When actor Johnny Briggs joined ITV’s famous soap Coronation Street in 1976 as the cockney ducker and diver Mike Baldwin, he only expected his contract to last a couple of months at the most. But he was to become one of the programme’s most popular characters and he stayed in the fictional town of Weatherfield for 30 years. While running the local underwear factory, the storylines concerning his affairs with Deirdre Barlow and runs-ins with her husband Ken became must-see TV.
