Stanley Fairclough Stanley Fairclough was Len Fairclough ' s son . In 1961 , when Stanley was at Bessie Street School , teacher Ken Barlow made him go out in the snow with a bad chest . Len threatened Ken when he suggested Stanley was a liar . By his own admission , Len was a bad husband and father , and he often ignored Stanley and Nellie to drink and socialise . In December 1962 , Nellie decided she ' d had enough and left home to live in Nottingham with insurance agent Harry Bailey , taking Stanley with her . Len didn ' t stop them but asked Ken to keep an eye on Stanley at school for him . When Nellie died in 1964 , Bailey asked Len if he wanted to look after Stanley but after consideration Len decided Stanley should stay in Nottingham . In September 1967 , Bailey sent Stanley to Weatherfield to visit Len , hearing from Jerry Booth that Len was depressed . In the years between , Stanley had grown into a man who looked down on his " small and grimy " roots and who wasn ' t afraid to show his contempt for Len . Len felt he owed it to Stanley to make an effort with him and overlooked his cheek and disrespect , and instead took an interest in his education , setting him up with a place at Granston Technical College and showing him the ropes at the Builder ' s Yard . When Stanley refused to change his attitude towards him , Len realised he was wasting his time and washed his hands of Stanley . Stanley was about to leave Weatherfield when he accidentally started a fire in the yard office , trapping him and Len . They were rescued and during a brief period where it wasn ' t clear if Len would make a full recovery , Stanley expressed remorse for his behaviour , but when he learned that his dad would be okay , Stanley immediately returned home to Nottingham . Stanley got on with his life , and had little to no contact with Len . In 1976 , working as a draughtsman for a chemical firm , Stanley got friendly with canteen manageress Liz Brocklebank . By the end of the year they ' d got engaged and fixed a date , 4th April , for the wedding . Liz was close to her family and wanted to meet Len before the nuptials , despite Stanley trying to put her off . After a lot of badgering , Stanley agreed to a visit in the first week of January 1977 . Len made an effort with Stanley , as he wanted to forgive and forget but Stanley wasn ' t nearly as accommodating , only tolerating the visit for Liz ' s sake , hoping that once she ' d met Len they could put the issue to bed ; however Liz liked Len and , to Stanley ' s horror , invited him to the wedding . Before returning to Nottingham , Stanley told Len that he wasn ' t to go to the wedding and that he should come up with an excuse . As Len was only planning on going if the invitation came from Stanley , he backed out , but didn ' t invite him to his wedding to Rita Littlewood later in April either . In February 1984 , several months after Len ' s death in a car crash , Stanley wrote to Rita telling her he was unemployed . Rita ignored the letter , as it was obvious he wanted money . List of appearances . As played by Peter Noone : < br > 1961 As played by Ronald Cunliffe < br > 1967 As played by Jonathan Coy : < br > 1977