Frank Bradley, was a petty thief who had an on/off relationship with Bet Lynch.
The son of a tough Liverpool seaman, in 1970 he arrived in Weatherfield with fellow parollee Judd Johnson hoping to find an old friend of theirs, Ray Langton. Frank and Judd wangled a job out of Ray, putting up shelving for a display cabinet at Ernie Bishop's Camera Shop on behalf of Fairclough and Langton, by professing that they wanted to follow Ray's example and go legit. Frank was the quieter of the two, but seemed to be the brains behind the ensuing plot to gain Ray's co-operation with robbing an electrical shop by stealing one of Ernie's expensive cameras and threatening to blame the theft on him. Ken Barlow scared them off by threatening to go to the police.
A month later, Frank and Judd took on jobs driving lorries and were about to travel to London for a delivery. Before leaving, they went to a party and met Bet Lynch, Lucille Hewitt and Sandra Butler. Judd took an interest in Sandra, as she'd been engaged to Ray, and invited the bored teenager along on the trip to London. Thrilled by the thought of adventure, Sandra agreed.
It was during this time that he first became Bet's lover despite being almost half her age. Billy Walker found that Frank had been using his garage to disguise a stolen car but Bet persuaded him not to call in the police. She tried to help Frank go straight but when she started making arrangements to rent a flat for them both, he felt that Bet was trying to change him and so left town, leaving a devastated Bet behind.
The following year he mugged Lucille Hewitt, stealing the takings from Dave Smith's betting shop. Frank began seeing Bet again but Lucille later recognised his voice. Frank begged Bet to keep quiet about his part in the crime but she was unable to bear the guilt. Rather than go to the police, though, she told Dave Smith who visited him at his flat - 46b Victoria Walk - with a couple of 'associates' who meted out brutal justice to him.
When Bet was mugged in July 1973, Frank was briefly suspected but at that time he was inside Strangeways Jail and therefore quickly eliminated from the list of suspects.
In 1974, after a period working as a barman in Torquay, Frank moved to Stockport where he found regular employment as a drayman for Newton & Ridley brewery. The following November, he briefly worked in Weatherfield as relief drayman when short-sighted Sid was off sick. One of the pubs he stocked was the Rovers Return, where Bet worked as a barmaid. They were happy to see each other again and Bet agreed to go out with him, but refused to let him into her flat for a nightcap afterwards, as she was worried that he was only using her. Somewhat a reformed character, Frank managed to talk Bet round but he was then frightened away by Sean Regan who wanted Bet to himself, a married man whose advances Bet had already spurned.
- Although no date of birth was mentioned, Frank gave his age in 1970 as being nineteen.
List of appearances[]
1970
1971
1975