Ken Barlow and Wendy Crozier - in a nutshell

A summary of Ken Barlow and Wendy Crozier's relationship has been requested, and here it is, with full credit to Corrie.net where it first appeared.  You might also like to check out The Ballad of Wendy Crozier.

Wendy Crozier appeared on Coronation Street for the first time in 1989.  So if you're not familiar with Ken's old flame, we do hope the following will help.

Wendy Crozier worked for Weatherfield Council and took minutes at council meetings. She started passing her inside information to Ken Barlow who was the editor of The Weatherfield Recorder. Suspicion over the source of the leaks soon started to fall on Deirdre, who ended up having flaming rows with Ken over the invidious position that he had put her in as a councillor. Convinced that she was the source of the leaks, her fellow councillors tried to exclude Deirdre from a meeting of the council, but she decided to leave of her own accord and insisted that this be minuted. Later on that evening, Ken met up with Wendy and she passed over documents from the meeting that Deirdre had left and when Ken printed a story based on this information, the Chief Executive of the council apologised to Deirdre and asked her to spy on Ken to find out who was passing him the information, but being loyal to her husband, she refused to. Suspicion then turned to another councillor, Steve Rafferty, who had been caught passing secrets to The Gazette in the past. Eventually, Ken told Deirdre who his mole was, but this didn't improve their relationship, though Deirdre was at least now able to get her fellow councillor off the hook after she met with the Chief Executive and gave him Ken's strictest assurance that Steve wasn't the source of the leaks.

Despite promising to sever links with Wendy, Ken continued to receive and print stories from her and Deirdre got so incensed that when she was called up in front of the Chief Executive and blamed again, she dropped Wendy in it. Wendy was immediately suspended from duty, then sacked and whilst being very supportive to her while she was going through this crisis, a twinkle started to develop in Ken's eye. Having lost her job at the council, Ken gave her a job at The Recorder, much to Deirdre's chagrin. The relationship between Ken and Wendy started to become much more than that of employer and employee and Wendy ended up cooking dinner for him on his birthday, despite there having been a perfectly adequate celebratory meal waiting for him at home. In order to keep their blossoming affair secret, Wendy resigned from the newspaper and of course this left Ken short staffed at work and gave him all the excuses he needed to be "working late at the office". Wendy asked Ken to leave Deirdre, but he refused and so Wendy decided that they should stop seeing each other, but she still wanted him and of course they ended up together again. Deirdre got suspicious of the late nights and confronted Ken, but he of course denied it and, with the support of Tracy, Deirdre believed him. But then Christmas loomed on the horizon.

Unable to stay apart, Ken spent Christmas Eve at Wendy's, but eventually went home after making sure he left behind the painting that Wendy had given him. On his return Deirdre asked him where he had been and who he had been with and Ken confessed all and after Deirdre told him that she didn't care where he slept but it wouldn't be in her bed, he broke down and cried. As usual Ken wanted the best of both worlds and his inability to make a choice between his mistress and his wife and family ended up with him spending a lonely, uncomfortable, sleepless New Year's Eve night tossing and turning on a chair in his office. The following morning, Tracy rang Wendy to speak to her father and Deirdre was convinced that Wendy was lying when she said that she hadn't seen Ken since the night before. Wendy guessed where Ken was and went round to his office and convinced him to go home with her.

As they were now together as a couple Wendy started to help out at the paper again and using her old council contacts managed to secure a contract for the printing of Public Announcements, but things soon turned sour when Deirdre found out that since Ken had mortgaged the house to buy the paper, and she owned half the house, she therefore owned half the paper and was entitled to half its profits. Wendy offered to lend Ken the money to buy Deirdre out, but he refused, despite Deirdre having given him the option of buying her half of the house and having received an offer for The Recorder from its rival, The Gazette. Despite Wendy's support and encouragement, Ken eventually had to face up to the fact that the paper was in dire financial straits and after much heartache, Ken had to sell up to The Gazette to settle things with Deirdre, though both Wendy and he kept their jobs.

Tracy still wanted to see her adoptive father and much to Deirdre's displeasure started to form a good relationship with Wendy, even going so far as to defend her to Deirdre, which of course only made things worse. As part of her council work, Deirdre went away on a course which meant stopping away overnight. She arranged for Emily Bishop to come in and look after Tracy, but Tracy took her bags and went to stay at Wendy's with her father. When Emily told Deirdre what had happened, she immediately phoned Ken and told him she didn't want her daughter anywhere near THAT WOMAN, but by that time, Tracy was in bed and so Ken was not prepared to wake her up and take her home. Ken's new boss at the paper had not been happy with taking on Ken along with the paper and after Ken missed a meeting with an advertiser because of his 'personal problems', he manouvered him into resigning. This made Ken very bitter, doubly so, when he found out that Wendy had stepped into his shoes and for less money. Ken kept the fact of his new unemployed state from Deirdre, but she soon found out after Wendy bumped into Mike Baldwin and let it slip that Ken was no longer employed at The Recorder.

Ken's devotion to Tracy and his bitterness over Wendy stealing his job had started to take their toll on their fragile relationship and soon Ken realised that he deeply regretted leaving Deirdre and Tracy and so he packed his bags and moved into digs in Chepstow Street. Nothing was ever seen again of Wendy Crozier, but her name was to be mentioned many times in the future as Ken and Deirdre raked over the burnt out coals of their relationships.

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