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Deirdre Barlow
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Deirdre Barlow
Deirdre Barlow (also Hunt, Langton and Rachid) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Anne Kirkbride. She made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 20 November 1972. Her final appearance was on 8 October 2014.
Kirkbride decided to take an extended break from the soap in autumn 2014 and last appeared on-screen on 8 October 2014. She died in January 2015 before she could return to work. The character of Deirdre was killed-off and given a farewell storyline on 8 July 2015, with her funeral taking place on 13 July 2015. An official book focusing on the character's history was released as a tribute for fans of the show in October 2015.
Deirdre was played by actress Anne Kirkbride from 1972 to 2014. Originally named Deirdre Hunt, her character's earliest screen appearances were as "a young 17 year old 'dolly bird', someone that liked a bit of fun". The character made an initial one-off appearance in episode 1236 on 20 November that year. The producers and writers were convinced that the character had more mileage and Kirkbride returned for a couple of appearances from episode 1272 on 26 March 1973 and as a contracted regular from episode 1288 on 21 May 1973.
Deirdre's trademarks included a gravelly, scratchy voice (intensifying due to actress Kirkbride's real-life chain smoking) and very big glasses. She wore the same style of glasses for almost 30 years, before Dev Alahan crushed them with a box when she put them down for a second. Later, the frames were much smaller, and Kirkbride herself did not wear glasses away from the role, opting for contact lenses. The large glasses made a comedic reappearance when character Claire Peacock (Julia Haworth), who bore an uncanny resemblance to the young Deirdre, was also to wear the same style of spectacles.
After leaving Oldham Rep at the age of 17, Anne Kirkbride featured in a Granada TV play by Jack Rosenthal titled Another Sunday and Sweet F.A. (1972). Kirkbride then auditioned for a part in a pilot for a new Granada series, gaining the attention of Coronation Street's casting director who offered her a part in the show. She was first seen doing her part when character Elsie Tanner came into a pub to find husband Alan Howard drinking with Deirdre. Kirkbride said: "That was my first scene and I was petrified at the thought of coming into something I'd been watching since the age of seven." Kirkbride remained with the show until her death on 19 January 2015, although what turned out to be her last appearance was broadcast the previous October.
Ken and Deirdre have been described as soap opera's version of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Their relationship has featured various affairs, break-ups and reunions over the years. The couple's first marriage eventually disintegrated in the early 1990s, this time when Ken had an affair with colleague Wendy Crozier, a dalliance which ended in divorce for the Barlows. Ken was kicked out of home on New Year's Day 1990. Their on/off relationship continued, with each having various other liaisons, until producers decided to reunite Ken and Deirdre in 1999. Ken's and Deirdre's second marriage in 2005 was watched by an estimated 13 million viewers, compared to the nine million who watched the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles the following day. Coincidentally, Ken's and Deirdre's first wedding in 1981 was screened within 48 hours of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding, and just as in 2005, the Barlow wedding attracted more viewers than the royal wedding.
When the story of Deirdre Rachid being jailed for fraud was aired in 1998, a public campaign developed in the UK. A campaign led by tabloid newspapers and the occasional graffiti artist, with the slogan of "Free the Weatherfield One!". Despite Rachid being a fictional character, politicians expressed their opinions on the story as if she had been imprisoned in real life. Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he would be commanding his Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to investigate the issue. William Hague, the then leader of the Conservative Party, announced that his party was also concerned about Rachid's treatment, stating that "The whole nation is deeply concerned about Deirdre, Conservatives as much as everyone else".
The "Free Deirdre Rachid" campaign was likened to the "Free George Jackson" campaign in 1984 after Brookside character George Jackson was falsely imprisoned for a warehouse robbery. In the story for Brookside, George served his sentence.
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Deirdre Barlow
Deirdre Barlow (also Hunt, Langton and Rachid) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Anne Kirkbride. She made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 20 November 1972. Her final appearance was on 8 October 2014.
Kirkbride decided to take an extended break from the soap in autumn 2014 and last appeared on-screen on 8 October 2014. She died in January 2015 before she could return to work. The character of Deirdre was killed-off and given a farewell storyline on 8 July 2015, with her funeral taking place on 13 July 2015. An official book focusing on the character's history was released as a tribute for fans of the show in October 2015.
Deirdre was played by actress Anne Kirkbride from 1972 to 2014. Originally named Deirdre Hunt, her character's earliest screen appearances were as "a young 17 year old 'dolly bird', someone that liked a bit of fun". The character made an initial one-off appearance in episode 1236 on 20 November that year. The producers and writers were convinced that the character had more mileage and Kirkbride returned for a couple of appearances from episode 1272 on 26 March 1973 and as a contracted regular from episode 1288 on 21 May 1973.
Deirdre's trademarks included a gravelly, scratchy voice (intensifying due to actress Kirkbride's real-life chain smoking) and very big glasses. She wore the same style of glasses for almost 30 years, before Dev Alahan crushed them with a box when she put them down for a second. Later, the frames were much smaller, and Kirkbride herself did not wear glasses away from the role, opting for contact lenses. The large glasses made a comedic reappearance when character Claire Peacock (Julia Haworth), who bore an uncanny resemblance to the young Deirdre, was also to wear the same style of spectacles.
After leaving Oldham Rep at the age of 17, Anne Kirkbride featured in a Granada TV play by Jack Rosenthal titled Another Sunday and Sweet F.A. (1972). Kirkbride then auditioned for a part in a pilot for a new Granada series, gaining the attention of Coronation Street's casting director who offered her a part in the show. She was first seen doing her part when character Elsie Tanner came into a pub to find husband Alan Howard drinking with Deirdre. Kirkbride said: "That was my first scene and I was petrified at the thought of coming into something I'd been watching since the age of seven." Kirkbride remained with the show until her death on 19 January 2015, although what turned out to be her last appearance was broadcast the previous October.
Ken and Deirdre have been described as soap opera's version of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Their relationship has featured various affairs, break-ups and reunions over the years. The couple's first marriage eventually disintegrated in the early 1990s, this time when Ken had an affair with colleague Wendy Crozier, a dalliance which ended in divorce for the Barlows. Ken was kicked out of home on New Year's Day 1990. Their on/off relationship continued, with each having various other liaisons, until producers decided to reunite Ken and Deirdre in 1999. Ken's and Deirdre's second marriage in 2005 was watched by an estimated 13 million viewers, compared to the nine million who watched the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles the following day. Coincidentally, Ken's and Deirdre's first wedding in 1981 was screened within 48 hours of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding, and just as in 2005, the Barlow wedding attracted more viewers than the royal wedding.
When the story of Deirdre Rachid being jailed for fraud was aired in 1998, a public campaign developed in the UK. A campaign led by tabloid newspapers and the occasional graffiti artist, with the slogan of "Free the Weatherfield One!". Despite Rachid being a fictional character, politicians expressed their opinions on the story as if she had been imprisoned in real life. Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he would be commanding his Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to investigate the issue. William Hague, the then leader of the Conservative Party, announced that his party was also concerned about Rachid's treatment, stating that "The whole nation is deeply concerned about Deirdre, Conservatives as much as everyone else".
The "Free Deirdre Rachid" campaign was likened to the "Free George Jackson" campaign in 1984 after Brookside character George Jackson was falsely imprisoned for a warehouse robbery. In the story for Brookside, George served his sentence.