Pete Waring

Pete Waring was a eccentric journalist for the Gazette whose report on a fight between Alf Roberts and Ken Barlow, published on the day of the 1991 Council election, helped ensure Alf's victory.

Pete joined the Gazette in 1989 with a dream of meeting a dog with two tails and making a fortune. Eighteen months later, he was still waiting for the elusive canine when he interviewed Ken about his spat with Alf, who'd just threatened to evict Ken from 15a Coronation Street for displaying a poster for his opponent Deirdre Barlow on his window directly above Alf's shop. The next day, Pete went to the Rovers Return to get the other side of the story from Alec Gilroy, Alf's agent in the election. Alec refused to comment and arranged for Pete return later to speak to Alf on the subject.

Pete and the Gazette photographer, Eric, arrived promptly for the meeting, and were given a potted history of Deirdre's career on the council from Alec while they waited for Alf. When Alf turned up, it was moments after he'd glued one of his campaign posters to the outside of Ken's window to cover up the one on the inside. Before he could make it through to the back room to see the reporter, Alf was confronted by Ken and a brawl ensued which Eric photographed, giving Pete the perfect image to accompany his article.

The expectation from Alf's camp was that the report would cast him in a negative light for threatening to evict Ken for supporting his wife, but the article, under the headline "Councillor's husband threatens opponent", consisted mostly of an attack on Deirdre using the information supplied to her by Alec, such as the fact that she'd recently spent the weekend in Paris with her new man Phil Jennings - which Pete implied to be a regular occurrence. As the photo graced the front page of the Gazette on election day, it was a devastating blow to Deirdre's campaign and Alf defeated her at the polls by over 600 votes.