Dastardly Alan Bradley

20 years ago this month the nation was gripped by the story of Alan Bradley and Rita Fairclough. Corrieblogger Chris Leonard takes up the tale...

Whilst many Street viewers (and indeed Corrieblog readers), have been surprised by just what on earth Rita sees in 'creepy' Colin Grimshaw, he is by no means the worst mistake that the Kabin Queen has made when it comes to men. For that honour goes to a certain Mr Alan Bradley, a man who two decades ago almost terrorised poor Rita to the brink of death. Of course, their union did not start of like that, and to get to the bottom of the story we need to rewind the Corrie clock back even earlier, to early 1986.

In January of that year, a lonely Rita made the decision to take up fostering again, after discovering that paper girl Jenny Bradley's mum had recently been killed in a road accident. Initally, this proved to be far from plain saling, and so Rita decided to seek extra support for Jenny in the form of her estranged father Alan. The teen was not too impressed to see her long-lost dad again, or by Rita interfering for that matter, but soon came round, and it did not take long for Rita and Alan to notice that they were attracted to each other too...

By end of the year, the pair had struck up a relationship, and Rita (who by this point had been widowed for 3 years following the death of her beloved Len Fairclough), was thrilled to have this charming, handsome man on her arm.

Underneath this cool exterior, though, lay a violent streak, most notably shown when Alan had a punch-up with Terry Duckworth in the middle of the Rovers, and when he sinisterly warned Derek Wilton (who was acting on a concerned Mavis's behalf), to stay out of his business. Furthermore, after two failled atemtpts to make Rita his wife, it did not take very long at all for cracks to start appearing, and before long he was wooing pretty pint-puller Gloria Todd behind his unsuspecting partner's back. The pair eventually split for what seemed to be for good in late 1988, and Rita temporarily turned to drink to numb her pain. Much to her joy, though, Alan soon came back to start afresh - but was he still after Rita, or her bulging bank balance?

It seemed to be very much the later, when needing funds to start up his new business venture, Alan secretly remortgaged no.7 using the alias of none other than the late Len Fariclough. Soon not only was he quids in, but Rita was also none the wiser. Yet, thanks to his arrogance, Alan's stack of cards were set to topple over in a very big way. After he attempted to rape Dawn Prescot after she rejected his advances, his employee plucked up the courage to tell Rita not only about her ordeal, but also about the mysterious ways by which Alan had suddenly come into money. This led Rita to do some digging, and she did not like what she found out. Deciding to confront her lying and fraudulent partner (on the night of Jenny's 18th none the less), she was determined to get to the bottom of just why Alan went ahead and did what he did. At first, Alan reacted very calmly with a sense of smugness attached, as he told Rita that he was confident from the onset that the venture would be a big success, and yes he had sought criminal means to get to get it all started up, but it was only an investment and nothing else. What's more, he would soon pay Rita back and she would be able to keep her 'tatty little house' as a result. Rita, was having none of it though. She simply told Alan that she had informed the building society about his entire scheme. It was all over for Alan. He was not about to back down without a fight though, as Rita was just about to discover. Turning to answer a phone call (from Jenny as it turned out), Rita found Alan violently pulling the phone away and throwing her to the floor. A tussle then ensued, and the newsagent found herself being flung onto the sofa, following a vicous slap from Alan. Jenny arrived back early from her birthday party, fearing that something was up, and found herself stumbling upon her father trying to suffocate Rita with a pillow. As Jenny's boyfriend Martin Platt chased Alan away, Jenny phoned for an ambulance. Thankfully, Rita was able to surrive Alan's murder attempt. But her ordeal was far from over, not ending until Alan met his fate under a Blackpool tram. [Chris Leonard]