Fiz Stape

Fiona "Fiz" Stape (née Brown) is the daughter of Cilla Brown, and spent most of her life in care. She was fostered briefly by Roy and Hayley Cropper, and had a relationship with Kirk Sutherland. She began a relationship with boyfriend and later husband John Stape who would cause her trouble after having an affair with Rosie Webster (and kidnapping her), stealing his old colleague's identity and also killing Charlotte Hoyle and Joy Fishwick, the mother of the man whose identity John stole.

In 2011, Fiz inherited Joy's money to help take care of her premature daughter Hope after John had a breakdown. She later discovered John's murderous ways after he blackmailed her into helping dispose of Colin Fishwick's body and discovered he kidnapped her brother Chesney and Charlotte's parents.

1984-2007: Early years
Fiz's first appearance came as a troubled sixteen-year-old fostered by Roy and Hayley Cropper. She temporarily left after claiming Roy was flirtatious and inappropriate with her, something she later admitted was a fabrication. She returned to Coronation Street apologetically, settled down and started working at the Underworld factory. Later her mother, Cilla and her brother, Chesney were introduced, coming to live on the Street with Les Battersby-Brown.

Fiz began dating Kirk Sutherland, much to his sister Maria Sutherland's annoyance. Fiz had led Tyrone Dobbs astray during his engagement to Maria resulting in the long going feud between the two, but irony (or karma) would strike when Molly Compton became involved in Fiz's relationship with Kirk. It was revealed Fiz had bullied Molly from a young age and Molly- so resentful of this- planned to get revenge by making Fiz's life miserable. Despite this, Kirk and Fiz reunited in 2006 for a considerable amount of time. In October that year, Kirk bought a moped for Fiz as a gift for passing her driving test.

2007-2009: Reuniting with John
Fiz and John meet again on 6th May 2007, Fiz was reunited with her first boyfriend, John Stape, who had started working at Weatherfield High where Chesney was a pupil. A bond formed between the two as Fiz began to distance herself from Kirk. Oblivious to Fiz's feelings, Kirk proposed to her, Fiz declined and ultimately broke up with him, shortly afterwards she began dating John.

In October 2007, her mother left the Street to live in Las Vegas. She left Chesney with Kirk.

John Stape began an affair with Rosie Webster, who returned to Weatherfield High School to garner his affections. The affair lasted for several months until the couple's secret came out on Christmas Day. Fiz, believing that Sally Webster was John's other love interest, visited No.13, barging in during the Websters' Christmas lunch, demanding an explanation. At this time it came to light that the presents from John had been mixed up, and Fiz had received a provocative underwear set. Rosie had been given oversized, frumpy pyjamas, their intended recipient being Fiz. John was beaten-up by an outraged Kevin, who was ultimately arrested, and kept in custody between 11th and 25th January 2008.

John later made an attempt to reconcile with Fiz, but to no avail. She had already shared a drunken kiss with Dev Alahan in the Rovers on New Year's Eve, and also considered rekindling her relationship with Kirk but nothing came of this.

Some months later, while Fiz holidayed, Claire Peacock called Social Services regarding the welfare of Chesney who had been cared for by Kirk inadequately. Chesney and his dog, Schmeichel were removed from the home. When Fiz returned she was shocked to learn that Chesney had been placed with a foster family and made an application to become Chesney's legal guardian. Chesney and Schmeichel were allowed to return home after Fiz agreed to move into No.5, a larger and more family orientated home than Fiz's shared flat accommodation. Fiz often clashed with Julie Carp, Kirk's live-in-girlfriend regarding Chesney's upbringing but the two later bonded working at Underworld and they became friends.

On 18th July 2008, Fiz received the first of many anonymous phone calls. Eventually, she called the culprit back to discover it was John Stape. He begged for a reconciliation and Fiz, after much persuasion, took John back. During this time, Fiz remained oblivious to the fact John was often absent from the home, making excuses regarding the feeding of his late grandmother's cat. During these outings, John was actually visiting Rosie, who he was keeping captive. John saw this as an acceptable solution to bring an end to the relationship problems John and Fiz had endured at the hands of Rosie, who would see the couple in the street and make unacceptable comments and calls. Rosie was freed when Fiz went to the house to feed the cat and found her upstairs.

John was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. Some months after his incarceration, Fiz began receiving letters from John which she initially destroyed and hid. John insisted upon sending the letters and Fiz began to read what he had to say and eventually responded. When best friend Maria Connor discovered Fiz's secret she was livid. The two fell out for some time as Fiz and John became close again. Fiz began making visits to Highfield Prison where John was incarcerated. John proposed to Fiz and she accepted. Fiz was late for the wedding due to her concealment of the arrangement from Chesney. She was informed the wedding would not be able to go ahead that day. Devastated, Fiz tied herself to the prison gates and refused to move, causing a stir with the public and the prisoners. Guards agreed to allow the wedding to proceed.

2009-2011: Marriage to John
Some months later John was freed. The couple had to overcome many obstacles including more abuse and allegations from Rosie, Chesney's coldness towards the relationship his sister had made and damage to their home caused by Sally Webster. Sally also arranged a petition to have John removed from the street. This was unsuccessful as many of the street's residents believed John and Fiz should be allowed to have a normal life, given that John had already served time for his crime.

Fiz helped John to get a job at Roy's Rolls with Roy and Hayley Cropper, a job he was initially thankful for, but he longed to be a teacher. Unbeknownst to Fiz, John stole the identity of his former colleague Colin Fishwick who had left the country and began to teach under his name. Upon finding out, Fiz was devastated and left on holiday alone, frustrated by John's constant lies. Both John and Fiz were convinced their relationship was over and John began drinking heavily and fell into a brief depression. Fiz however, returned home a week later revealing she was pregnant. Both she and John were delighted with this unexpected news.

