Gordon Clegg

Gordon Clegg
Parents: m: Betty Preston; f: Ted Farrell) Born: 20 May 1950 Married: Caroline Wilson, 20 January 1982, Wimbledon Register Office Children: Peter (b: 25 March 1985; m: Caroline Clegg)

Played by:  Appeared: April 1968 - March 1969; and intermittently since then - 11 - 13 January 1982; October 1995; 10 June 2002
 * 1) Bill Kenwright  (1968 - 1995)
 * 2) Geoffrey Leesley  (2002)

The Clegg family (Les, Maggie and their son Gordon) moved into the Corner Shop in April 1968, but Gordon's 'father', the alcoholic Les only lasted until June, when he was moved into a hospital to dry out, and he never came back to the family.

Soon after he arrived, Gordon became friendly with Lucille Hewitt, and by the end of the year they planned to elope to Gretna Green to marry. Although Annie Walker (Lucille's guardian) and his 'mother' both opposed their courtship, it was only a delayed train at Preston that stopped them becoming man and wife.

After they returned to The Street, they continued their engagement until a week before their wedding when Gordon got cold feet and called it off. Ashamed of his actions, Gordon fled to London to take up a career in accountancy.

By 1971, he had made a sufficient success of accountancy that he could lend Maggie Clegg the money to buy out Irma Barlow, her partner in the Corner Shop. Gordon returned to The Street in July 1974 when Maggie Clegg married draughtsman Ron Cooke and emigrated to Zaire; Gordon was left in charge of the shop, living at his Auntie Betty's (Betty Turpin). Lucille Hewitt was so upset at his return that she fled to her step-mothers in Ireland. Gordon wasn't so upset and was literally caught with his trousers round his ankles with a local girl by his Auntie Betty in her house. Gordon returned to London, and he rented out the shop on a weekly basis to the Hopkins.

At the end of 1974, Megan Hopkins was moving some furniture in the flat when she came across a birth certificate - Gordon Clegg's. He was born Gordon Preston; his mother was Elizabeth Preston, his father unknown. After a little research she found that Elizabeth Preston was now Betty Turpin. When Maggie and Betty found out, they told Gordon his dark secret. Betty, his real mother, had an affair with a married sailor during the war, and the resulting baby was adopted by Betty's sister Maggie and her husband Les Clegg. In February 1975 Megan Hopkins tried to blackmail Gordon with the information, in an attempt to buy the shop at a reduced price, but they were summarily evicted. Gordon persuaded Blanche Hunt to run the shop after that, and in May 1976 the Corner Shop was sold to Renee Bradshaw.

Although now settled in leafy Wimbledon with his wife Caroline and son Peter, Gordon and Betty see each other regularly. Gordon has only appeared on screen twice since then - in 1982 when his mother was mugged, and in 1995 when she married (another !) wartime sweetheart Billy Williams.