Alan Bradley Alan Bradley was a businessman and father of Jenny Bradley . He had a long - term relationship with Jenny ' s foster mother Rita Fairclough and she helped him set up a burglar alarm fitting business called Weatherfield Security Systems , but in 1989 , Rita exposed him as a fraud who ' d obtained his money by borrowing against her house without her knowledge . Alan tried to suffocate Rita and was apprehended by the police , spending six months in prison . Upon his release , Alan tormented Rita , following her to Blackpool where , while chasing Rita , he was fatally hit by a tram . Biography . 1939 - 1986 : Choosing a path . Alan Bradley was born on 20th July 1939 . In 1971 , he and his wife Pat welcomed a daughter , Jenny . Alan was his own master ; he liked the free life of a bachelor and after seven years he yearned for it again . In 1980 , he left his wife and daughter and moved from Manchester to Leeds . He then divorced Pat and lost contact with them both . Alan was traced by Social Services in January 1986 when Pat was killed in a road accident . Now fourteen , Jenny was being fostered by Rita Fairclough in Weatherfield . Alan came over from Leeds to collect his daughter , but Jenny resented him for abandoning her . With Rita ' s help , Alan convinced Jenny to give him a chance . He got a transfer to Weatherfield and got a flat at 41 Ashdale Road so that Jenny could live with him without changing school . Alan had been seeing a lot of Rita and he was attracted to her ; she was mature , strong and owned her own business . Alan in turn reminded Rita of Len because of his masculinity and aggressiveness . As they got closer , Alan had doubts about their relationship , and also became close to Rovers barmaid Gloria Todd after finding her a flat in his building . Gloria was youthful and glamorous ; a woman he could more easily take charge of than he could Rita . Alan thumped Terry Duckworth in the Rovers when he ' d been pestering Gloria . He dated both women without either ' s knowledge , but Rita wanting to take things slowly meant that he slept with Gloria first . The women eventually conferred and realised he was two - timing them . Rita told Alan to pick one or the other and stop being childish , but whichever woman he preferred , Gloria made up his mind for him as , insulted by the affair , she finished him . Alan returned to Rita and they managed to put their rocky start behind them . 1986 - 1988 : Family man . In September 1986 , Alan was made redundant and his pride kept him from telling Rita , although she found out anyway from Mavis Riley . A new job came up in Liverpool , and Rita convinced Alan to take it even though it meant three months in Dubai , with Jenny moving in with Rita . Alan returned in January 1987 to the news that Jenny had been in a car crash and that the driver Martin Platt had been speeding . Alan wanted to thump Martin but Jenny then admitted that she ' d been driving . Martin and Jenny confessed to the police , with a little persuasion from Alan , but Rita refused to press charges so nothing came of it . Alan thanked Rita and told her he would compensate her from the money he was earning in Dubai . He then cemented their relationship by proposing , expecting her to say yes because of her age . He was astonished when she said no and that she preferred that they carried on as they were . After returning from Dubai , Alan moved into 7 Coronation Street with Rita and Jenny . He then took an interest in The Kabin , opening a video library and electric till there to modernise the establishment . His changes worried Mavis Riley as she feared Alan was worming his way into the Kabin as he ' d wormed his way into Rita ' s affections , and that he might have her replaced , although he threatened Derek Wilton when Derek spoke to him on Mavis ' s behalf . Rita then told Alan not to make any more changes . Alan felt emasculated by being second to Rita financially and decided to buy Tilsley ' s Garage when Brian Tilsley made plans to move down south , but at the last minute Brian pulled out of the sale and reconciled with Gail . Alan still had his heart set on marrying Rita and , thinking she just needed a push , booked a wedding at the registry office without telling her , and got her there under the pretext that they had been invited to a friend ' s wedding . When they got there , Rita couldn ' t believe it when the penny dropped that it was her own surprise wedding , and got back into the taxi she came in . Alan felt humiliated and accepted that Rita would probably never marry him . With Jenny now sixteen , she decided to leave school , but Alan wanted her to stay and complete her A - Levels . Alan and Rita later found out that Jenny had gone to France to escape them trying to tell her what to do . A furious Alan went to France to find her , but he came back empty - handed . She returned to the country in October 1987 with the news that she was marrying Patrice Podevin and settling in France . Alan thought Jenny was too young and immature to get married and refused to give his blessing . He was proved right as Jenny kissed another boy , Gary Grimshaw , and Patrice broke off the engagement and went back to France alone . 