The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1998, by order of first appearance.
| Coronation Street characters | |||||
| 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | |
| 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | |
| 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | |
| 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | |
| 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | |
| 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | |
| 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | |
| 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| 2010 | 2011 | ||||
Contents |
| Morgan Middleton | |||||||||||||
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| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Unknown | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 1998 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 2 February 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 25 September 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 2 February 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | Student | ||||||||||||
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Morgan Middleton is the son of Alan McKenna and Fiona Middleton. He was born on 2 February 1998. She'd had a brief one night stand with her ex boyfriend Steve's Father Jim. Her fling with Jim was revealed on her wedding day and as a result Alan left her. Steve was disgusted with his father and got back with Fiona, helping her to bring Morgan up. Morgan left with his mother in September 1998 and has not been seen since.
| Log Thwaite | |
|---|---|
| Coronation Street character | |
| Portrayed by | Zoe Henry |
| Duration | 1998 |
| First appearance | 11 March 1998 |
| Last appearance | 22 March 1998 |
Log Thwaite was the eco-warrior girlfriend of Spider Nugent. She temporarily moves into Emily Bishop's home at No. 3 Coronation Street with Spider but a jealous Toyah Battersby drives them apart. Toyah allows Spider to catch Log eating a bacon sandwich she had prepared for Log, angering Spider who thinks that she is betraying her vegan principles.
| Greg Kelly | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coronation Street character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Stephen Billington | ||||||||
| Duration | 1998-99 | ||||||||
| First appearance | 1 April 1998 | ||||||||
| Last appearance | 16 May 1999 | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Date of birth | 1972 | ||||||||
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Gregory Paul "Greg" Kelly was played by Stephen Billington. Greg was the long-lost son of Les Battersby and is best known for his ultimately abusive relationship with Sally Webster.
Greg was the result of a holiday romance between Moira Kelly and Les Battersby when he was working on a travelling fairground on the Isle of Wight. Les never kept in touch and it was not until Greg turned up in Weatherfield in April 1998 that Les even knew he had a son. Greg's early years were hard, but when he was around two, his mother started working for Harry Wood whom she subsequently married and he brought Greg up as his own. Moira told Greg about his past when he was 7, but it took Harry's death in September 1997 to spur Greg on to seek his natural father.
Greg previously had played football for Stoke City F.C. when they had been playing at their former ground, Victoria Ground. A cruciate ligament injury however ended his footballing career, and so he followed Harry into the manufacturing and retail fashion business.
With his relationship with his less-than-exemplary biological father expanding, Greg became more involved in the happenings of the Street. He struck up a relationship with Maxine Heavey, the local hairdresser. Always looking for "something better" he had an eye for a business deal and prospective bed partner. Greg convinced Mike Baldwin to take him on as a business partner - he would suss out the deals and Mike would pay him on a commission basis. Mike, seeing this as a win-win proposition agreed. Greg went to work at the factory.
He soon turned his attentions to Sally Webster, who had just lost her mum. Sally had inherited £55,000 and this was very appealing to Greg. He was more interested in her money than her but set his cap to relieve her of some of it. He ended his relationship with Maxine after relieving her of her intended flat above the Corner shop. Sally left Kevin and the girls behind to enter into what she thought would be a commitment with a new, exciting man. Realizing that she needed her girls with her, Sally and the girls moved into the one bedroom flat above the shop. It was a tight fit and one that Greg took an immediate dislike to but he needed Sally's money if he were to make a go of his new underwear venture so he tried to remember the girls' names (unsuccessfully) and play happy families. Greg did not want to be a parent and left the flat as often as he could. It became clear to all but Sally, that Greg was simply using her.
After stealing all the contacts from Mike's computer at the factory, he took Sally's money and started his own company. Mike, not easily taken, fought back and won the contracts back. By now Greg had opened a "shop" and had Sally as his secretary rather than business partner. He felt the "optics" would be better. The loss of the contracts proved a turning point in their relationship however. Unhappy with the living arrangements, and especially with the girls, Greg's temper simmered just below boiling point for weeks. Then upon discovering that Sally had inadvertently told Gail about the contracts, he exploded and hit her, blaming her for the loss.
Sally, stunned at the turn in the relationship, threatened to leave until Greg convinced her it was a one off and that it wouldn't happen again. Of course Greg had spoken to his solicitor to find out what would happen if they broke up. The solicitor informed him that Greg needed Sally and her fast dwindling capital in order to stay in business. Greg needed to come up with another plan - one that would see him financially secure at the expense of Sally. The three of them were crowding his style as well as his apartment and he needed to be shut of the lot - Sally, Rosie and Sophie. But if he had to persevere, to achieve his goal of financial and personal freedom, he would.
