Diana "Dee-Dee" Bailey is the solicitor daughter of Ed and Aggie Bailey and the sister of Michael and James.
After three years working in Los Angeles, Dee-Dee returned to Weatherfield in 2022 in order to be closer to her family. During Aggie's prolonged absence from the household to look after Auntie Marcelle, Dee-Dee tried to keep the family together, helping Ed through his gambling troubles. In 2023, she began a relationship with solicitor Joel Deering but broke it off when she learned that he was a married man.
Dee-Dee works at Barlow Legal Services and lives at 15a Coronation Street in a flat-share with her, Adam Barlow, her former employer and now business partner.
Biography[]
Dee-Dee was Ed and Aggie Bailey's only daughter. She was living in the USA when her parents and brothers Michael and James moved to Coronation Street in 2019, downsizing due to Ed's gambling addiction. Based in Los Angeles where she worked as a lawyer, Dee-Dee planned to return home specially for her dad's 55th birthday, but she was unable to make the trip due to work commitments.
Dee-Dee finally appeared in Weatherfield three years later, when she showed up at 3 Coronation Street out of the blue while on leave from work. She was so eager to see her family that she left her bag in the taxi and had to call it back; a classic example of Dee-Dee's disorderliness which permeated her professional and private life. Her visit was timely as James had recently been retired from Weatherfield County FC due to a genetic heart condition and was unhappy with the severance payment offered to him by the club. Negotiating on her brother's behalf, Dee-Dee secured a decent sum from manager Robert Dover.
While in the street, Dee-Dee was asked by Alya Nazir to help overturn Stu Carpenter's conviction for the murder of Charlie Walter, a crime for which he had already served a life sentence. Dee-Dee took on the case and Stu was eventually exonerated with DNA evidence. The assignment re-energised Dee-Dee after a period of loneliness in the US, and opting to remain in the UK, she called her boss to say she wasn't coming back. At the same time, her work on Stu's case caught the attention of Adam Barlow, who was recruiting for a solicitor to work for him at Barlow Legal Services in Victoria Street following the death of Imran Habeeb. Dee-Dee accepted his offer of a job and hired Alya as her legal secretary.
Realising she needed her own place, Dee-Dee moved in with Paul Foreman at the corner shop flat. She would become a good friend to Paul, supporting him both legally and personally as his body deteriorated from Motor neurone disease in 2023. In particular, she was with him when he received the diagnosis, having kept his family and boyfriend Billy Mayhew in the dark thus far. When he was unable to find work and refused financial aid to pay off a loan, Dee-Dee put him filing in the solicitors office, paying him out of her own pocket. She later represented him when he was charged with swiping Rufus Donahue's car, having agreed to steal cars to order for Niall Granger for easy money. He was eventually found guilty, but received a suspended sentence due to his MND. By then, Paul had moved back in with Billy at 19a Rosamund Street, and with Billy finding out about his condition in court, he stepped up to care for his ailing partner. Dee-Dee remained close to Paul, going with him to church when he secretly got himself baptised in order to show his love for Billy.
In March, Damon Hay hired Barlow Legal Services to defend him on a charge of drug trafficking. Dee-Dee managed to get the case dismissed on a technicality, but was troubled by the discovery that Damon had slept with Adam's wife Sarah. She counselled Sarah against continuing with the affair, but didn't betray her to her employer. When Adam learned of Sarah's betrayal in July, he fired Dee-Dee for not telling him, but quickly reinstated her, appreciating the difficult position she'd been in. Later in the year, when Sarah fired Michael for giving murderer Stephen Reid access to Underworld's bank accounts, causing the factory to be cleaned out, Dee-Dee talked her into giving him a second chance. After the Barlows' split in August, Adam took Paul's old room at the shop flat.
In September, Dee-Dee took a fancy to Lauren Bolton's duty solicitor, Joel Deering. They fancied each other, but not thinking their feelings were reciprocated they danced around rather than ask the other out direct. Seeing the situation going nowhere, Adam engineered a successful date between them.
Meanwhile, trouble brewed back at Bailey household, with Ed returning to gambling and staging a burglary of the Christmas presents at No.3 in order to repay a loan to Tony Byrne. In a desperate attempt to get his money back, he all of his savings on a horse, bankrupting EdiRon Developments, his property business with brother Ronnie. When the truth came out, Dee-Dee was the only member of the family to stand by Ed, reasoning that his problems were caused by an addiction, and worked out a plan to get back in the black, though he went against her advice by work with Damon Hay on renovating a new bar. She was harsher on Ronnie, almost reporting him to the police when she learned that EdiRon's money had been made through insider trading before realising that she couldn't put a family member behind bars.
In January, the builder's yard was set ablaze when a heater set fire to white spirits, and Michael risked his life by venturing inside mistakenly thinking Ed was still there. The police suspected that Ed had started the fire as an insurance scam, and Ed confessed to Dee-Dee that, while he was technically innocent, he had left the fire to burn as he saw it as a way out of his problems. When the police cleared him, Dee-Dee decided to forget what he'd told her, deciding that no good would come of telling the police.
Dee-Dee and Joel were getting serious about each other. When Dee-Dee found a receipt for an expensive item from a jeweller's dated December, Joel claimed it was for cufflinks for himself, much to her disappointment. He was later spotted with a mystery woman on separate occasions by Alya and Toyah Habeeb, who made Dee-Dee aware of the fact. Joel confessed that the woman was his wife, Emily Wilkinson; they separated when she was pregnant, and now he has a child. Dee-Dee was appalled by the story and finished with Joel, standing by her decision even after Emily paid a visit to her and assured her that Joel was a good man.
In March, Dee-Dee found out that Adam was secretly acting for gangster Harvey Gaskell, Damon's half-brother, in an appeal against his conviction for the murder of Natasha Blakeman. Although Adam later killed off the appeal, Dee-Dee was appalled that he had gone to such lengths to drive Damon away from Sarah; she only agreed to remain at the firm when Adam made her a full partner.
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Personality[]
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Background information[]
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First and last lines[]
"Hi-ya!" (First line, to mother Aggie)
Appendices[]
List of addresses[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Until 28th September 2022 |
| 3 Coronation Street | 28th September to 28th October 2022 |
| 15a Coronation Street | 28th October 2022 to present |
Employment history[]
| Role | Institution | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Lawyer | Los Angeles firm | Until 10th October 2022 |
| Solicitor | Barlow Legal Services | 14th November 2022 to present |