Darren Dobbs is the husband of Jackie Dobbs and father of Tyrone Dobbs. He is also grandfather to Ruby Soames.
After wife Jackie's release from Redford Prison in November 1998, she turned up on the doorstep of ex-cellmate Deirdre Rachid, claiming to be homeless as Darren had moved another woman into their house. Their son Tyrone was also thrown out the following week and the pair stayed at Deirdre's flat and took advantage of her hospitality until she told them that they had to leave. They began squatting at 7 Coronation Street in the absence of owner Curly Watts.
Upon Curly's return from Australia the following March, he was horrified to find the Dobbs' in his house. With Curly and his friend Spider Nugent doing everything in their power to try and evict the pair, including stealing the television whilst the house was empty and getting another set of keys copied, Jackie enlisted Darren's help to "deal" with Curly and Spider and warned them about Darren's violent nature, but to her surprise he turned up at No.7, and apologised to the bewildered pair for his wife's behaviour taking Jackie and Tyrone back home with him, after reassuring them that his girlfriend was history. Tyrone was soon sleeping rough again when he revealed that Jackie had returned to prison for beating up the ex-girlfriend.
Tyrone began dating Maria Sutherland during the following year and in an attempt to impress her, made believe that his affluent family lived in Spain and told her that a Jaguar which had been left at Coronation Street Garage (where he was working as an apprentice) in fact belonged to Darren. However, after promising her a day out in the luxury vehicle, Tyrone was horrified when the real owner turned up to collect it.