Terry Duckworth's children

Earlier this week when appearing on ITV's This Morning, Coronation Street Producer Phil Collinson surprised some by admitting he was unaware of the existence of Terry Duckworth's son, Brad Armstrong. So just for his benefit here's a brief potted history of those of Terry's offspring that we know about. Let's face it, he's spent quite a lot of time away from the Street and with his track record there's no small chance that there are others around, waiting to crawl out of the woodwork.

Paul Clayton (b. 1986)

Trombone playing milkman Harry Clayton bought no. 11 off Bill Webster in 1985 and moved in with his wife, Connie and two daughters Andrea and Sue. Andrea started seeing Terry Duckworth but her parents disapproved as they thought she should have been spending more time studying for her A levels and so the pair continued to see each other behind their backs.

The family fell out with the Duckworth's after seamstress Connie ran up a dress for Vera out of some silver lurex that Jack had acquired. Vera hated the finished article and refused to pay for it despite it having been made to her specification. The feud drove a wedge between Andrea and Terry and he tried to ease the situation by paying the bill himself. But it was too late, Andrea finished with Terry and he was stunned, especially when he found out that she was pregnant. He wanted to be involved with their child but Andrea refused and after Vera started to voice plans for her grandchild's future, the Clayton's packed up and moved to Sheffield.

Word eventually got back to Terry that his son, Paul had been born but no more was seen or heard of him until Andrea turned up at the Duckworth's in 2000 in search of a kidney donor for him. Tempted by an inducement of £25000 from Jack, Terry agreed to be the donor but at the last minute he did a runner with the money, leaving his mother to deputise for him.

Paul turned up again in 2007 when he ripped off his grandfather to buy into Lenne Battersby's restaurant which he ended up torching for the insurance money before being caught and then fleeing the country.


Tommy Duckworth (b. 9 September 1992)

Terry fetched up back on the Street in 1992 with his pregnant girlfriend Lisa Horton in tow. Terry didn't stay very long as he ended up in Strangeways on a GBH charge but got day release in order to marry Lisa. After the ceremony Terry was off again but was soon caught and jailed for three years. With Terry in prison, Lisa moved in with her in-laws and Tommy was born later in the year by caesarean section. After Lisa was knocked over by a car on the Street and killed, Jack and Vera looked after Tommy but found it a struggle. When Terry was released from prison on parole, he struck a deal with Tommy's other grandparents, Jeff and Doreen Horton and sold them his son, breaking Vera's heart.

Jack and Vera continued to see Tommy on their frequent visits to Blackpool but he wasn't seen on the Street until he returned from travelling in 2011, unaware of the deaths of Jack and Vera.

Brad Armstrong (b. 14 February 1997)

When Tricia Armstrong moved in to No.1 to look after it for Mike Bladwin in 1994, she befriended Jack and Vera. A couple of years later she met Terry who was back again to try to extract more money from Jeff Horton for Tommy and his parents, who were now running The Rovers. After Tricia got drunk one night, Terry escorted her home with pregnancy resulting.

Jack offered her money for an abortion but Tricia refused and instead Jack and Vera took in her and her son Jamie. The baby was born five weeks premature on Valentine's day 1997 in the back room of the pub, with Betty Williams acting as midwife. Tricia named him Brad after Brad Pitt and wasted no time in bouncing back at life, taking up with Ray Thorpe who she met in a club. He was quickly dropped when Terry reappeared on the scene but he had no interest in either her or his son and so pretty soon Tricia and her kids moved out of the Rovers and went to live on the other side of Weatherfield with Ray.

Are there any other missing children out there that we haven't seen or heard about for a while? There's one of Ken's kids, Daniel Osbourne, who made an all too brief appearance a while back and didn't Kevin Webster have another child sometime? I think he was called Jack.

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50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days – 1992

Day 32 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.

Since his arrival on Coronation Street the character of Jim McDonald had been pretty one-dimensional. He shouted at his sons, hurled insults at other characters and condescended to his wife, Liz. But 1992 saw the culmination of a story that melted the hearts of the viewers as the McDonald family came to terms with the loss of a baby. Liz had been surprised to find out she was pregnant and initially considered an abortion before Jim talked her out of it, pointing out that this was her last realistic opportunity of having another child. Steve had been involved with a gang selling stolen car radios and after Andy was beaten up as a warning to him, he went on the run. Liz was worried that Steve was lying dead somewhere and with the stress of the situation she went into labour prematurely. Baby Katie was born on January 1st 1992 but sadly died the following day. In the aftermath Jim was shown to be caring, sensitive and supportive and at last the viewers started to warm to him.

1992 was a year of weddings with no fewer than three marriages taking place within the space of a month. The first pair to tie the knot was Terry Duckworth and his pregnant girlfriend Lisa Horten. Terry had been allowed out of jail for the day accompanied by two prison officers but Vera persuaded them to remove his handcuffs for a wedding photograph. Seizing the opportunity, Terry did a runner leaving Lisa wondering if he’d only got married so that he could escape from prison. When he was eventually apprehended in Bettabuy’s car park he assured her that the wedding was genuine and he really did love her.

A week later the residents gathered at the register office to witness the wedding of Rita Fairclough and Ted Sullivan. Only one of the guests, Audrey Roberts, knew the real pain behind the smiles of the happy couple. Rita had broken down at her hen party and confessed to Audrey that Ted had a brain tumour and wasn’t long for this world. Three months later Rita found Ted asleep on a bench and realised that he was in fact dead.

Finally we saw the long awaited wedding between Mike Baldwin and Alma Sedgewick. Alma had been cited as co-respondent in the divorce between Mike and Jackie Ingram and she was distraught. After Mike told her that he had her name removed at the cost of thousands of pounds she happily agreed to marry him. However, the day before the wedding Jackie informed her that it had been Mike’s idea all along to cite Alma and she had doubts about going through with the wedding and only made up her mind to go through with it at the last minute: ‘The only sin I’ve committed, Mike, is knowing you. And I’ll be regretting that for the rest of my life.’

Also in 1992: Raquel takes up with Des Barnes; Tommy Duckworth born; Alec Gilroy sails away with Sunliners; Bet back in charge at the Rovers; Denise Osbourne opens salon; Mark Redman ages 2 years; Curly Watts buys no. 7 and puts a telescope in loft; Martin Platt trains as a nurse; Don Brennan attempts suicide.