Melvin Trelawney was a customer in Barlow's Bookies, known to all as “Mogadon Melvin”, such was his power to bore. One attentive listener though was Rob Donovan who took in a lengthy lecture on canals in an attempt to keep the customer happy and prove his ability to a deeply sceptical Peter Barlow who had had Rob thrust upon him when Carla Connor had bought a share in the business and used it to install her brother there. Melvin was worried that he gone on too much but Rob managed to say with a straight countenance that a whole new world had been opened up to him. Peter stirred things up by suggesting that Melvin return the next day with all his books on the subject.