Monkey Gibbons

"Monkey" Gibbons was one of Eddie Yeats's friends from Walton Jail.

Quiet and scruffy, Monkey was perenially casing the joint. He and Eddie were involved in a few schemes together; in September 1975, Eddie put Monkey onto some houses to burgle and stored the proceeds at Minnie Caldwell's house. The police were quickly onto the pair and both were sent to Walton.

Monkey and Eddie were released together on 21st July 1976. They immediately headed for the Rovers Return, hoping to find digs, but unsurprisingly the pair were not a welcome sight and no one was even willing to put them up for one night. A solution appeared to present itself when Ray Langton told them that Ken Barlow was away for a few days, apparently leaving No.11 empty, but Ray had neglected to mention that since Eddie had last been in the Street, Ken had moved out and Elsie Howard and Gail Potter were now living at No.11. Not realising this, Monkey and Eddie let themselves in and went to sleep in Elsie's bed (Eddie explained away the woman's clothes and decor when Monkey pointed them out). A short time later, Elsie and Gail returned home and Elsie was startled to find the two men asleep in her bed. She immediately threw them out but, in desperation, they let themselves back in and fell back on their original plan to kip in the living room. In the morning, they were discovered by Gail and an even less accommodating Elsie, who picked up the phone to ring the police but Eddie, ignoring Monkey's point that she was within her rights to do so, pleaded with her until she took pity on them and agreed not to involve the police (but she still threw them out). The pair remained in the area for the rest of the day, eating Corner Shop-bought pies at the Kabin (to avoid paying VAT on them).

Monkey and Eddie quickly found permanent lodgings, Eddie at No.13 with Stan and Hilda Ogden and Monkey somewhere else in Weatherfield, but in November Eddie was thrown out by the Ogdens, who wanted to be alone after making up following a rift. Eddie was taken in by Monkey and they shared their lodgings until July 1980.

Like Eddie, Monkey wanted to go legit. In January 1977, Monkey secured some cheap watches and sold them to Eddie, who used his salesmanship to get a good price for them, but when Mavis Riley bought one for Derek Wilton and it didn't work after a few days and told her friends, everyone assumed the watches were dodgy. Eddie ended up throwing the lot down a drain after hearing from Bet Lynch that a policeman had been asking round but Monkey appeared and told him the watches were definitely not stolen. The horrified pair tried to retrieve the watches but it was too late as the drains were being cleaned. By this point, Monkey appeared much tidier and had shorter hair.

Monkey met up with Eddie again in September 1982 when Billy Nelson passed on some stolen goods, including Eddie's fiancee Marion Willis's engagement ring and Annie Walker's watch. Eddie found them with Monkey and took them back to return them (discretely) to their owners.


 * The character was usually credited as Monkey Gibbons. His two 1976 appearances are the exception; he was credited as Monkey Gibbon and referred to as such in Episode 1610.

List of appearances
Episode count: 5.