Celebrating 17 years of Kirk on Coronation Street

With thanks to our pals at Corriepedia for alerting us to the fact that today, October 22nd is the 17th anniversary of the first appearance of Kirk in Coronation Street.

Kirk first appeared on Coronation Street on October 22, 2000 at Tyrone and Maria's engagement party. He turned up as Maria's brother as a guest at the party and here's the picture from his very first scene.

However, in that first appearance, Corriepedia tells us that the new character of Kirk was credited not as Kirk Sutherland, but as Kirk Stringer. Does anyone know why and why they changed his surname?

Andrew Whyment has played Kirk from the very start and remains an integral part of Coronation Street. But did you know that Andrew previously appeared in Corrie back in 1999? He played the part of Wayne, who bought fireworks in The Kabin from Sharon Gaskell.

Now then, Kirk himself doesn't get any big or explosive storylines, but he's been at the heart of some of Corrie's best loved drama over the years and continues to be so too.

Let's have a look at some of the Kirk classic stories!

He dated Fiz and she thought he was having a fling with Thelma Clegg, who hired him to shampoo her poodle. That's not a euphemism, by the way.

In 2005 he completed The Twelve Labours of Kirkules!  When Les Battersby chose Kirk to be his best man at his wedding to Cilla, Cilla wasn't pleased with the choice. And so she set Kirk a task to prove his worth as their best man - and the Twelve Labours of Kirkules commenced!  Among the tasks that Kirk had to carry out were Schmeichel's squeaky plastic toy and unburdening Blanche of her girdle.

In May 2007, Kirk lost his job at Sutherland's Kennels when he accidentally allowed a pedigree dog to be castrated.  He's always been a bit of a hapless chap.

But then he helped Jamie Baldwin rescue Claire Peacock from her burning house. As a reward, Claire's husband, Ashley gave Kirk a job at the butchers shop.

After Cilla Battersby-Brown left the Street for Las Vegas in 2007, Kirk was left to look after Chesney and the two of them have been close ever since.

In April 2008, Kirk left to visit his parents in Cyprus for a several weeks. On his return, he broke the news that he had a new girlfriend called Julie, who he fell in love with in Cyprus.

In 2012, Kirk offered to drive Beth Tinker to a date with a man named Dave. However, the date went wrong, and Kirk ended up getting punched when he called Dave an idiot. Beth and Kirk eventually became close, and were married in January 2015.

However, then Kirk found out that Beth was already wed to Craig's dad Darryl and she was a bigamist.  Did they remarry, can anyone recall?

These days, Kirk's standing for election as Mayor of Weatherfield and he's been appointed the mascot Busy Bee for Coronation Street's own football team - Weatherfield County.

And such is the character's importance to ITV Coronation Street that they even gave Kirk an online spin off called What Would Kirk Do?

You can even download and print off your own Kirk doll.  Yes, your very own KIRK DOLL.

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter