Des Barnes

Desmond Francis "Des" Barnes moved into one of the newer houses, next door to Gail and Martin Platt, with wife Steph. His other neighbours are Mavis and Derek Wilton. Des is a bit of a wag and the Wiltons are his favourite target.

Des had a grand passion for Steph, but she didn't seem to care as deeply for him, and eventually left for another man. Des had been building a boat in the back garden for years, and the date of the launch coincided with Steph leaving him. He burned the boat on a canal.

When Terry Duckworth was in prison, Des offered his back garden to Lisa for their son Tommy to play in. His relationship with Lisa gradually deepened until she moved in with him. Terry arranged for some roughs on the outside to beat Des up. Vera was furious, accusing Des of breaking up her son's marriage and referring to him as a bookies runner. But she gradually came round as both she and Des shared a love for Tommy.

Lisa was tragically run over one night when crossing the Street from the Rovers. Des was affected a lot more than Terry. Tommy went to live with Lisa's parents in Blackpool, but Des still sees him when they bring him to Weatherfield to visit Jack and Vera.

After Lisa, Des went out with Raquel Wolstenhulme. She moved in, but could tell that he was never going to ask to marry her and broke it off. Des persuaded her to go back to him when she started seeing someone she'd met on a modelling assignment. They moved back together. This ended in disaster when Des had a tempestuous affair with the new barmaid, Tanya Pooley. She was seeing Des' boss at the time (Alex Christie), and really wanted him to divorce his wife and marry her. However, she couldn't resist stealing Des from Raquel at the same time. One night Des went to see Tanya and found Alex with her. During the resulting melee, Raquel arrived and discovered the affair.

Raquel later got engaged to Curly Watts. Des appeared at their party and forced Raquel to admit that she didn't really love Curly and Raquel later broke it off. After this, Andy McDonald moved in as a lodger. He later left in protest when Des started cracking jokes about his criminal family: "What do you call a McDonald in a suit? The accused!".

By the end of 1995 Des was leading a wayward life, spending some nights with Maxine Heavey, but chasing after Andy's mother Liz McDonald who was working with him at his betting shop. After being rejected by Liz with the comment "get yourself a girl", Des turned his attention back to Raquel and invited her back to No. 6 for supper, just as a friend, but before long they were kissing and she spent the night there. In the morning, Raquel again settled into her 'wife' role, but Des made it perfectly plain she was just a one-night stand. The spell was broken, and Raquel realised she would never mean as much to Des as he had meant to her. A few days later, Des was stunned to learn that Raquel had married Curly.

In 1996, Des began dating a young widow called Claire Palmer. They have brief illicit meetings during lunchtime as Claire is trying to bring her daughter Becky round to the idea of her mother seeing another man. Des wants Claire to take a boating holiday with him, and Becky thinks that's such a good idea, she wants to go too.

Des later made a pass at Samantha Failsworth which ended his relationship with Claire. After leaving Weatherfield for a while, Des returned and began pursuing Samantha. Sam eventually confided in Des about her sexual abuse which brought the two closer together and the two began dating.

Things went well for Des and Sam until she began to have commitment issues and then began sleeping with Chris Collins. Meanwhile, Des had become friendly with Natalie Horrocks while he was still dating Sam. When Des and Sam's relationship floundered, Natalie was there as a friend for Des. Samantha began to stalk Natalie and was jealous of her friendship with Des. When Samantha kidnapped Natalie's cat, the relationship between Des and Natalie grew. Sam spread all sorts of lies about Des and Natalie and even announced that she was pregnant but was forced to leave after her lies were exposed.

Des and Natalie then found themselves together. This was the relationship they had both longed for. Steady and secure, as far as either of them could tell, it was a perfect match and the two were soon married.

Des visited his stepson, Tony Horrocks, but he was disturbed when he discovered drug dealers setting about Tony. When he tried to help his son, he was violently subjected to a physical attack - which resulted in him being rushed to hospital.

When Natalie went over to see him in hospital, she discovered him badly battered and bruised. He woke up, and told her about a dream that he had had about him with her in Blackpool. His last phrase was, "Oh Natalie..." - then he suddenly died in his bed.

Des was always remembered and respected (by most people) in death. He was the sixth person who lived in Coronation Street to be murdered.