Before I post the update from last night, I thought I’d give you all some quick info on Peter Barlow.
According to Wikipedia:
Peter Barlow (October 15, 1776—March 1, 1862) was an English writer on pure and applied mathematics. Only the month and year of Barlow’s birth in Norwich have been recorded for posterity. In 1806 at the age of thirty, he was appointed mathematical master in the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, south-east London, a post which he held for 41 years.
Oh, maybe wrong one.
Okay….here goes….a very, quick summary.
Ken’s first wife was Valerie, who gave birth to twins Peter and Susan on April 15, 1965. Susan, btw, grows up to marry Mike Baldwin and have Adam – that’s why Ken is Adam’s grandfather and Mike was his father.
Ken gets a teaching job in Jamaica and just before their going away party at the Rovers, Valerie electrocutes herself with a hairdryer.
Susan and Peter are shipped off to Glasgow to stay with Valerie’s parents. (You can see the Scotland connection now.)
Peter has been in and out of the show and been played by 6 different actors, including Bill Roach’s real life son Linus.
Peter did a stint in the Navy and on the show has been a bit of a bad ass, but not a complete baddie. Something like early Steve McDonald.
He has a long history on the show, which you can read on Corrienet, but I’ll give you the info that is relevant to the jokes that are being made at his expense on last night’s show.
Peter became involved with Shelly and they shared a flat together. (BTW – Peter was a old navy friend of Ciaran McCarthy and that’s he became involved with the show – and there’s also a whole weird Peter/Shelly/Ciaran triangle that went on.)
One day, whilst buying flowers for Shelly, he meets florist Lucy Carmichael (of the florist shop where Tracey occasionally works) and they have an affair. Meanwhile, he’s engaged to Shelly and he tries to break up with Lucy.
He then finds out that Lucy is pregnant with his child (Simon Carmichael) and he decides to marry her. This marriage last only a few days and none of this doesn’t bother breaking off his engagement with Shelly though.
So AFTER the big church wedding with Shelly it all comes to light that Peter is not yet divorced from Lucy. There was this whole scenario where Lucy convinced him that they could go off to Spain together and he jumped at that and broke everything off with Shelly. Then when he did that, Lucy says, ‘Psych! I’m really going off to Australia by myself and you will never see your son again.’
So Peter leaves town with his tail between his legs.
October 3, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Great summary of Peter’s transgressions. That Peter/Lucy/Shelley plot was one of the best.
October 3, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Peter racing back from Shelly’s sister’s funeral in order to make it to the church on time to wed Lucy was great fun.
Cheers!
S. Poole
October 3, 2007 at 2:54 pm
And wasn’t he buying the flowers to apologize to Shelley for cheating on her!? Then cheated again with the florist. I can’t help but like Peter though. I wonder if that baby will ever come back to the Street?
October 3, 2007 at 2:58 pm
This was one of the first storylines I saw when I first started watching the show.
Before Tracy was completely evil, I remember her telling Peter that his biggest flaw was that he tried to please everyone.
The writers also wanted to get Peter and Tracy together as a couple as there is no relation by blood but it would still be scandalous.
Thank Goodness they didn’t go there. What a disaster a storyline like THAT would have been.
October 3, 2007 at 4:54 pm
John,
LOL!
Glacia, thanks for the scoop on him. I knew who he was, but didn’t know all the most recent info, since the mega Corrie book stops in 2000, and this happened afterwards.
Did he have a thing on the side with Sunita too? I seem to remember that there was a whole issue with Sunita and Shelly where some guy dated both of them at the same time.
Michigander Fan
October 3, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Also, what is it on Corrie with bad things happening along with good things? Ken’s going to teach in Jamaica, so Valerie electrocutes herself with the hairdryer… Maybe it’s just more noticeable because I just read 1000+ pages of Corrie history over the course of a couple of weeks, but there was a definite recurring theme of Something Cool is Happening – Let’s Celebrate at T’Rovers! along with Oopsie, Somebody Died…by the end of the book, I shuddered every time they said “We’ll have a big party at Rovers!”
Or is it just me?
MF
October 4, 2007 at 12:02 am
MF,
As we see tonight (Wednesday), it is a clasic Corrie move to juxtapose a big party in the pub with something horrible happening on the street outside.
Also, watch for the sceens shot with a handheld camera instead of a stationary one. That always means there’s going to some street brawling by episode’s end.
October 4, 2007 at 2:37 am
Oh that YouTube clip was so sad….I did not know that there were handheld hair dryers back then…I still don’t see how this dryer electrocuted her…did it have anything to do with the heater?
I am glad Peter is back…the actor is very cute…The young Ken was a hottie too and of course our Betty!!
CorrieLoverUSA
October 5, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Talk about hotties, that Ciaran McCarthy was a hottie too!
Corrie Camper
October 5, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Didn’t Peter also go through a pariah phase when he came back to the street, possibly worked at the Rovers, had a high creep factor and was under suspiscion for raping Toyah? Refresh me?
October 5, 2007 at 5:52 pm
From Corrienet:
He worked in the Rovers for awhile under Duggie’s management and was discovered sneaking booze and not paying for it. Toyah Battersby found out and Peter was angry at her for causing him to lose his job. He was suspected of raping Toyah not long after but was cleared and was then instrumental in helping to capture Toyah’s actual rapist, an acquaintance of hers.