List of Coronation Street characters introduced in 1998
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1998, by order of first appearance.
Maggie Veitch
Maggie Veitch, portrayed by Susan Tordoff, was a prison guard who bullied Deirdre Rachid. Her despicable acts were putting Deirdre in an asylum and not informing her of a phone call from her good friend Mike Baldwin. Eventually, Deirdre's prison mate Jackie Dobbs stood up for Deirdre by punching Veitch in the stomach on her behalf. After that, Veitch wasn't cruel to Deirdre.Hayley Cropper
Hayley Anne Cropper made her first appearance on 26 January 1998, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh. She is the first transsexual character in a British soap opera and was the first permanent transsexual character in the world of soaps. She is probably best known for her marriage to Roy Cropper. On 11 January 2013, Hesmondhalgh announced she had decided to quit Coronation Street, and she filmed her final scenes on 18 November 2013. Hayley's exit storyline saw her take her own life after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Her final appearance was aired on 22 January 2014. Hesmondhalgh has insisted that it was not a "right to die" storyline.Morgan Middleton
Morgan Middleton, played by Connor Chatburn, is the son of Alan McKenna and Fiona Middleton. His first appearance was during the episode broadcast on 2 February 1998. When Connor's mother Katrina was pregnant, her mother joked that she looked like Angela Griffin who plays Fiona. She contacted Coronation Street makers with the offer of having her son play Morgan following his birth. They accepted and two weeks after his birth Connor was on set playing the character. In 2019, The character was reintroduced to the series with Corey Weeks taking on the role.Fiona has a drunken one night stand with Jim McDonald, father of her ex-boyfriend, Steve. Her fling with Jim is revealed on her wedding day as Jim was worried that he was the father of the baby Fiona was expecting. Alan is so angry that he leaves Fiona and refuses to have anything to do with her or the baby, despite medical tests proving that he is Morgan's father. Steve is disgusted with Jim and gets back together with Fiona so he can help her bring Morgan up.
While Zoe Tattersall grieves over the death of her baby daughter, Shannon, she kidnaps Morgan and goes to the canal, intending to jump with him. However, she gives Morgan to a policeman, but panics and falls into the canal. However, Gary Mallett rescues her. Fiona is furious at Zoe for kidnapping Morgan and decides to press charges, much to the anger of Zoe's then good friend, Ashley Peacock. When Fiona and Steve's relationship breaks down, Morgan and his mother leave Weatherfield.
More than 20 years later, Morgan attends the funeral of his stepfather, John Brooker. When Morgan's half-sister, Emma learns that John was not her biological father, Morgan admits he knew this and as a result is banished from the funeral by an angry Emma. Morgan returns three months later and meets with Emma and asks her if she will be joining him and Fiona in Melbourne for Christmas. Emma tells him that she wants to remain in Weatherfield with her biological father, Steve and her half-sister Amy Barlow for the festive season and will visit Fiona in the New Year.
Log Thwaite
Log Thwaite was the eco-warrior girlfriend of Spider Nugent. She returns from South America having tracked Spider down and temporarily moves into Emily Bishop's home at No. 3 Coronation Street with Spider but a jealous Toyah Battersby drives them apart. Toyah allows Spider to catch Log eating a bacon sandwich she had prepared for Log, angering Spider who thinks that she is betraying her vegan principles.Log was portrayed by Zoë Henry, who later returned to Coronation Street to portray Casey Carswell in 2007.
Jackie Dobbs
Jacqueline "Jackie" Dobbs is a fictional character from the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. She made her first appearance on 29 March 1998, and was played by Margi Clarke. Jackie is the mother of Tyrone Dobbs, and was originally introduced as the cellmate of Deirdre Barlow. The character left in 1999, but returned again in 2008. Jackie then left again in 2009, before returning for the last time in 2010. She made her final appearance on 18 March 2010.Greg Kelly
Gregory Paul "Greg" Kelly was played by Stephen Billington. Greg was the long-lost son of Les Battersby and is best known for his ultimately abusive relationship with Sally Webster. In 2013, Billington reflected on the role, saying, "Greg was an amazing character to play, so I have no regrets about that whatsoever. I won the Soap Award for 'Villain of the Year' for the role and we were getting 26 million viewers an episode, which could never be repeated now with so many channels. It was tremendous to be part of that".Greg was the result of a holiday romance between Moira Kelly and Les Battersby when he was working on a travelling fairground on the Isle of Wight. Les never kept in touch and it was not until Greg turned up in Weatherfield in April 1998 that Les even knew he had a son. Greg's early years were hard, but when he was around two, his mother started working for Harry Wood whom she subsequently married and he brought Greg up as his own. Moira told Greg about his past when he was 7, but it took Harry's death in September 1997 to spur Greg on to seek his natural father.
