Mike Baldwin is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street, portrayed by Johnny Briggs. He first appeared on 11 October 1976 and became one of the show's central characters until his final appearance on 7 April 2006. Before his debut on the series, Mike started off his career as a market stall holder until a few years later the character had evolved into a legitimate businessman who was running his own factory. Mike soon opened his namesake denim-maker business, Baldwin's Casuals, in Weatherfield and moved there after ending his relationship with his common-law wife Anne Woodley. Quickly establishing himself as the street's most uncompromising employer, Mike was quick to threaten his machinists with the sack if they slacked and had additionally taking a dim view of workers getting above themselves. Since his first appearance, Mike was involved in several of the show's highly-profiled events. This included a love triangle scenario which saw Mike having an affair with local resident Deirdre Hunt (Anne Kirkbride) while she was still married to her husband Ken Barlow (William Roache). The storyline continued onto 1983 and became a ratings winner, with the UK's newspapers giving the story much coverage. The episode where Deirdre ends her affair with Mike and reconciles with Ken was the show's highest-rated episode at the time; as such, the news was so big that it ended up being announced on the scoreboard during a Manchester United v Arsenal match at Old Trafford - with the words "Ken and Deirdre reunited. Ken 1 – Mike 0" resulting in cheers from the spectators. The follow up of his affair with Deirdre triggered a longstanding feud between Mike and Ken, with the rivalry between them dominating the show's impact for the next two decades. This continued as Mike would later go on to marry Ken's daughter Susan (Wendy Jane Walker), which ultimately led to the two arch-enemies going on a custody battle for Mike and Susan's son Adam (Iain De Caestecker) following her death in 2001. At times, however, Ken and Mike were often forced to work together in events which saw Deirdre being wrongfully imprisoned by her fraudulent new love interest Jon Lindsay (Owen Aaronovitch) in 1998 and then the two rivals later becoming hostages in an armed robbery at Fresco's Supermarket in 2000. In his other major storylines, Mike issued a short-lived marriage of convenience with his second spouse Jackie Ingram (Shirin Taylor); established a much-more prolonging marriage with his third spouse Alma Sedgewick (Amanda Barrie) that progressively lasted until the pair's divorce and Alma's eventual death of cervical cancer; instigated a competitive conflict with fellow nemesis Don Brennan (Geoffrey Hinsliff) that culminated with the latter kidnapping Alma and then plotting to kill Mike on many unsuccessful attempts; divorced his fourth spouse Linda Sykes (Jacqueline Pirie) after their ill-fated marriage collapsed as a result Linda's gold-digging agenda that gradually emerged ever since she cheated on Mike with his long-lost son Mark Redman (Paul Fox); and formed a close companionship with his supposed nephew Danny (Bradley Walsh) and his family after it had slowly transpired that Danny was actually Mike's son. The character's exit saw Mike being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which commenced in late 2005 and continued on in 2006 until Mike was eventually killed off in the story's climax; Mike, in his last moments, collapsed and then died in the arms of Ken. A couple of years later, Mike would posthumously reappear in a 2012 short special episode shown as part of Text Santa - with the character appearing as a ghost sent from Hell to give Ken's next-door neighbor, Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden), a warning to change his ways.