William "Willie" Piggott was an unscrupulous businessman and father of Brian Piggott. A middle-aged, balding man, Piggott had dealings with several Coronation Street residents in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Piggott's main trade was a butcher with an eponymous shop on Rosamund Street where most of the residents bought their meat. in late 1964 he tried to bribe schoolteacher Ken Barlow to give Brian a pass for his tech exam. Ken accepted the bribe but later returned it and went to the police. Piggott was fined £150 in court but made it clear that there were no hard feelings, contributing £1 to a collection fund for Ken and Val Barlow after their twins were born.
In 1965, Piggott bought six old houses in Blackburn with the intention of converting them into flats. He wanted it done cheaply and turned to builder Len Fairclough, even going as far as to contact Arnold Jenkinson, who had hired Len to do a job, and telling him that Len wouldn't have time to finish the work, so that Len would lose that contract and be more likely to accept Piggott's offer. He was angry when Len turned the work down anyway. Piggott then offered the work to Len's colleague Jerry Booth, who instantly agreed.
While in the area, charmer Piggott took a shine to Elsie Tanner, and took her to watch a football match in the director's box.
In 1970, Piggott pursued a student hostel contract, competing with Len Fairclough. He decided to use Emily Nugent as a mole to find out Len's tender, as Emily and Ernest Bishop together ran a Camera Shop whose lease was owned by Piggott, and he threatened not to renew the lease if Emily didn't help him. Piggott's methods of persuasion were enough for the usually honest Emily to go against her principles and spy on Len. With the knowledge of Len's tender, Piggott put in a lower tender but he lost out anyway, as Roscoe & Pitts were given the contract. However this was due to Len giving the latter firm low cost materials, as he caught on to Piggott's scheme and was determined to make sure the contract would not come his way either.
Later in 1970, Willie Piggott was owed £200 by Alan Howard when Alan was on the verge of bankruptcy. Piggott tried to convince Alan's creditors to force Alan to pay up to bankrupt him, but they refused.
The following year, Piggott paid Ernie Bishop to go to Spain with Sheila Miller to take photographs for Piggott's travel brochures.
Deirdre Barlow was unsuccesful in her attempt to sell tickets to Piggott for the forthcoming Christmas dance at the Community Centre in December 1982, telling husband Ken that he was spending the festive season in Florida.
- Piggott was referenced several times prior to his first appearance, such as in Episode 188 (1st October 1962) where Concepta Hewitt sent Lucille to Piggott's for pork.
List of appearances[]
1964[]1965[]1970[] |
1971[] |