Roly is involved in many storylines during his time in the show. He is often used by his owners as a silent sounding board, and is made privy to all their secrets and woes. It is Roly who first alerted viewers to the fact that his owner, Den, had got the 16-year-old schoolgirl, Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully), pregnant in October 1985; one of the soaps most renowned 'whodunit' plots. After months of speculation, Michelle goes to meet the father at a nearby canal, and Roly bounds out of the mystery man's car, showing the identity of the man to be Den.