It was a short-lived respite from the violence. After a second beating from Greg, Sally took the kids, and what remained of her bank account and fled to Rita's without looking back. Greg, having not paid his rent, was threatened with eviction from the pokey flat over the shop and his life careened out of control. Becoming more and more dishelved the suits looking less smart and his appearance slipping - he turned once again to Maxine who, after a short fashion, cottoned on to his scheme to finagle a free ride and accommodation until something better came along. She quickly sent him off and with nowhere else to go, he ended up at the Battersbys living with his father and his family.
Blaming Sally for all of his problems, Greg began stalking and threatening her. Sally lived in fear for her safety and that of her two young girls. Greg, drunk and unhinged, broke into Rita's apartment and threatened Sally that he would "make her pay for what she did". She escaped what looked to be her final beating, and fled to the safety of the Street. Greg left the Street, after stealing the last of the money from Janice Battersby's leccie tin, at the end of 1998. His current whereabouts are unknown.
| Edna Miller | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coronation Street character | |||||
| Portrayed by | Joan Kempson | ||||
| Duration | 1998, 2000-01 | ||||
| First appearance | 24 June 1998 | ||||
| Last appearance | 19 September 2001 | ||||
| Profile | |||||
| Date of death | 19 September 2001 | ||||
| Occupation | Cleaner | ||||
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Edna Miller first appears in September 1998, as she is interviewed by Jack and Vera Duckworth for the new job as barmaid in the Rovers Return. Her immediate negativity is a turn-off and she fails to get the job. She reappears on 21 June 2000, when it is revealed that she has been working in packing in Underworld and is moved to the factory floor along with Karen Phillips.
It isn't long before Edna gets herself into trouble when she gives journalist Ken Barlow a story about the poor working conditions in the factory, which he then publishes in The Weatherfield Gazette. Factory owner Mike Baldwin is livid at the publication and fires Deirdre Barlow, believing her to be Ken's source. Eventually Edna admits that she is the mole and is fired from the factory.
Rovers Return landlady Natalie Barnes then hires Edna as a cleaner in the pub in September 2000. She remains working there until her sudden death on 19 September 2001. In the days leading up to her demise, she claims that she can sense death and firmly believes that landlord Duggie Ferguson will soon meet his end. In a macabre twist of fate, Duggie finds Edna dead in his bed after a night of drinking in the pub. On 23 September 2001, Edna's funeral takes place and the Weatherfield residents meet her equally miserable sister Iris Merry.
| Linda Baldwin | |||||||||||
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| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Jacqueline Pirie | ||||||||||
| Duration | 1998–2001 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 14 October 1998 | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | 5 September 2001 | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 23 June 1975 | ||||||||||
| Residence | Dublin | ||||||||||
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Linda Baldwin (née Sykes) was played by Jacqueline Pirie.
Linda arrived in 1998 and immediately found work as a machinist at Underworld Factory. She befriended fellow machinists Janice Battersby and Alison Wakefield, becoming bridesmaid at the latter's wedding to Kevin Webster in January 1999. She strongly disapproved of Hayley Cropper, as she was disgusted when she learned that Hayley was a transsexual, but they later became friends.
Linda had a particularly tough background. Her mother Eve walked out on the family when Linda was young and, her being the eldest of the Sykes clan, had to help her father Ray raise her three younger brothers. When she was 15 her close friend Karen Phillips started living with her following her estrangement from her parents and they later went on to work as machinists in a factory called Wheelers.
Shortly after her arrival, Linda's boss Mike Baldwin and his wife Alma broke up following the revelation of Mike's affair with a former prostitute named Julia. Linda comforted her boss (33 years her senior) and soon afterwards they were having sex together. They began an affair which culminated when Mike proposed to Linda. She accepted, knowing that he was a millionaire entrepreneur. As they planned to marry, Mike got in touch with his son Mark Redman and invited him to the wedding. Linda took a shine to Mike's son, who was not much younger than her, and she soon began an affair with him.
