Ken Barlow's career

Last week we had a look at the career of the late Michael Baldwin. This week, it's Ken Barlow's turn. Ken has had quite a variety of jobs over his lifetime. While most of Ken's career in Coronation Street focussed on the education sector, did you know he even drove a taxi for a time? Well we here at Corrieblog appreciate Ken for his longevity and consistency at least. Read on to find out more about Ken's C.V.

Ken's first job out of university was personnel officer at Amalgamated Steels instead of taking a teaching post because he didn't want to move away after his mother died. It wasn't long, though, that Ken took a job teaching locally. He planned to emmigrate to Jamaica to teach but his wife Val died suddenly and he stayed in Weatherfield. (I am starting to spot a pattern here!)

He moved to Bessie Street school where he taught for a number of years until he decided he needed a break from teaching. He took up an executive position at the Mark Brittain warehouse. It was after the warehouse burned down that he drove a taxi for awhile before taking up a position running the Community Center. He also worked part time organizing events for the Youth Club.

After selling inside information to the newspaper, Ken was sacked from the Youth Club job but decided to invest his and Deirdre's savings into the Weatherfield Recorder, a weekly free newspaper. He quit the Community Center to work at the paper full time and thus began his literary career. This lasted a few years but he had to sell the paper to pay out Deirdre in their divorce settlement so it was back to teaching for Ken, this time at Weatherfield Comprehensive teaching the teenagers of the Street.

He took early retirement from the school after an affair with the Head went badly. Retirement wasn't all it was cracked up to be, though, so the new millennium saw Ken collecting empty shopping trolleys for Freshco's, which provided much fodder for derision from Mike Baldwin, his old adversary. Ken also authored a book on the history of Weatherfield and did some freelance writing for the Weatherfield Gazette doing opinion pieces and ghosting for the agony aunt column. He lends his hand at tutoring some of the younger set, including Toyah Battersby and David Platt and has even helped out in the Kabin as a favour to Rita. These days, Ken mostly has his hands full with his family but does still spend some time researching on the Internet, not satisfied with retiring and letting his brain go to waste.

Thanks go out to Corrie.net and Daran Little's wonderful 35th and 40th anniversary books.