Wendy Crozier deserves the title of unsung hero if only for one thing; breaking up the marriage between Ken and Deirdre Barlow, a feat that not even Mike Baldwin could achieve in 1983 when he had an affair with Deirdre. Wendy, played by Roberta Kerr, first popped up in Coronation Street in 1989 when she worked as a secretary for Weatherfield Council and began to put strain on the Barlow marriage before she had even started to fancy Ken. At the time, Ken was owner and editor of the Weatherfield Recorder newspaper and Wendy gladly passed inside information to Kenneth about corruption within the council. This was the period of Corrie history when Deirdre had suddenly become a councillor and, as Ken's wife, found herself being blamed for the information leak and promptly resigned.
When it was eventually discovered that Wendy had been providing Mr Barlow with his tid-bits of information, she was sacked from the council and offered a job as Ken's secretary at the Recorder. Understandably, Deirdre was not pleased by Wendy's appointment and the Barlows rowed viciously over the situation. Ken started to drift into a relationship with Wendy as she cooked him birthday meals and he spent more and more time 'at the office'. Ken started to work more and more late nights and even talked Wendy into quitting her secretarial job with him so that he could make out to Deirdre that he was struggling with work, thus spending more time 'at the office'.
On Christmas Eve 1989, Ken spent a long evening with Wendy and rolled back to No.1 in the early hours, prompting Deirdre to tell her second husband that he was no longer welcome in her bed. Ken reminded Deirdre that she was in no position to criticise after her affair with Mike but was shocked when Deirdre told him that their marriage wasn't worth fighting for and started divorce proceedings. The Barlow's crumbled under financial strain as Ken had to sell the Recorder to remortgage No.1.
As Deirdre and Ken started to live separate lives, it was time for Tracy to enter the storyline and begin to befriend Wendy, even going to spend weekends staying at Wendy's flat with Ken. We can always rely on Tracyluv to be horrid to her mother, and it really doesn't matter which actress is playing her! The relationship between Wendy and Ken was always rather fragile and Ms Crozier showed her true colours when she agreed to take over Ken's job as edtior for less money after he had been pressured into resigning. Ken was deeply upset by her actions and the couple split up, with all traces of Wendy Crozier vanishing from Weatherfield completely.
The best line was when Deirdre called Wendy "Miss Piggy". She did have a oddly shaped upturned nose!
That was the dreariest Coronation Street affair of all time. It was obvious that William Roache did not like the story, and couldn't manage to look enthusiastic or even happy about it.
The worst part of that affair was seeing a topless Ken lounging in bed - he looked like a stranded white whale! I believe I read that Bill Roache was equally appalled at the sight and vowed never to appear like that again!