1988 - 1989 : Alan ' s downfall . Alan was bored running the video library . In 1988 , he found a job fitting burglar alarms . He wanted to go into partnership with his boss Dave Craig and asked Rita to loan him £6 , 000 to buy into the business , but Dave wasn ' t interested . Alan decided to set up on his own , creating Bradley Securities Limited , and used Rita ' s money to buy a company car . Rita wasn ' t happy but agreed to give Alan a chance , setting him up in Len ' s old Builder ' s Yard so he could start making money . In the summer , Alan started seeing client Carole Burns . He left Rita for her , telling Rita that he was tired of her coldness towards him . Rita demanded he return the money she ' d foolishly given to him and vacate the yard . Alan moved out of No . 7 and complied with Rita ' s demands - although his business was effectively over as the bank and Carole both refused him a loan . In November , he left Carole and returned to Rita and Jenny , proving to Rita that it wasn ' t her money he ' d come back for by announcing plans to set up a shop without a penny from her . He stole the deeds to No . 7 and mortgaged the house for £15 , 000 , calling himself Len Fairclough , which was the name on the deeds . With the cheque in hand , Alan told Rita the bank had given him a loan , and he immediately transferred his business to a shop unit in Curzon Street , renaming it Weatherfield Security Systems to cover his tracks with the building society . Alan did everything to keep the truth from Rita . He had all letters from the bank re - directed to the shop and handled all mail and phone calls himself . With Dawn Prescott as receptionist and Martin Platt as assistant , the business was a success . Alan fancied Dawn and asked her out , telling her Rita was just his landlady , but she wasn ' t interested . This only encouraged him and in March 1989 he tried to rape her , although she managed to escape . The incident proved to be Alan ' s downfall as Dawn told Rita about the rape attempt and the letters and phone calls asking for Leonard Fairclough . Rita investigated and when Alan returned home on Jenny ' s 18th birthday he learned that Rita had been to the building society and found out the conditions of his bank loan and put them right about Len being dead . Alan ' s fury erupted and he went for Rita , hitting her and then trying to suffocate her with a cushion just as Jenny and Martin arrived from a night out , which caused him to flee . Alan decided to leave the country and phoned Jenny , asking her to meet him and give him his passport and money , but the police followed her ( without her knowledge ) and arrested him . Alan was charged with deception and actual bodily harm and spent six months on remand . When Jenny visited Alan in prison , he asked her to beg Rita to play down what had happened , but Jenny realised he was only thinking about himself and ignored his wishes . Alan ' s trial took place in October . Pleading guilty to deception and actual bodily harm , Alan was given two years in prison , but walked free that very day after serving enough of his time on remand . Rita was horrified and became convinced Alan was going to take revenge on her . Alan set about tormenting Rita . He visited her at home while she was alone - explaining that he was there to see Jenny - ignored her requests to leave , and intimidated her , leaving her shaken and terrified . He moved into a bedsit at 31 Redford Street and got a job at the building site in Coronation Street , opposite Rita ' s house , to stay close to her . He told Jenny he was staying around as he still cared about Rita and Jenny accepted this , slowly turning against Rita who she thought was being vindictive . When The Kabin was broken into , Alan was taken in for questioning by the police , but the police soon caught some lads trying to sell videos stolen from The Kabin and Alan was cleared . A few weeks later , Rita disappeared without a trace , and Alan was again questioned by the police . The residents thought Alan had killed Rita and buried her at the building site , but even though nothing was found when the site was dug up , Alan lost his job because of the trouble it had caused with the police . Alan was bitter and blamed Rita for ruining her life . When Alec Gilroy informed Alan that Rita had turned up in Blackpool , Alan drove to the seaside town to find her and bring her back to Weatherfield to prove to everyone that he didn ' t kill her . He couldn ' t find her at her hotel but he caught up with her on the street and tried to force her into his car . Rita ran away and only narrowly missed being hit by a tram - following closely behind , Alan was killed instantly when the tram slammed into him . Only Jenny went to Alan ' s funeral , with Martin and Kevin and Sally Webster going along to support her . Personality . Alan was ambitious and malignant : a recipe for disaster . He was misogynistic towards women and in his