However, as the wedding day approached Linda decided to end the affair with Mark so that her wedding could go ahead. Mark, however, was infatuated with his father's fiancee and was devastated by her brush-off, so much so, that he halted the wedding by not coming at all, then dragging Linda out of the church to speak to him. Whilst Linda's bridesmaid Geena Gregory stalled the ceremony with a worried Mike standing at the altar by himself, Mark proposed to Linda. She turned him down, however, and returned to the church, telling Mike that he'd need to get a new best man as Mark had scarpered. With Mark drowning his sorrows outside the church, Mike and Linda became husband and wife on 10 September 2000.
No sooner than having got married, however, than did Mark arrive at the wedding reception to announce privately to his father that he'd been having an affair with Linda. The newly-wed bride confessed to Mike that in a moment of weakness she'd had a short-lived fling with Mark when he first arrived, but it was all over and she loved him more than anything else. Taking his new wife's side over his son's, an angry Mike disowned a devastated Mark and left for his honeymoon with Linda.
After returning, Linda did almost everything in her power to make her marriage successful and keep Mike happy, so that he wouldn't throw her out for her infidelity. However, it soon became apparent that he still had a soft spot for his ex-wife Alma. This became more apparent when both Mike and Alma and other residents of the street were held hostage on 12 October 2000 at the supermarket Freshco's by two young thugs. The police eventually burst in and one of the young thugs was shot. However, when Linda arrived at the scene, she not only found her husband with his ex-wife, but also recognised that the thug who had been shot was her younger brother Dean Sykes. Accompanied by Mike in the ambulance, a devastated Linda held her brother's hand as he died. After that she swore revenge on Emma Watts, the police officer who shot him.
It was then that Mike was introduced to Linda's family at Dean's funeral. Linda was very cold and distant to all her family members, treating them as if she was now above them, and she was especially hard towards her mother Eve. However, after the funeral Linda managed to patch things up with her mother and Eve returned to the street with her, where she met and fell in love with Fred Elliott.
Linda's marriage continued to go downhill as Mike learned that Alma was terminally ill with ovarian cancer. This led to him caring for her and going on trips around the country with her, resulting in Linda embarking on an affair with a man named Harvey, one of Mike's clients, in May 2001. After being caught in the act by Mike in June 2001, Linda finally snapped and went round to Alma's to have it out with her. However, during their heated argument Alma collapsed and after calling an ambulance, Alma was diagnosed with kidney failure and carried upstairs to her bedroom by paramedics where she died in peace on 17 June 2001 with Mike, her best friend Audrey Roberts and Audrey's daughter Gail Platt by her side.
Linda was racked with guilt over the entire incident, and Mike soon made it clear that he could never trust her again. He announced that he wanted a divorce, but Linda was not prepared to go without a fight. After enduring months of heated arguments, Mike finally set his wife up by bringing his son Mark back to the street. As Linda prepared to rekindle their old romance, Mike walked in on them and triumphantly announced that their marriage was over.
They stayed together for an extra only for appearances sake as her mother was preparing to tie the knot with Fred. However, as the wedding took place on 5 September 2001, Mike made it clear to Linda that she would be gone by the end of the ceremony. He called a taxi for her and, along with Mark, dragged her from her hotel room to the taxi and sent her packing. She was never seen again.
After her departure, there was much debate over whether Mike had killed Linda and disposed of her body or not. Her car was found near the canal, and both her mother Eve and her brother Jimmy vowed to find her. However, Eve later discovered from her ex-husband Ray that Linda was alive and well and living in Dublin with a rich fiance.
| Billy and Becky Mallett | |||||||||||||
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| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Lewis Ablatt (Billy) Megan Foster (Becky) |
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| Duration | 1998–2000 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 25 December 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 1 October 2000 | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 25 December 1998 | ||||||||||||
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William "Billy" Mallett and Rebecca Joyce "Becky" Mallett are the twins born to Gary and Judy Mallett on Christmas Day 1998. Aged just nine months, the twins lose their mother when Judy suffers an embolism in September 1999 and their father Gary is forced to bring them up alone. A year later, Gary makes the decision to move away and the family leave Weatherfield for good in October 2000.
| Alison Webster | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Naomi Radcliffe | ||||||||||||
| Introduced by | David Hanson | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 1998–2000 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 28 December 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 8 June 2000 | ||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1967 | ||||||||||||
| Date of death | 7 June 2000 | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | Machinist | ||||||||||||
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Alison Rosemary Webster (née Wakefield), played by Naomi Radcliffe, is the second wife of Kevin Webster. She commits suicide by running into the path of an oncoming truck two days after their newborn son, Jake dies from a Group B streptococcal infection.