Ken Flamin' Barlow

Oh i do like a good rant about Ken Barlow!
When i first started watching the show 20 years ago, he was having an affair with Wendy Crozier aka (in Deirdre's words) Miss Piggy. (Not very politically correct was our show. Still isn't sometimes but it's how real people talk!) I wasn't familiar with the history or background and didn't think much more about it, after all, affairs are the stuff of which soaps are made. He didn't seem to be all that interesting an character but then, what did i know?

Some time later i got one of the Daran Little books at the library and read about the storylines and characters of Coronation Street prior to my viewing window. In that, i realized that Ken Barlow is a snob and a real prat. He is portrayed as an educated man, something that most people in that neighbourhood were not. Most people left school, sometimes before getting any qualifications, to go out and work to help support the family. People needed every hand on deck to get by. Higher education was a luxury but Ken's mother wanted nothing but the best for her baby and he got it. Ken was the first university graduate in the Street and everyone knew about it and thought the Barlows were getting a bit too big for their britches.

Ken had big dreams. He was going to Be Somebody. But just as he was going to leave to find out how to do that, his mother died and he felt like he couldn't leave his father alone. His brother had already gone off to be a footballer and try to acheive his fame and fortune that way. Ken also fell in love with the girl next door, sort of. It was the neice of Albert Tatlock, Valerie. He took a teaching job locally and married her. Soon, he had twin babies and mortgage. Although he loved Val, he still thought he was the more intelligent of the two, worth higher aspirations if only he'd had the chance. The chance nearly came once again.

He and Val were going to move to Jamaica but she died tragically. Ken couldn't cope with two little kids so they were packed off to grandparents in Scotland and he drifted. He never really got back on the road to Higher Things.

He always had that arrogant attitude. I'm worth more than all this, he'd scornfully think. But he never got off his posterior and pushed himself. He married two more women, again, both women being, well not stupid, but not highly educated like him either. Meanwhile he'd carry on such intellectual activities as he could, listening to posh radio shows, reading books the size of doorstops and going to the theatre when he could manage it. And having affairs. Let's not forget that. Ken Barlow is the Street's lothario against whom all others must be judged. His son is giving him a good run for his money, though. Ken at least, has never been a bigamist!

Now he's been in a self indulgent funk ever since he went to his university reunion. He wouldn't admit he's been working part time in a cafe, a perfectly respectible job for a pensioner, don't you think? He's been a teacher and a newspaper journalist but no, that wasn't high flying enough to admit to any of his old schoolmates. They all thought he'd have written the Great British Novel by now. Well, it's not as if any of them had achieved extraordinary fame or wealth either but Ken couldn't hold his head up because he never did think he'd achieved anything at all.

He dug up a novel he'd started 40 odd years ago and tried to revise it. From the little bits and pieces we heard of it, it's utter shit. Trite and badly written. But there you go. He became obsessed and self indulgently took over the house, not bothering to shave or shower in his quest to recover his lost ambitions. Deirdre stole a peek at the book and the characters in it were so similar to her that she assumed it was based on her. Never mind it was originally written 20 years before he met her. The man in the book was clearly based on Ken and he admitted it. When she confronted him, he said he was revising it now with all this experience behind him so why wouldn't she continue to think it seemed like her? Ken, for all he considers himself a writer, is terribly bad at communication.

It all blew up this week and ended with a resounding slap across the chops. He raged at Deirdre. He all but out and out accused her of holding him back when really, he knew he was the only one to blame. She pointed that out too. He was the one that never found the guts to go out and find the life he thought he'd have led. That slap and her exit from the house made him realize he'd only himself to blame for all his failed ambitions and *still* he made Deirdre feel like she wasn't good enough for him and he was settling by staying with her.

What. A. Wanker! Every time i think Ken can't sink any lower, he dives into a deeper hole. For someone that thinks he's better than his peer and his family, he sure does a good impression of making them look a hell of a lot more dignified than him! He'll never be happy with what he's got, and he'll always resent that he never reached what he thought was his potential instead of looking at what he has achieved. Being a teacher and a journalist is most definitely something to brag about but he doesn't see it that way. There's no hope for him (and, without spoiling it for the non UK viewers, something that happens in about 7 months from the Canadian timeline make it clear that nothing changes. Ever.)