On 6th December 2010, an explosion devastated The Joinery bar, located under the viaduct at the end of the street. A hysterical Fiz believed that John was in the bar, where Peter Barlow's stag party was taking place. Unbeknownst to Fiz, John was in fact still at No.5 where he had just murdered Charlotte Hoyle. Fiz was running towards The Joinery when a tram derailed from the damaged viaduct and crashed onto Coronation Street. Maria found Fiz unconscious on the street where it was found that she was in labour three months early. Fiz and John went to Weatherfield General where she gave birth to a daughter who was transferred to an incubator. Fiz and John named her Hope.

2011-: John's secrets
Fiz remained unaware of her husband's unravelling life, which had seen him disposing of the body of Colin Fishwick (who had collapsed and died at No.5 following a fight with a love rival) and murdering Charlotte Hoyle when she threatened to tell Fiz of his misdemeanors. On 10th January 2011, Fiz was allowed to hold Hope for the first time and John arrived late - having inadvertently killed Colin Fishwick's mother Joy. In the weeks that followed Fiz feared for John's sanity as he became further and further withdrawn and confused. On 24th January, John told Fiz that he had killed Joy, but she took this as a symptom of his declining mental health. Later that day, John was admitted to hospital.

John had a breakdown following his involvement in three deaths. Fiz was left alone at home with baby Hope who had since been allowed to leave the hospital when Ben Dean, Joy Fishwick's solicitor, tracked down "Colin" at No.5, and Fiz was forced to pose as Colin's wife "Mrs Fishwick". The solicitor informed Fiz of Joy's death and that all her fortune had been handed down to Colin. With nowhere to turn, Fiz revealed the truth of John's identity theft to Chesney. With a baby to raise and debts mounting, a desperate Fiz accepted Joy's money but promised not to spend it. Soon temptation got the better of her and she began to spend the money on baby things for Hope, such as a pram, much to Chesney's anger.

John returned home in March 2011 and things seemed to look up, but John noticed all of the new things that Fiz had bought, which she explained was from money she received when the Underworld girls had a whip-round for her. In April, John decided to stop taking his medication, despite Dr Carter's objection. Fiz having to pose as Mrs Fishwick once more when Joy's solicitor turned up at No.5, with the news that Joy's house had been sold and the money was to be transferred into "Mrs Fishwick"'s bank account. John was furious with Fiz for what she had done, thinking it was all over for him. John suffered another breakdown, locking himself in Barlow's Bookies, after which he did a runner; Peter Barlow and Dr Carter suggested they called the police, but Fiz, with the knowledge of the potential imprisonment for both her and John decided to wait and see if he returned.

Murder and fraud investigation
On 6th June the Police arrived at No.5 to notify her and Chesney that John had been caught on CCTV boarding a ferry at Holyhead. However while they were there they talked to her about a solicitor's statement saying that a woman calling herself Mrs Colin Fishwick had been claiming Joy Fishwick's inheritance on her husband's behalf. According to the statement the so called "Mrs Colin Fishwick" matched Fiz's description. Fiz then confessed to her part to the crime and so the Police arrested Fiz for the murder of Colin Fishwick. At Weatherfield Police Station Fiz was interviewed. After examining all the evidence in the interview the police decided to drop the charge for murder however they charged her for fraudulently claiming Joy's inheritence. Fiz was then remanded in custody.

On 9th June Fiz appeared at Weatherfield Magistrates Court to face charges of fraud and a murder investigation. The case was then deemed too serious for the magistrates court to hear so her case was then referred to Crown Court.

Tyrone Dobbs and trouble with Maria Connor
In November 2012, Fiz embarked upon an affair with Tyrone Dobbs, after his experience with abusive partner Kirsty Soames. Later on, Maria Connor began to slide up to Tyrone after he punched Todd Grimshaw after he insulted Maria, at the same time when Fiz and Tyrone were supposedly getting texts that were from Kirsty. Maria invited Tyrone to the park to talk about things and claimed her love for Tyrone, hugging him just as Fiz and Chesney walk in with information from Audrey Roberts, with Maria making sure that Fiz sees them, unbeknown to Tyrone. Fiz almost dumps Tyrone.

Maria invited Fiz and Tyrone over to her flat to talk things through, but she told Fiz to come two hours later. Fiz received yet another text, so Fiz decided to call the number. It went to Maria's phone, and as Maria was going to dry her hair, Tyrone picked it up. Tyrone realised that Maria was sending the texts, and confronted her. Maria confessed, and admitted to trying to split Tyrone and Fiz up.

Fiz was determined to press charges against Maria. However upon the suggestion of her brother Kirk, Maria planned to go to Cyprus with son Liam so Fiz and Tyrone decided to drop the matter - getting Maria out of their hair for the meantime.

Background information

 * Fiz was introduced in April 2001 as the foster daughter of Roy and Hayley Cropper. Originally contracted for five episodes, producers were so impressed with actress Jennie McAlpine that they extended her contract and she remains a regular character.
 * In May 2014 it was reported that Jennie was expecting her first child and that Fiz would be written out later in the year for maternity leave. Wendi Peters was reintroduced as mother Cilla Battersby-Brown in October in a short stint to tie in with Fiz's exit, and both characters left during the following month.

Quotes
"Bit small 'innit?" (First Line)