Mark Stranks was an assistant at the Weatherfield Vale retirement home run by the penny-pinching Gerald Lickley. When Martin Platt went for an interview at the home, it was Mark who showed him round on Lickley's instruction, with an added muttered comment that he was to "talk up" the place.
Martin got the job as assistant manager but Lickley's comment to Mark should have alerted him to the fact that all was not well behind the scenes. Lickley spent as little money as possible on the home with the result that the food was sub-standard and the residents were left unattended for far too long with one of them, Walter Byford, sitting dead in his chair for several hours before being discovered.
Although Martin pushed his councillor mother-in-law Audrey Roberts to arrange for inspection, the council seemed to have acted on their own initiative and Mark, who disliked Lickley as much as anyone, gleefully told Martin that an Inspector Todd had arrived with an assessor causing their boss to complain about the lack of notice.
The inspection found several areas for improvement needed and Lickley sacked Martin on the spot, thinking he had dropped him in with the council.
List of appearances[]
1999