Mike Baldwin

Michael Vernon "Mike" Baldwin was portrayed by Johnny Briggs.

Biography
Making his first appearance in 1976 as a Cockney businessman with an eye for the ladies, Mike is well-known for his string of ruined relationships. During his time on the show, Mike had 25 girlfriends and four wives.

Mike's father was Frank "Frankie" Baldwin, a former docker and cockney wideboy.

He impregnated florist Maggie Dunlop, but the relationship was not serious, and she left him when he refused to buy the florist's she worked in. She married Harry Redman shortly before the birth of her son Mark. The Redmans moved away and Mike didn't see his son again for many years afterwards.

His first main (and perhaps biggest) storyline came in 1983 when he had an affair with Deirdre Barlow, a bored housewife living on Coronation Street. Before her marriage to Ken Barlow, Deirdre had been Mike's girlfriend, but she had decided Ken suited her better. When she confessed everything to Ken, Mike turned up on the doorstep ready to whisk Deirdre away, only for her to decide to stay with Ken and give her marriage another go. This event turned Mike and Ken into sworn enemies.

Mike went on to marry the much younger Susan Barlow (Ken's daughter), upsetting Ken further. Their marriage seemed cosy, but he was intending for her to be a housewife, and she was a career woman. When she became pregnant, Susan disliked the life she saw ahead of her and she told Mike she had terminated her pregnancy before moving to Newcastle after just a year of marriage.

His on/off relationship with Alma Sedgewick looked over when he married wealthy widow Jackie Ingram instead, but the bride realised that Mike only wanted the money and factory that she had inherited from her late husband, Peter (who ironically died of a heart attack while shouting at Mike), and their marriage lasted just a week, Jackie threatening Mike with a shotgun if he didn't get out of her sight.

A couple of years later, after almost breaking up, Mike and true love Alma finally married. Mike ran his business, the underwear factory Underworld, and Alma ran Jim's Café with Gail Platt; their marriage hit rocky patches at times. As his business went through a rough patch in 1998, Mike slept with Julia Stone, who turned out to be a former prostitute, and blackmailed him for large sums of cash. Long-suffering Alma finally found out the truth, and walked out on Mike; upon divorcing him, Alma reverted to her maiden name of Halliwell.

Mike was soon wooing others, and settled with loud-mouthed machinist Linda Sykes, who was half his age. His son, Mark Redman, turned up in Weatherfield, and he took him on at the factory as manager. This proved wrong as, on his wedding night, Mike found out that Mark and Linda had been sharing a steamy affair. He forgave Linda, but told Mark to get out of his life. He duly left town.

Mike's fourth marriage didn't last long, though, as cracks began to appear. Mike enraged a jealous Linda by choosing to spend some days with his ex-wife Alma, as she was dying. He was with her as she died from cervical cancer. At this point, he knew that it was a mistake marrying Linda and that he loved Alma all along, and it was too late. He called Linda a tart, and claimed that she had married him only for his money, ending their marriage. Linda then slept with Mike's new business associate in revenge. She also caused a stir at Fred Elliott's wedding to her mother, Eve, and the pressure built on Mike as Mark reappeared for the celebration. Mike was spotted fighting with Linda, who disappeared. Mike was arrested on suspicion of murder and gained a few stalkers in the Sykes clan. Linda was later found living in Ireland with a new man.

In 2001, Mike's first wife, Susan, returned to Weatherfield to build bridges with her estranged father, Ken. It was revealed that she had a son, Adam, by Mike. The truth was that she hadn't terminated her pregnancy as she said, but had made this up in order to escape Mike. As Mike began a fight to gain access to his son, Susan made efforts to escape him once more, but in her haste to leave, she crashed her car on the motorway and was killed. Adam survived the crash and this led to a custody battle between Mike and his nemesis Ken. Adam was awarded to Mike, although he was returned to Scotland to go to a boarding school.

In 2004, Mike was joined by his nephew Danny, and his wife, Frankie, and their children, Jamie and Warren, and in the last week of October 2005, viewers discovered that Danny was actually Mike's son, a result of a fling between Mike and his sister-in-law, Viv (some longtime viewers did not like the addition of Danny and Frankie to the cast; Mike had long been portrayed as an only child and, adding confusion, Mike's father was also named Frankie).

Towards the end of 2005, Mike was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease - an unusual occurrence in a man of 63. He soon split from his girlfriend Penny King (the widow of a fellow factory owner) and became estranged from Adam, who has left Weatherfield. His son Danny has engineered sole inheritance of Mike's empire, egged on by his girlfriend Leanne Battersby.

Mike's last episode was aired on 7th April 2006. He had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia, but escaped when Jamie left his side for a moment. Making it back to his factory in Coronation Street, he was found by his old rival Ken Barlow. Shortly afterwards, he collapsed and died in Ken's arms, after suffering from a massive heart attack. He was 64 years old. His passing - like that of Alma, in 2001 - was respected with the theme tune not being played over the credits, however there was still a continuity announcement made.

His last words were 'You're finished Barlow, Deirdre loves me, she's mine.' Over the last few months of his life, he had been confusing retrospective and the present day, e.g. Alma Halliwell, his beloved ex-wife who had died in 2001, was often mentioned, and so was Bet Gilroy because he accidentally broke in to her old house in 2006 to be confronted by a surprised Les Battersby-Brown. He had also asked Rita Sullivan how her husband Len was - he had died more than 20 years before.