Tracy Barlow Tracy Barlow
Appeared: 24 January 1977 - 28 March 1999, Dec 2002 - ). Credited as'Baby' in first episodes
Tracy is the Street's most troubled teenager. The victim of twobroken marriages and four actresses, it's a wonder she's notany worse than she already is.
The parish priest obviously gotwind of Tracy early on by refusing to baptise her. She was eventuallybapitised at St Margaret's, Weatherfield by RevSmedley. Betty Turpin,
In September 1981 she started attending Bessie Street JuniorSchool - prompting questions as to why she had a different nameto her mother. Deirdre wroteto Ray asking to change Tracy'ssurname to Barlow - but he refused point blank.
Eventually however,Ray allowed Ken to adopt Tracy and Ken brought Tracy up as his own.
This didn't stop Tracy from turning into a sullen, trouble making teen.After Ken and Deirdre divorced in 1990, Tracy became resentful of her mother andblamed her for the divorce. She became friends with new neighbours Steve and Andy McDonaldwho were just a couple of years ahead of her. They started an illegal radio stationusing Ken's flat while he was away. Tracy nearly was burned in a kitchen fire butwas saved by Dave Barton, a builder, who began dating her mother. Another one of Deirdre'sboyfriends, Phil Jennings, ended up using Tracy to help him cash a cheque, as he was bankrupt andcouldn't be seen having any income. Tracy had a crush on Phil and used this to her advantage buthe didn't want anything to do with her.
When Ken began dating Maggie Redmond, Tracy told Maggie's son Mark that his real father was Mike Baldwin. Ken was horrified that his old enemy had been involved with his new girlfriend and dropped Maggie. Tracy found out that her mother had an affair with Mike Baldwin and used it against her mother. She was working for Maggie Redmond at the time and Maggie told her as revenge for telling Mark that Mike was his natural father and fired her.
Tracy left home and lived with her boyfriend Craig for awhile but moved him into Number 1 after Deirdre begged her to come home. This didn't last very long and soon Tracy had left home. Tracy resented her mother'sremarriage to Samir Rachid but grudgingly attended the wedding for long enough to say she'd been there. Several months later Tracy landed in hospital, having collapsed after taking exctasy at a club. Her kidneys failed and sheneeded a transplant. Samir was tested and found to be a match but he was attacked on the way to the hospital and died. His kidney was used and Tracy was saved but Deirdre resented her daughter because of her carelessness with drugs ultimately costing Samir his life.Tracy left for London not long after that.
She returned in 1997 with a fiance, Robert Preston in tow and got married in a charity shop dress and Doc Marten boots. She and Robert lived in London where he had a carpetfitting business and she worked in a flower shop. She returned several times, once after a row with Robert which resulted in Ken and Deirdregetting back together and one other time for Ken's 60'th birthday. She landed on the doorstep of Number 1 on Christmas Day, 2002. She's left Robert for good this time.But it turns out that she lied to everyone and it wasn't Robert who had an affair but her.
She jumped into Dev Alahan's bed within hours, not knowing that Dev and Deirdre had slept together the year before but when she found out, she lorded it over her mother for weeksand spitefully told her father on the day he was having a legal hearing for assaulting Aidan Critchley. She was ejected from the house and moved in with Dev who spoiled her rotten. She tried working in the pubas a barmaid but wasn't very good at it and got herself hired on in a flower shop for Lucy Richards. Then she discovered that Lucy was Peter's bit on the side and relished the ammunition over Peter.
Lucy even asked Tracy to be a bridesmaid at her wedding to Tracy's step-brother Peter which gave Tracy even more leverage but when Lucy found out that Tracy knew that Peter hadn't broke off with Shelley, she got sacked. Using her leverage, Tracy talked her way intoa job at Peter's bookies. Tracy thought that the rich Dev was going to marry her but when she found out he had no intention, she cut up all his clothes and tried touse the credit card he gave her to stay in a posh hotel. That didn't last long. Dev cancelled the card and Tracy found herself back in Number 1, rejected.
Not one to sit on her laurels, Tracy had a one night stand with Steve McDonald in June of 2003 while he and Karen were broken up and also played on the affections of one of her grandmother Blanche's admirers thinking he was rich and she could get herself a "sugar daddy".
