Les Battersby-Brown
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| Coronation Street character | |
| Les Battersby-Brown | |
|---|---|
| Played by | Bruce Jones |
| Duration | 1997-present |
| Date of Birth | -- |
| Date of Death | -- |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Address | 5 Coronation Street |
| Occupation | Taxi driver |
| Family | Leanne, Greg, Cilla, Chesney, Billy, Fiz |
Lesley (Les') Battersby-Brown (né Battersby) is a fictional character on the United Kingdom ITV’s soap opera Coronation Street, played by Bruce Jones.
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[edit] Information
Les first appeared in 1997 with his wife Janice, teenage daughter Leanne (from his first marriage) and step-daughter Toyah (from Janice’s previous relationship), and they were known as the family from hell. Les had spent six months in Strangeways prison for breaking and entering. In 1998, Les discovered that he had a son, Greg. Greg turned out to be a psychotic and abused his girlfriend, Sally Webster, until he was imprisoned.
Les was frequently in trouble. He assaulted neighbour Curly Watts and was at loggerheads with another neighbour, Des Barnes, until one night when he helped Des out of a difficult situation. After the break-up of his marriage, he was sent to prison for six months for assaulting a police officer who was living with Les's wife Janice at the time.
Despite their constant rows and nagging, Les truly loved Janice (despite struggling to show it at times). When he embarrassed his wife by buying her a deep-fat fryer for their anniversary, it became obvious that their marriage was on the rocks. Over the years, the Battersbys calmed down, and Leanne fled after her young marriage to Nick Tilsley broke down after her abortion, and an attack due to her involvement with drugs. Toyah was raped in 2001 by a man she had trusted and often campaigned with. She re-built her life, but her new man made her best friend Maria Sutherland pregnant, and she decided to leave to London with her former love, Spider Nugent.
In 2001, Janice had finally realised that she’d had enough of Les’s antics, and inability to show affection, and she embarked on an affair with their lodger, Dennis Stringer, who was dating Eileen Grimshaw at the time. They admitted their love and moved in together.
On New Year's Day 2002, Les drove under a viaduct and sat in his car while trying to kill himself by excessive alcohol drinking. He was eventually rescued by Dennis, who turned up on his motorbike and drove Les away with the intention of taking him to hospital. On the way, they were involved in a car crash which killed Dennis and left Les with a broken arm.
Despite many an attempt to woo back Janice (to no avail), Les met loud-mouthed Cilla Brown in a local pub. She turned out to be the mother of Street resident Fiz Brown, and had left her young son Chesney alone in their home for days while she was in bed with Les.
In no time, Cilla and Chesney moved in (much to Fiz’s disappointment), but in 2004 she took a six-week break and dumped Chesney on Les, after their fiery row. In this time, he finally came close to winning back his true love, Janice, after she decided to cancel their divorce proceedings to re-unite with Les, but Cilla came on the scene and lured him back by pretending to have come into money. Janice swore never to get involved with Les again, and divorced him. Around the same time, Les discovered his daughter, Leanne, lap-dancing in a nightclub, and brought her back to Weatherfield.
In 2005, Les and Cilla decided to get married for the “luxurious” presents they would receive from their guests. Les’s dream came true, when his favourite band, Status Quo, popped in the Rovers after a concert in the area, and as he approached the band with records for them to sign, they, in turn, thumped him (as they recognised him as the lunatic who jumped on stage in a concert some many years previous, causing a permanent neck injury to one of the group members). He didn’t lose his faith in the Quo, and didn’t anticipate that they would soon meet again.
Cilla, however, quickly smelt a way to make money from this and told a reluctant Les to contact his solicitor in regards to suing the band for assault. In order to avoid the bad publicity, the band were eager to settle the case with Les quickly and quietly, but Cilla’s dreams of riches were quickly dashed when Les, rather than accept a cash offer, settled for the band to play at the reception.
On her hen night, Cilla decided to find a younger bloke on her last night of freedom, but was interrupted by a drunk Les coming home, and she passed the man off as her son, Billy, who had popped up for the wedding. Les was too drunk to say anything and fell asleep, while the man ran off in disgust. The real Billy turned up on the wedding day morning, but told Les, who was baffled upon realising that the two men were different, that perhaps he was too drunk to even remember what he looked like. Les agreed and shrugged it off, and nothing more was said.
[edit] Les and Cilla’s Mayhem Marriage
Les and Cilla finally arranged their wedding day, despite the fact that the priest was a de-frocked clergyman, and they had to distract the real vicar while they “married.” Cilla smashed Tracy Barlow’s window (due to the fact that she wouldn’t hand over the bouquet of flowers for the ceremony because Cilla wouldn’t pay up) and then ran to Dev Alahan’s shop and stole some flowers, before jumping into the wedding car heading towards the church.
Les was driving when he spotted a member of Status Quo, took his eyes of the road to stare in amazement, and crashed into their van (with the other band member inside).
Les put on a neck brace before “tying the knot” (despite the marriage not being legal) with Cilla, and they became known as the Battersby-Brown family.
The Quo turned up at a back room in the reception (where the presents were being kept) to rest. Les walked in, and told his idols that his dream was to trash a room with expensive things in. He duly chucked all his things about and wrecked everything, and threw a wedding-present TV out of the window as Cilla walked in to inform him that he had just trashed the presents! She went crazy and started attacking him as the Quo watched in bursts of laughter, and the reception ended with the band agreeing to put past differences with Les behind, performing “Rockin’ All Over the World” with Les as a member of the band.
Cilla then went on the honeymoon with her friend, Yana Lumb, rather than Les.
A few days later, Les and Cilla eventually made the marriage legal, by registering at a local registry office.
[edit] Family
- Wife: Cilla Battersby-Brown
- Son: Greg Kelly
- Daughter: Leanne Battersby
- Adoptive son: Chesney Battersby-Brown