Greg previously had played football for Stoke City F.C. when they had been playing at their former ground, Victoria Ground. A cruciate ligament injury however ended his footballing career, and so he followed Harry into the manufacturing and retail fashion business.
With his relationship with his less-than-exemplary biological father expanding, Greg became more involved in the happenings of the Street. He struck up a relationship with Maxine Heavey, the local hairdresser. Always looking for "something better" he had an eye for a business deal and prospective bed partner. Greg convinced Mike Baldwin to take him on as a business partner - he would suss out the deals and Mike would pay him on a commission basis. Mike, seeing this as a win-win proposition agreed. Greg went to work at the factory.
He soon turned his attentions to Sally Webster, who had just lost her mum. Sally had inherited £55,000 and this was very appealing to Greg. He was more interested in her money than her but set his cap to relieve her of some of it. He ended his relationship with Maxine after relieving her of her intended flat above the Corner shop. Sally left her husband Kevin and their daughters behind to enter into what she thought would be a commitment with a new, exciting man. Realizing that she needed her children with her, Sally and the girls moved into the one bedroom flat above the shop. It was a tight fit and one that Greg took an immediate dislike to but he needed Sally's money if he were to make a go of his new underwear venture so he tried to remember the girls' names and play happy families. Greg did not want to be a parent and left the flat as often as he could. It became clear to all but Sally, that Greg was simply using her.
After stealing all the contacts from Mike's computer at the factory, he took Sally's money and started his own company. Mike, not easily taken, fought back and won the contracts back. By now Greg had opened a "shop" and had Sally as his secretary rather than business partner. He felt the "optics" would be better. The loss of the contracts proved a turning point in their relationship however. Unhappy with the living arrangements, and especially with the girls, Greg's temper simmered just below boiling point for weeks. Then upon discovering that Sally had inadvertently told Gail about the contracts, he exploded and hit her, blaming her for the loss.
Sally, stunned at the turn in the relationship, threatened to leave until Greg convinced her it was a one off and that it would not happen again. Of course Greg had spoken to his solicitor to find out what would happen if they broke up. The solicitor informed him that Greg needed Sally and her fast dwindling capital in order to stay in business. Greg needed to come up with another plan - one that would see him financially secure at the expense of Sally. The three of them were crowding his style as well as his apartment and he needed to be shut of the lot - Sally, Rosie and Sophie. But if he had to persevere, to achieve his goal of financial and personal freedom, he would.
It was a short-lived respite from the violence. After a second beating from Greg, Sally took the kids, and what remained of her bank account and fled to Rita's without looking back. Greg, having not paid his rent, was threatened with eviction from the pokey flat over the shop and his life careened out of control. Becoming more and more dishelved the suits looking less smart and his appearance slipping - he turned once again to Maxine who, after a short fashion, cottoned on to his scheme to finagle a free ride and accommodation until something better came along. She quickly sent him off and with nowhere else to go, he ended up at the Battersbys living with his father and his family.
Blaming Sally for all of his problems, Greg began stalking and threatening her. Sally lived in fear for her safety and that of her two young girls. Greg, drunk and unhinged, broke into Rita's apartment and threatened Sally that he would "make her pay for what she did". She escaped what looked to be her final beating, and fled to the safety of the Street. Greg left the Street, after stealing the last of the money from Janice Battersby's leccie tin, at the end of 1998. Greg made a return in May 1999 and held Sally and her two daughters hostage in their own home in an attempt to force her to help him blackmail Mike after he had proof that Mike had been seeing another woman behind his wife Alma's back. The police were called and in a last-ditch attempt to protect her daughters, she hit Greg over the head with a chair, knocking him out cold, the police then stormed the house and Greg was arrested. He was later charged with false imprisonment.