Friday, 27 April 2012

Top 60 Corrie Characters - No. 16

16. Peter Barlow 1965-1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1986, 2000-2003, 2007- (97 votes)

The son of Ken and Valerie, it is the Peter played by Chris Gascoyne that has made him a compelling and favourite character. Following their mother’s death, Peter and twin sister Susan were brought up by their maternal grandparents in Scotland (although Peter doesn’t have a Scottish accent!). He joined the navy in 1980 and married Jessica Midgeley in 1990. After sporadic returns to the cobbles over 30 years, a divorced Peter returned in 2000, bought the bookies and married both Shelley Unwin and Lucy Richards in a bigamous storyline. He fled in 2003 and returned permanently in 2008 with his and Lucy’s son Simon (Lucy had died and Peter took custody of him). Struggling with fatherhood and relationships, Peter sought solace in the bottle. With Peter now an alcoholic, it was Leanne Battersby who made him seek his responsibilities. But when Leanne left the street for a few months, Peter and Simon nearly died when a devastated and drunk Peter fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and caused the flat above the bookies to go on fire. Peter escaped death again in the tram crash and afraid he wasn’t going to survive, he married Leanne in the hospital. Prior to their marriage, Leanne did have an affair with ex-husband Nick Tilsley. Peter forgave her but he himself had an affair with Carla Connor in 2011 and he’s currently in a relationship with her and is in a custody battle with Leanne over Simon. This is an echo of when he battled against Lucy’s dad George Wilson for custody of Simon back in 2010.

Should hunk Peter be at 16? Should he be in the top 20? Are you a fan? Leave a comment!

Check out who's at 17.

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5 comments:

  1. Peter Barlow (and presumably Sian and Rosie, since they haven't appeared yet) appear above Elsie Tanner and Annie Walker. I could weep.

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  2. Rosie was at at 39 and Sian wasn't included in the poll. I'm myself surprised at the results so far - I did think Elsie and Annie would have been in the top 10 tbh. But every poll has different results and that's what makes it fun! :)

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  3. Peter is one of my favourite characters. He is a bit of a fittie too.

    However I feel he should have come in below such greats as Elsie Tanner and Ken Barlow.

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  4. Stop living in the past loveys ! If there wasn't new characters coming in to fill the boots of the originals then Corrie wouldn't still be running. I happen to think Barlow Junior a lot more of a classic than his uninteresting father !
    As for Elsie, well she hasn't been in it now for almost 30 years, a huge proportion of viewers will never have seen her in the show, how could you expect her to be higher?

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  5. I agree wholeheartedly with Mrs Barton.Ken is so dreary and Roach's acting abilities are dwarfed by the talented Mr Gascoyne.

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