Helen Cooper

When Mike Baldwin’s fiancée Linda Sykes demanded that he promote her from the sewing machines at Underworld to take on a sales role, he was reluctant to comply with the request. Hearing that Helen Cooper had been trying to contact him, he saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and despatched Linda to see Helen, fully aware of her reputation as one of the most difficult people in the trade to deal with and, being a woman, someone that Linda would be unable to try her feminine charms on. He fully expected her to fail and told her so to her face, advising her that despite his best efforts, Helen had never placed an order with him.

Linda stepped up the challenge, preparing her case well. She kept her nerve when shown into Helen’s office by a smirking receptionist and waited while Helen tore a trip off a supplier on the phone. However once the two got talking, Helen proved to be tough but reasonable and placed an order provided that sizes up to 18 could be made and an aggressive delivery schedule could be kept to. Linda was delighted, even when Helen informed her that she’d failed to place an order in the past because she found that Baldwin was an old letch who constantly tried it on with her! Mike was amazed when Linda returned with the order, although he did complain that having to deal with larger sizes would cause difficulties.

Twenty months later, after Mike’s marriage to Linda had failed and she had suddenly disappeared (later to surface in Dublin), Helen turned up in Coronation Street and went for a drink in the Rovers with Mike where Linda’s mother, Eve Elliott, verbally attacked him for his supposed treatment of his daughter. Helen quickly left and Mike realised that he visit was just to pick up the gossip for the trade and not to discuss any further orders.