Des Barnes Des BarnesDied: 18 November 1998
Played by: Philip
Middlemiss
Appeared: 12 February 1990 - 18 November 1998
Des worked as a bookie
He moved into one of the newer houses, next door to Gail and
Martin, with wife Stephanie. His other neighbours are Mavis and
Derek Wilton. Des is a bit of a wag and the Wiltons are his favourite
target.
Des had a grand passion for Steph, but she didn't seem to care
as deeply for him, and eventually left for another man. Des had
been building a boat in the backgarden for years, and the date
of the launch coincided with Steph leaving him. He burned the
boat on a canal.
When Terry Duckworth was in prison, Des offered his back garden
to Lisa for their son Tommy to play in. His relationship with
Lisa gradually deepened until she moved in with him. Terry arranged
for some roughs on the outside to beat Des up. Vera was furious,
accusing Des of breaking up her sons marriage and referring to
him as a bookies runner. But she gradually came round as both
she and Des shared a love for Tommy.
Lisa was tragically run over one night when crossing the street
from the Rovers. Des was affected a lot more than Terry. Tommy
went to live with Lisa's parents in Blackpool, but Des still sees
him when they bring him to Weatherfield to visit Jack and Vera.
After Lisa, Des went out with Raquel Wolstenhulme. She moved in,
but could tell that he was never going to ask to marry her and
broke it off. Des persuaded her to go back to him when she started
seeing someone she'd met on a modelling assignment. They moved
back together. This ended in disaster when Des had a tempestuous
affair with the new barmaid, Tanya Pooley. She was seeing Des
boss at the time (Alex Christie), and really wanted him to divorce
his wife and marry her. However, she couldn't resist stealing
Des from Raquel at the same time. One night Des went to see Tanya
and found Alex with her. During the resulting melee, Raquel arrived
and discovered the affair.
Raquel later got engaged to Curly Watts. Des appeared at their
party and forced Raquel to admit that she didn't really love Curly
and Raquel later broke it off.
After this, Andy MacDonald moved in as a lodger. He later left
in protest when Des started cracking jokes about his criminal
family: "What do you call a MacDonald in a suit? The accused
!"
Des is currently dating a young widow called Claire. They have
brief illicit meetings during lunchtime as Claire is trying to
bring her daughter Becky round to the idea of her mother seeing
another man. Des wants Claire to take a boating holiday with him,
and Becky thinks that's such a good idea, she wants to go too.
In 1998, Des visited his stepson, Tony Horrocks, but he was disturbed when he discovered drug dealers setting about Tony. When he tried to help his son, he was violently subjected to a physical attack - which resulted in him being rushed to hospital.
When Natalie went over to see him in hospital, she discovered him badly battered and bruised. He woke up, and told her about a dream that he had had about him with her in Blackpool. His last phrase was, "Oh Natalie..." - then he suddenly died in his bed.
Des was always remembered and respected (by most people) in death. He was the sixth person who lived in Coronation Street to be murdered.
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