Lenny Baker was Shelley Unwin's maternal uncle who attended the funeral of her sister, Sharon, in Bradford after she died suddenly in March 2003. Peter Barlow, Shelley's fiancé had been planning to tell her that he was leaving her to marry Lucy Richards when news of Sharon's illness and death came through and he found himself unable to tell her the bad news. To make matters worse, he and Lucy had arranged their wedding for the same day as the funeral. Peter tried every excuse he could to get out of attending but failed and Uncle Lenny made him feel guiltier than ever by telling him how much his attendance meant to both Shelley and her mum Bev. Nevertheless, Peter made his apologies once the service was over and scooted back across the Pennines to Weatherfield in time for his marriage to Lucy. This despite several innocent comments from Lenny about how bad the traffic was that day.
In October 2014, Tracy Barlow was distressed to learn that her mother Deirdre would not be attending her imminent wedding to Rob Donovan, preferring to stay with Bev, who was distraught following Lenny's sudden death.