Patrick "Pat" Hegherty was for a period of just over two years a builder and general handyman who carried out various jobs for the residents of Coronation Street. Jovial and cheerful with his customers and fellow workmen, he nevertheless exhibited some of the stereotypical negative aspects of his trade, giving assurances that weren’t always met, stating that his rates were “very reasonable” and being unusually fond of his tea breaks (and other liquid breaks in the Rovers).
He was first employed in September 1998 by Alec Gilroy to build a communicating door between his flat at 12 Coronation Street and Rita Sullivan’s next door at 10a when the pair entered a cautious courtship. He took Alec at his word that he had obtained the necessary planning permission (which, of course, he hadn’t). Alec also was at great pains to hide from the other residents of the Street exactly what he was doing but they all found out when Pat disappeared on another and supposedly urgent job, leaving the knocked-through hole unfinished and Alec, with no experience whatsoever, decided to finish the task himself. He ended up bringing a number of pieces of rubble down on himself and had to be rescued by Jack Duckworth and Martin Platt who proceeded to tell everyone just what was happening behind closed doors. Rita ended up employing a builder of her own to finish the task.
Alec next used Pat just before Christmas to try and change the locks on the doors of the Rovers when the Duckworths were spending the festive season in Blackpool. Rita realised that he was attempting to evict them unfairly and rang them up to warn them, putting a spoke in Alec’s plan.
The following Christmas, Pat came to rescue of the Peacocks at No.4 when the house was accidentally flooded. Employed strangely enough on Rita’s recommendation, he only completed the work in time by being paid double the usual rate by Maxine.
The following month, Pat went into partnership with Steve McDonald in tendering for the building contract to Duggie Ferguson for the new development of shops on Victoria Street. Steve’s original offer of twenty percent of the profits plus charges was upped by Pat to fifty percent although the arrangement didn’t get off to the best start when Pat told Duggie that he’d hated him in his professional rugby-playing days as he supported a rival team, nevertheless Duggie gave them the tender however Pat made Steve buy the drinks to celebrate.
Work proceeded at an unusually fast pace where Pat was concerned with a minor delay caused by him joining in a scam of Steve’s to rip out some ornamental iron fireplaces from under Duggie’s nose and flog them themselves which earned the two “workmen” £750 each. Needless to say, Duggie found out about the theft of what was his property and demanded that the cost of the fireplaces be deducted from the final bill.
Two months later, Audrey Roberts fell victim to Pat’s tricks when she had a mouse infestation problem at the salon. Pat assured her that he would get rid of the rodents but showed her mice supposedly trapped that he’d brought in himself. Pat was caught out when Tyrone Dobbs tried a similar stunt in The Kabin and was caught by Rita. Hearing of this, Audrey demanded her money back.
The development was finished in April 2000 and the end result was considered good enough for the council, through Duggie again, to award Steve and Pat the job of building the new Medical Centre on Rosamund Street. Pat bought in his nephew Sam Kingston as one of the builders but told Sam to keep their relationship quiet as he didn’t want to be accused of nepotism. Steve was unsure whether there was enough work to justify another pair of hands but Pat soon started “creating” tasks which needed Sam’s input. He also introduced Sam to essential builder skills such as ordering Bacon sarnies from Roy's Rolls and putting bets on during working hours however he was as surprised as anyone to discover that Sam had a sideline as male stripper The Masked Python. The Health Centre job completed in the August and Duggie paid for a raucous celebration in the Rovers.
Duggie employed Pat on further projects although cash flow problems meant that Pat had to pay the other lads wages for one week before he received the money himself from Duggie - an arrangement that he agreed to after being plied with generous amounts of whisky. Two months later, Pat was witness to Jack Duckworth being the lucky winner of £59,631 on an accumulator involving both horse and dog races.
Pat’s final interaction with the residents of the Street was when he persuaded Sam to buy cheap cartons of grease remover off him for Coronation Street Garage (where Sam now worked) and keep the difference in price himself. Unfortunately, the substituted product brought Sam and fellow-mechanic Tyrone Dobbs out in a rash and led Tyrone to suspect that Sam had been sleeping with his girlfriend Maria Sutherland after she too caught the rash, but purely from her contact with Tyrone himself. Sam realised that his Uncle’s product was the cause and dumped the contents in the bin. Thereafter, Pat wasn’t seen on the Street again.
List of appearances[]
1998
1999
2000
2001