Coronation Street Elsie and Bet. Other recurring archetypes include the war veteran such as Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth), Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington) and Gary Windass (Mikey North), the bumbling retail manager like Leonard Swindley (Arthur Lowe), Reg Holdsworth (Ken Morley), Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden), quick-tempered, tough tradesmen like Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson), Jim McDonald (Charles Lawson), Tommy Harris (Thomas Craig) and Owen Armstrong (Ian Puleston-Davies), and the perennial losers such as Stan and Hilda, Jack and Vera, Les Battersby (Bruce Jones), Beth Tinker (Lisa George) and Kirk Sutherland (Andrew Whyment). Villains are also common character types such as Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford),
Ken Barlow To worsen his situation, he was initially suspected of murdering her. In 1972, Deirdre Hunt, played by Anne Kirkbride, was introduced into "Coronation Street"; the character would become synonymous with Ken's narrative when, in the early 1980s, Deirdre became Ken's third wife. A combined audience of 24 million viewers tuned in to see the nuptials. Their wedding coincided with professional unease for actor Roache, who feared that Ken was becoming boring, to the detriment of his own self-confidence. In 2010 Roache said, "[Ken] was beginning to look very ordinary and quite nerdy, and that in turn had a knock-on effect