Cosy crimes and gritty sagas by Corrie Blog editor Glenda, published by Headline. Click pic below!

Saturday 20 August 2016

Nick, Leanne and a murderer called Darren Whately

Last week, I posted about Nick Tilsley and his passive aggressive nature and mentioned that he set Leanne up with the killer of his father, Brian. In the comments, someone asked about it so I thought a "blast from the past" post might be in order.

Thanks to Corriepedia and Corrie.net for the details, here's the story of Darren Whately.

Brian Tilsley was surrounded by yobs outside a Manchester nightclub and stabbed by one of them. That person was Darren Whately and he was convicted of the crime. Years later, Nick, Brian's son, was about 17, was newly returned from Canada and attending a local college. His class had a session from a man who was incarcerated and had been tasked with talking to students about how prison was a Very Bad Thing and they should avoid doing anything that would land them in it. He told the students he very much regretted what he'd done and regretted the hurt he caused Brian's family. Nick realized that the man was the one that killed his father when Whately described his crime, and became a bit obsessed.

He was married to Leanne at the time and persuaded her to write to Whately in prison pretending to be a penpal in order to find out when Whately was going to be released. She did so reluctantly and they had a bit of a correspondence at Nick's insistence, against Leanne's better judgement. She decided she didn't want to continue but Nick was adamant and wrote a letter himself, even sending Leanne's photo!

Whately was released soon after and came looking for this lovely lass he'd been writing to. Uh oh. Leanne didn't expect that because she hadn't realized Nick had kept up the correspondence in her name and kind of freaked out. As you would. She and Nick were living with Ashley at the time and he came home and was able to oust Darren from the house but Darren promised to return. Leanne freaked out even more, and, blaming Nick for putting her in the sights of a former killer so he (Nick) could get close enough to get revenge, walked out.

Whately lurked around the neighbourhood and once, in the cafe, overheard Gail talking about Nick and Leanne and realized they were trying to set him up which set him off. He tracked down Leanne and threatened her. Nick manly broke in the door but wasn't manly enough to really do much more than that and Darren walked away because, as he insisted, he was a changed man and wasn't about to harm anyone.

Nick and Leanne reconciled though she still felt nervous with Darren still out there at large so they went to the police and since Darren was only out on license (parole), he was banged up again. Even though he might have been able to be released because Leanne had written him letters previously, Nick insisted that was the end of it. Nick had his revenge after all and Darren Whately went back to prison and was never seen around Weatherfield again.


Nick and Leanne's marriage limped along a short while longer but when Leanne fell pregnant, Nick insisted she have an abortion. She did but was then angry that he told people she miscarried, Nick clearly not wanting to take the responsibility for what happened. Their marriage cracked and broke. Nick suggested they move to Canada but Leanne no longer loved him and he went on his own. Leanne managed to get a bit of money from Gail as a settlement on moved on.

Tvor - twitter @tvordlj



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7 comments:

Glenda Young said...

Thankyou Diane for the reminder of this storyline! Nick has done SO many bad things to Leanne - not least, forcing her to have an abortion!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately,Nick hasn't learned his lesson from the Darren Whately storyline either,he expected Leeanne to forgive him after it hit the fan about he and Kylie having a one night stand.
Despite the fact he hid behind mommy,Nick did blackmail David into doing a DNA test on Lily and I bet knowing Nick if he was her father[thank goodness he wasn't]he would've expected Leeanne to be a mother to her.

coconno196 said...

Thanks for that, I'd completely forgotten. Nick really is a nasty piece of work, not at all the "good guy" he's portrayed as now. It makes all Leanne's reconciliations with him completely unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

Nick(the original one) should have sent is his own pic to the guy in prison, he may not waited for parole. Also, Ashley was with Anna from Downton Abbey and she got involved a weird cult thing spooking Nick and Leanne. Some pretty crap plots in past as well.

70sStreetFan said...

Re. Nick being the "good guy",does anybody remember when he befriended Peter solely to get him back on the bottle during the latter's battle with alcoholism?

Tvor said...

Yes, I never thought the adult Nick was a very nice person. He deliberately set out to steal Leanne from Peter and managed to get her into an affair before the tram crash and then used all that guilt after wards and as you said, lured Peter back to the booze. Loved the scene between them in the ruined viaduct after Peter found out!

coconno196 said...

I'm not particularly keen on Peter, but Nick getting him back on the booze was simply evil. It was bad enough him scheming to get Leanne back when she was happy with Peter, but messing with Peter's health shows real lack of morals.

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