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Ken Barlow’s dark turn on Coronation Street alienates family

He's upsetting everyone, but just what is wrong with him?

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Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow has always had a bit of a dark side, but recently he seems to have had a complete personality transplant!

As he continues to make enemies of his entire family, what is really going on?

Firstly, he burnt all of grandson Adam’s drug money so he couldn’t pay back dealer Ronan. Adam then took a severe beating and ended up in hospital, where Ken visited him.

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But instead of sympathetically consoling him, Ken laid into Adam in his hospital bed and told him how disappointed he was in him! Surely taking a massive beating was enough of a lesson for him?

Things only got worse for Ken this week when he found out his son Daniel Osbourne had been accepted to do an MA at Oxford and announced the news to everyone in the Bistro.

Daniel’s stunned girlfriend Sinead had no idea, but Ken was insistent Daniel should take his place and leave her behind. As Sinead told him she was pregnant, Ken urged her to think about Daniel’s future.

He even laid into his own late wife, Deirdre, telling Sinead they never had a conversation that Ken wanted and there “was never any meeting of minds”. He told her he’d wasted his life with Deirdre.

Fans were outraged that he could be so cold as to lay into poor, dead Deirdre.

And it looks like Ken’s outburst will have devastating consequences when Sinead reveals in Friday’s episode she’s lost her baby.

Daniel is distraught as he tries to comfort her, but will he blame Ken for causing it?

As if upsetting his grandson and youngest son wasn’t enough, Ken’s set to go for the hat trick when he finds out Peter’s supposedly been having an affair with unhinged Chloe.

She also tells Ken his son’s back on the booze, and not even stopping to get his facts right, Ken goes straight round to Toyah and tells her exactly what’s been going on.

Next week Toyah doesn’t want to hear Peter’s explanations and excuses and she gets in her ex Toby’s car and leaves. Peter’s fuming and naturally blames Ken.

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Tracy’s also not happy with her stepdad and feels like he’s putting the boys before her. She demands he pay her more attention, but he just puts her in her place.

And then he takes on Pat Phelan and lays into the builder for not finishing the Barlows’ new kitchen quickly enough.

What is it with him?!

Is he determined to drive his entire family away? Doesn’t he care what they think of him?

With Ken’s health already not brilliant, and his last stroke being triggered by a fight with Peter, is all this drama set to have deadly results?

Can Ken turn it around and get his family back on side before it’s too late?


Carena Crawford
Associate Editor (Soaps)