She was also a bridesmaid at Peter and Shelley's wedding. Tracy began the worst of hertricks just before the wedding when she bet Shelley's mother, Bev, that she could get gentle Roy Cropper into bed. She stole a date-rape drug from a punter who tried to slip it to Shelley on her hen night and drugged Royat Peter's wedding. Hayley had been out of town nursing a sick relative. Tracy got Roy back to her bedroom and pretended to Roy that they had had sex. Roy nearly had a nervous breakdown thinking that he had betrayed his beloved Hayley.
A few weeks later Tracy discovered she was pregnant and told Roy he was the father. Roy and Hayley, after a brief separation, decided to try to adopt the baby and paid Tracy not to have an abortion. Tracy took their money and went on a holiday, but agreed inprinciple to give her baby to Roy and Hayley. Roy insisted that Tracy marry him (in name only) to make sure he had a legal right to the baby. If Tracy wanted the money, she had no option and married him in a secretregistry office ceremony, witnessed only by Ciaran, Peter's best friend. It turns out though, that Steve is the baby's father, a fact that Tracy finally revealed to him at Christmas, 2003. She is now working for Streetcars as a driver and her affections forSteve are growing, but knows that he loves Karen.
On Christmas 2004, the finale of the Steve/Karen/Tracy story reached a spectacular climax. Tracy, who was infuriated by Karen's pregnancy through Steve, offered Karen sympathy when the baby she was carrying was lost. Tracy strapped Amy into the back seat as a cruel joke, but it backfired horribly when Tracy and Steve discovered the car at the Red Rec - on fire. After several small explosions, Tracy was convinced Karen had ended baby Amy's life. Karen hid in the Underworld factory after Tracy attempted to run her over. Tracy broke in armed with a log, and the fight escalated - both literally and metaphorically - to the roof. Steve and Danny Baldwin just managed to stop Tracy from murdering Karen, who left in a taxi on a snowy Boxing Day of 2004.
Tracy was thrilled when Ken and Deirdre had plans to get married again in 2005, but en route to the original planned wedding, a driver mowed into Amy's pram, who was sent to hospital. The driver, to everyone's amazement and disbelieving, was Ray Langton, who had, it turned out, been living in Holland for just over a quarter of a century, ever since he left Tracy in 1978. At first, Tracy thought Ray had been there to highjack the wedding, but it turned out he'd returned to say goodbye because he was terminally ill.
Slowly, Tracy softened towards Ray, who's attitude and demeanour had remained the same over the past 26 years. When Ray died, Tracy's main comment at the funeral was, "That's Grandpa Ray in that coffin, Amy. You've got another one, a really good one - just not this one."
Steve McDonald slept with Tracy several times after this. The situation became Kramer vs Kramer when Steve tried to make Amy his own, and not Tracy's. Tracy's scheming side was ressurected after the past few weeks, indeed, months, that it had generally remained dormant. She set him up and had him arrested, pretending that he had kidnapped Amy and was going to take her out of the country. Steve was let off, and in return, Steve got Tracy arrested for assault after a punch-up in the Rovers, but she was also let off with a caution as well.
Tracy seems to have finally left her feelings for Steve behind her though probably she'd go running if he beckoned. Her "romance" with bad boy builder, Charlie Stubbs, had most people saying it's a match made in hell and indeed it proved to be so. She manipulated Charlie into letting her and Amy move into Number 6 after he bought it from Angela Harris. She was jealous of his previous relationship with Shelly Unwin and was furious that Shelly got pregnant by Charlie after a one night stand months after their relationship ended. When she found out that he had an affair with hairdresser Maria Sutherland she left him but returned in order to get her revenge. She pretended that Charlie was abusing her and convinced neighbour Claire Peacock who stoutly defended her and tried to help. She burned her own arm on the iron to add to her story. Finally, she set up her step brother, Peter, using him to make Charlie jealous. Charlie, who didn't know who Peter was, beat him when he found him in the shower. Charlie was not jailed after the assault and wanted Tracy gone, he'd had enough. Tracy set him up, did a sexy lap dance and murdered him using a statue she'd left handy. She did confess to Deirdre but she lied at her trial and pretended she was abused but the jury was not convinced and Tracy was sent to prison.
