The follow up of his affair with Deirdre triggered a longstanding feud between Mike and Ken, with the rivalry between them dominating the show's impact for the next two decades. This continued as Mike would later go on to marry Ken's daughter Susan (Wendy Jane Walker), which ultimately led to the two arch-enemies going on a custody battle for Mike and Susan's son Adam (Iain De Caestecker) following her death in 2001. At times, however, Ken and Mike were often forced to work together in events which saw Deirdre being wrongfully imprisoned by her fraudulent new love interest Jon Lindsay (Owen Aaronovitch) in 1998 and then the two rivals later becoming hostages in an armed robbery at Fresco's Supermarket in 2000.