List of Coronation Street characters introduced in 1999
Played by actor Saeed Jaffrey, Ravi left Weatherfield due to family issues later in the year, and sold his empire of corner shops in the area to his nephew, Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin).In 2002 he was forced to smuggle drugs in from abroad then again, but this time he asked Steve (Simon Gregson) and Karen McDonald (Suranne Jones) if they wanted a free holiday and they accepted.In later years both Kirk Sutherland (Andrew Whyment) and Graeme Proctor (Craig Gazey) successively worked for Ashley at the shop, it is assumed that Boris was no longer an employee there.Ashley is amused by Fred Elliott's (John Savident) attempts to pair him with Belinda, despite him attending with Maxine Heavey (Tracy Shaw).Doreen was last seen in November 2004 when she, Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) and her grandson Joshua (Benjamin Beresford) went to lay flowers on Maxine's grave on what would have been her 29th birthday.Derek Heavey is the father of Maxine Peacock (Tracy Shaw), who had three spells on the Street between 1999 and 2003; the third of these covering the period of her daughter's death at the hands of Richard Hillman (Brian Capron).An ex-rugby league player who went into the printing business, Duggie Ferguson first came to Coronation Street after tracking down his son Tom – who worked as a hairdresser for Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls).In late 1999 to early 2000, Duggie turned property developer and employed Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) as foreman for the building of his Victoria Street complex – those who rented the commercial units included Sally Webster (Sally Dynevor) and Danny Hargreaves (Richard Standing), butcher Fred Elliott (John Savident), and Vikram Desai (Chris Bisson) and Steve, who started up their own mini-cab firm.Early in 2000 Duggie started a relationship with Debs Brownlow (Gabrielle Glaister), sister of The Rovers landlady Natalie Barnes (Denise Welch).Phil went to the press and the adverse report caused Duggie's financial downfall, forcing him to sell the home that he had shared with wife Laura.Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) bought Duggie's home for a quick sale before putting it back on the market and making a tidy profit.In December 2000, Natalie decided to sell and The Rovers came under threat by a chain who planned to turn it into a "fun pub" named the Boozy Newt.Liz moved into The Rovers with resident barmaid Toyah but her reign as manager was short as, after numerous disagreements with the trio, and husband Jim being transferred to a prison in Leicester, she quit and left Weatherfield.Looking to raise money quickly, Duggie auctioned The Rovers – to Fred Elliott – for £76,000, only to find he had been gazumped for the Rugby Club by fellow ex-professional Marty Flynn.Things quickly went sour, however, as Richard realised that Duggie and his men were ripping him off: cutting corners on the construction work and stealing valuable fixtures and fittings from the property.Reflecting on Duggie's dodgy intentions and the fact that he had taken him for a fool, Richard saw an opportunity to be rid of his unwanted business partner and decided to leave him to die.Richard's increasing financial woes as a result of the money he had ploughed into the development led to him killing his ex-wife Patricia (Annabelle Apsion) in May 2002 and Duggie's barmaid Maxine Peacock (Tracy Shaw) in January 2003.On 24 February 2003, over a year after Richard left Duggie for dead, his fiancé-turned-wife Gail would ultimately discover the truth behind her husband's homicidal nature.After Gail declared their marriage to be over, Richard left the house and became the most wanted man in the UK – once the truth about his crimes, including Duggie's demise, were exposed.Eventually in March 2003, Richard got his comeuppance when he planned to kill Gail and her children – abducting them and then driving them into the canal, only for his stepfamily to escape to safety whilst he himself drowned.As they grew up Candice, Sarah and their friend Maria Sutherland (Samia Ghadie) began to turn the heads of the street's men and became increasingly popular with male viewers of the show.[2] Martin plans to leave his wife Gail Platt (Helen Worth) for Rebecca, but he stalls when he finds out that their teenage daughter is pregnant.