relationships he liked to call the shots ; he hated being beholden to Rita and compensated for this by building up his business so that he would not need her money . However , with regards to women and work Alan was restless and when his passions had been spent on something he would move onto something else . Often this was because he ' d messed things up - through deceit or because of his short temper - but whenever he did , Alan always put the blame on someone else . Despite appearances , he had no real love for Rita or for Jenny , valuing them only as long as they stayed loyal to him ; when they betrayed him he turned against them . Background information . Alan Bradley was Mark Eden ' s second " Coronation Street " role , after Wally Randle in 1981 . Eden ' s guest turn had left an impression on producer Bill Podmore , which led to him getting the role of Alan four years later . One of Alan ' s early storylines was a love triangle between Alan , Rita Fairclough and Gloria Todd . In " The Coronation Street Story " ( 1995 ) , Eden recalled how he rationalised the character ' s actions : " Gloria had the youth and the glamour and Rita had this lovely calmness and security . Gloria only worked at the pub but Rita had much more . If you could combine the two women . . . that ' s what Alan felt " ( p178 ) . Eden and Sue Jenkins had previously appeared on stage together in " Educating Rita " . David Liddiment became executive producer in 1988 , and a handover period between producers Podmore and Mervyn Watson took place in late 1988 and early 1989 . In an interview for " " , Liddiment discussed the genesis of Alan ' s fraud storyline : " I think Alan Bradley was kind of going nowhere . He was a good actor but there weren ' t great stories coming up for him . There ' s a dangerous place in " Coronation Street " , the middling place he was in , and if the writers aren ' t inspired to come up with good stories for you , you ' re a dead duck . Peter Whalley had this notion that he would pretend to be Len Fairclough , which was the original name on the deeds of Rita ' s house . I thought that was a very clever idea . Once he ' d deceived his wife , you can start to build on that . It wasn ' t , " Let ' s turn Alan Bradley into an evil person . " In his 1990 memoirs " Coronation Street : The Inside Story " , Podmore describes the idea as a " masterstroke " , although he laments the fact that this meant losing Alan : " I knew Mark was very happy with the programme , so it was with anything but relish that I broke the news that he would have to go . Mark accepted the decision with complete professionalism , agreeing that the story - line was irresistible . At least it gave him the chance to turn in a series of very meaty performances before he went . " Eden enjoyed portraying Alan ' s darker side . In " The Coronation Street Story " , he talks about how he played the scenes of Alan trying to rape Dawn Prescott : " I thought I ' m not going to do anything near to what I ' m going to do when we do it on tape , because she ' d be prepared for it . . . So on the actual take I grabbed hold of her and she couldn ' t get away from me and I started to pull her skirt up . She was fighting for her life to get away , I mean she wasn ' t kidding . We were knocking things over and she shoved me off and I grabbed her as she was running out of the door . . . afterwards , she was shaking and white - faced but it worked . " Eden also faced the negative side of playing a villain in " Coronation Street " : " He received sackloads of hate mail , and after an incensed lady set about him with an umbrella , Mark thought it prudent to curtail his regular strolls around Manchester . When he did venture out , he had the look of a hunted man , and eyed anyone who recognised him with caution " " ( Podmore ) " . Alan was absent for six month during 1989 as a story consequence of his fraud and assault on Rita . The week of his trial and release from prison was the first of the programme ' s new three - times weekly schedule . The met his end in Blackpool when he was hit by a tram while chasing Rita , in one of the programme ' s most famous moments . According to " The Coronation Street Story " , shortly after the episode went out , someone put a plaque by the railings where Alan died , reading " Alan Bradley the sham got knocked over by a tram " . As of 2008 , the tram used in the episode was still in service in Blackpool . On 8th December 2009 , Mark Eden unveiled a blue plaque to mark the episode ' s 20 - year anniversary outside the Strand Hotel , the venue chosen for the filming of much of the footage . Alan ' s exit was ranked 30th on Sky One ' s " 50 Greatest TV Endings " in 2008 and 8th on ITV ' s " 50 Years , 50 Moments " anniversary countdown in 2010 . In Coronation Street - The Epic Novel , which changes a few details within the history of " Coronation Street " , Alan is arrested after his attack on Rita , and his death doesn ' t occur in the book , nor is it mentioned . Quotes . " Mrs Fairclough ? " ( First line ) " Come back , you stupid bitch ! " ( Final line )