Jim McDonald

Jim McDonald

Full name: Parents: Born: 14th November, 1955 Siblings: Married:

1. Liz Greenwood (5 January 1974; div 1997) 2. Liz McDonald (30 November 2000, Manchester Prison)

Children:

1. Andy McDonald (b: 26 June 1974; m: Liz McDonald) 2. Steve McDonald (b: 26 June 1974; m: Liz McDonald) 3. Katie McDonald (b: 1 January 1992; d: 2 January 1992; m: Liz McDonald)

Played by: Charles Lawson Appeared: 27 October 1989 - 2 December 2000

Jim was in the army. He loved it there, but it was very hard on Liz, and he'd left by the time they moved into The Street. He took a job as a security guard, but got a fright when he surprised a couple of intruders at the yard he was minding. He started beating them up and was concerned that his violent temper could result in him killing someone if that situation arose again. He left that job.

He was also a mechanic and tried running his own garage for a while but that didn't work out. From there, he joined Kevin at MVB Motors. They got on very well, but Jim kept having run-ins with Mike Baldwin. As well as being a mechanic, Jim got the job of chauffeur when Mike started to hire out his Jag for businessmen.

Jim and Liz had quite a rocky marriage. They'd got married when they discovered she was pregnant, so their early life together had also been with the twins, which was difficult. Liz had also found life as an army-wife quite lonely, and eventually, Jim had given it up for her. This was one of many causes of resentment between them. Despite it all though, they had deep feelings for each other which kept them together.

However, Liz finally left Jim when he hit Steve during one of his outbursts. She said she couldn't take it any more. She'd been working as a barmaid at the Rovers and had been offered her own pub, the Queens, by Newton and Ridley. She moved into the flat above the pub, and took up with Des brother Colin, who also worked there. Hed recently left the navy and was making a new life on land.

Jim kept turning up at the Queens and eventually hit Colin and was barred by the brewery. He and Liz made it up and she moved back in with him.

When the Rovers came up for sale, Liz persuaded Jim to try and buy it. The brewery wanted the place off their hands, and would sell it to the first person who could come up with the money. Bet couldn't raise the funds, so it was left to the Duckworths and the McDonalds, both of whom had to find a buyer for their house to get the cash.

The Mallets looked at both houses, finally settling on the Duckworths. But Liz called Jim during a chauffeuring job, and said that if they could get somewhere at a certain time, they could still be in the running. Jim abandoned the clients and went back, but it was too late. They'd lost the Rovers and then Jim lost his job when Mike fired him.

They were both very disappointed not to get the Rovers, as this had seemed like a new start for them. Shortly after this, they went to one of Jim's army reunions. His old friend was there, and Jim got a bit suspicious of the way he was acting with Liz. On the way home, under his continual badgering, she confessed that hed seen her a lot when Jim was away in the army and she had slept with him one night because she was so lonely.

Jim called her a whore, beat her up and abandoned her at a service-station. Later, full of remorse for what he'd done, he wanted to speak to her. But Liz was now in deadly fear of his temper and wouldn't see him. This got him angry again and he tried to break into their house, smashing the back window. He was only stopped from getting in by Curly Watts and Kevin Webster, who dragged him out and the police took over from there.

Liz took out a restraining order on him, and called the police again when he followed her into the Rovers trying to talk to her. This time he was calm and back to normal, but Liz was still very frightened and couldn't trust him. Jim was sent to prison for a few weeks for breaking the restraining order and he was very bitter about this.

By now he was working with Bill Websters building firm. Bill had had a bad experience in his marriage, and was more than ready to give Jim his pearls of wisdom about the badness of women.

Jim's very proud of his son Andy, who is now at University. He despairs at his other son Steve, who's a petty criminal. Jim is unable to talk to him and his attempts to put him straight invariably end up as a slanging match. However, Jim does love Steve too, and now that he's in prison, has given up drink in sympathy (as Steve can't drink in prison), and is putting all his effort into building up a good business with Bill so Steve will have a place to work when he gets out.

Jims mother recently died and left him £4000. Bill is hoping he'll put this into the business, but Jim wants to use it as a deposit on their old house. Liz was refused a mortgage so can't buy it herself. She's adamant that Jim won't get it, as "he'll have won". She wants strangers to buy it. Jim says she's being ridiculous. It was OK for her to buy it but not him. Anyway, he's had enough, and won't be contributing to the mortgage any more.

In 2000, Jim was sent into the slammer after he murdered gangster bad boy Jez Quigley after Jez and his gang beat up Steve very badly. He beat Jez and Jez started bleeding internally in hospital and subsequently died. Jim confessed and was sentenced to 8 years in the nick. He remarried Liz before he was sent up. He broke out at one point in 2003 because he thought Liz was having an affair with her boss in a pub in Blackpool. They tried to escape to Ireland, unsuccessfully, because they stopped to rescue Ashley and Claire who were adrift in a boat. Recently, after he lost it over a tube of toothpaste and battered his cellmate, his parole license was cancelled and, as a result, Liz divorced him.