Michael Grafton was a young toff who met Dennis Tanner when Dennis joined Michael and his friends Caroline Critchley, Jane Maxwell, Daniel Palmer and Rupert Andrews on an outing to Oulton Park in 1965. There at Caroline's invitation, Dennis wasn't a friend of the group but a hairdresser at Gerard's Salon, asked along to the motor racing for a laugh.
When the group was introduced to Dennis, the Tanner-baiting began, with the Weatherfield lad being so desperate to ingratiate himself with his "new friends" that he let them spend all of his money buying them drinks and taking their attempts to needle him without complaint. Michael was the quietest of the group, only making the odd comment here and there. While he did not join in with his companions' heckling of Dennis, neither did he seem to have an issue with them doing so, laughing along when they made fun of him.