Neil Mitchell Neil Mitchell was a local handyman who met Angie Freeman when he replaced the windows at 7 Coronation Street in July 1992 . There was a mutual attraction but nothing came of their brief flirtation . Four months later , Neil was outfitting the new salon at 2 Coronation Street for Denise Osbourne when Curly Watts asked him to convert the loftspace of No . 7 into an observatory . Neil took the job but inadvertently caused trouble for Curly when he mentioned it to Curly ' s fiancée Kimberley Taylor , who had other ideas for the loft . He also had fun with Mavis Wilton by joking that Curly would point his telescope at her house . While at No . 7 , Neil ran into Angie again and with some awkwardness , he asked her out . Angie accepted and they went for a drink at the Rovers Return together . All was going well until Neil was late for dinner at Angie ' s , causing Angie to check on his whereabouts with Denise Osbourne at the salon . Denise became curious about Angie and Neil ' s relationship and said she knew Neil well as she was married to him . Neil arrived late for dinner to find an empty house - Angie had gone out - and the next day Angie told him to beat it for making a mug of her . Neil blamed Denise for wrecking his chance with Angie , but Angie agreed to give him another chance when Denise told her that there was nothing between her and Neil ; he had rescued her from a dull marriage to an older man , but once she married him , his appeal wore off as he just looked like a kid . Neil and Denise were arranging a divorce although they were on friendly terms with each other . However , Neil still harboured feelings for Denise . When Angie moved out of No . 7 to get away from Curly ' s lust , and into Jim ' s Cafe flat , she hoped that Neil would move in with her and told him he was free to come and go as he pleased . Neil didn ' t pick up on this and went to see Denise to tell her he wanted to stop the divorce and give their marriage another try , claiming that he still loved her and Angie meant nothing to him . Denise , who no longer saw him that way , told him to leave her alone and focus on Angie . Angie didn ' t notice anything between Neil and Denise until Neil got drunk at a party and punched Reg Holdsworth with a punch meant for Jim McDonald who was dancing with Denise . Angie dumped Neil and threw his things from her flat into his cement mixer , but surprisingly when he went to the effort of cooking a meal and telling her she was the only woman in his life , Angie took him back and he accepted her offer to move into the flat with her . Angie spent much of her time working on designs for her boss Hanif Ruparell , who was also dating Denise . Neil annoyed Angie by being dismissive of Hanif and making fun of his ponytail . More trouble was caused when Neil warned Denise off Hanif by telling her he was a womaniser . The last straw came when Neil tried to delay Denise and Hanif leaving for a date , then launching a tirade at Hanif and trying to provoke him into a fight . Hanif didn ' t respond to Neil ' s provocation , even when Neil pushed him into a table , but Angie was humiliated and dumped Neil again . Following this , Neil gave up the flat and left the area , pushing a goodbye note through the door of Jim ' s Cafe for Angie .