While she was in prison, she offered to help the police get information on her former neighbour, Gail Platt who was accused of murdering her new husband, Joe McIntyre (he actually tried to fake his own death and got killed by mistake). Her information proved to be made up. She was also allowed out to attend her grandmother Blanche's funeral during which she caused a fight with Steve's new wife, Becky over Amy. Christmas Eve, 2 weeks after the tram crash devastated the Street in 2010, Tracy stepped out of a cab. It seems the DNA evidence was suspect at her trial. She was released until the evidence was revisited several months later when she was exonerated due to that reason only. Nobody was too happy to see her aside from her mother. She proceeded to cause trouble, playing David and Nick off each other after having sex with each of them, and ridiculing the late Ashley Peacock to his widow Claire. Steve found her on the ground outside her home on New Year's Eve, looking very much like she'd been assaulted by someone. She pretended it was Steve because she didn't remember straight away and wanted to get Amy back from Steve. The person that assaulted her turned out to be Claire who had pushed her during an argument. She'd fallen and hit her head. She wanted Claire arrested but Claire's friends conspired to help her flee the country.
Tracy continued to cause trouble for Steve and Becky, using Amy to push a wedge between them and making fun of Becky's inability to carry a child. She dated factory co-owner Frank Foster for awhile. She then thought Steve was trying to get back with her when he was only trying to get custody of Amy. He did get her to sign an agreement and then hired a manager for the pub instead of asking her to move in. But when Steve and Becky had an argument, he turned to Tracy and had sex with her but went back to Becky. Tracy took Amy to London and Steve thought she was gone for good but she returned a few months later, pregnant with twins. By this time, Steve and Becky had broken up but Tracy thought they were having an affair. Even though Steve promised to support the twins, Tracy's jealousy caused her to chase after Steve who was at a business meeting in a hotel with Becky and a new client (Becky bought Lloyd's half of Streetcars with the money Steve gave her as a settlement). She miscarried the twins but in a confrontation a few days later, she fell down the stairs and pretended that Becky had pushed her and it caused the miscarraige then. Steve believed her and not Becky which closed the door on his and Becky's relationship for good. It also pushed him back to Tracy and, on Christmas Day, he asked her to marry him and bought Lloyd's house, Number 13 for her. Tracy thought all her dreams had come true.
It was not to be. Becky managed to get hold of her medical records, illegally, and on Tracy and Steve's wedding day, she brought them to the reception. She thought it was better that the two of them be tied to each other rather than let Steve have a lucky escape. She proved that Tracy had lied and left Weatherfield for good. Steve immediately left Tracy just hours after their wedding.
She refused to agree to an annullment so he had to wait a full year before applying for divorce. In the meantime, they struggled over the ownership and living arrangements of Number 13. Eventually, Steve gave in and moved out, back to the taxi flat and allowed Beth Tinker and her son Craig to share the house to help pay rent so Steve could pay the mortgage. Tracy and Beth became unlikely friends. Steve eventually sold the house to Kevin Webster and Tracy had to move out again, back to Number 1 with Amy. She became jealous of Steve's re-romance with Michelle Connor and decided to date her good looking son, Ryan to get at them. It did work but it went too far. Ryan was besotted while Tracy really wasn't in it for the long term. She had even pretended she was pregnant but when Ryan asked her to marry him, she pretended she'd miscarried and Ryan realized she was just using him.
In 2013, she started dating Carla Connor's brother, Rob Donovan and he hired her to work in the packing department. It didn't last long. She went in with him on a scam, stealing a shipment of silk. He tried to sell it but Carla stopped the deal and sacked them both. Tracy and Rob later managed to get hold of the lease for the bookies when Peter went bankrupt after a big win that Rob had which Peter couldn't pay. They turned the shop into a buy and sell (pawn) shop. She's trying to palm Amy off on Steve as much as possible so that she can stay over with Rob as much as she can though he's not keen on her to actually move in. She's had a feud with Tina McIntyre, both hotheads that can't keep their gobs shut. Tina even broke the shop window in frustration and was made to pay the damages and issue a public apology to Tracy.
 |
|
 | |
| Characters index |
Profiles index |
|