other and ended up sleeping together again. Rebecca explained to Martin that she planned to move to Dubai permanently and offered him the chance to go with her for a fresh start but Martin refused, not wanting to abandon his children and Rebecca left for Dubai alone.Jerry Hopkins
Jerry Hopkins, portrayed by Ken Christiansen, was the abusive husband of Rebecca Hopkins.In December 1999, Martin Platt befriended Rebecca when Jerry started domestically abusing her and refused to have children. Martin and his then wife Gail met Jerry at a Christmas party, and were appalled at how he treated her. Jerry's behaviour resulted in Martin and Rebecca sleeping together and, to save his marriage, Martin ignored Rebecca. Rebecca then came into work with a black eye, making Martin feel guilty. On New Year's Eve, Jerry found Martin and Rebecca talking to each other and accused them of having an affair, but Martin sent him away with a flea in his ear.
In January 2000, Jerry discovered that Martin and Rebecca were indeed having an affair and informed Gail of this but she didn't believe him. In April, Rebecca served Jerry with divorce papers, causing Jerry to visit her flat and blame Martin for his divorce. Martin, however, put Jerry in his place, and Jerry vowed revenge, but nothing ever happened.