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Stephen Reid (né Potter) was Audrey Roberts's illegitimate son and the half-brother of Gail.

Stephen was informally adopted by the Reid family in 1957. Following their emigration, he was raised in Canada where he became a successful businessman. In 1996, while an executive at Kbec clothiers he made Mike Baldwin their sportswear manufacturer in North West England, enduring an infatuation from Mike's wife Alma. During the same visit to Weatherfield, Stephen got to know Audrey better and met his half-sister Gail for the first time. In subsequent years, he gave her children Nick Tilsley and Sarah Platt a start in the business world, the latter following Stephen's move to Milan with wife Gabrielle.

Stephen was washed up by 2022, with the businessman embezzling money from Gabrielle's company to pay his debts. Arriving in Weatherfield ostensibly to care for Audrey, Stephen kept up the pretext that he was successful, but was eventually found out by Leo Thompkins. During a confrontation with Leo, Stephen murdered him and hid the body. Months later, he bludgeoned Leo's father Teddy to death to shut down his inquiries into Leo's disappearance. Stephen eventually paid Gabrielle off with money stolen from Audrey.

Remainining in Weatherfield, Stephen began managing Underworld. After clashing with owner Carla Barlow, he began spiking her coffees with LSD to make her believe that her mental health problems were returning, causing her to take a sabattical from the company. When his scheme was rumbled by client Rufus Donahue, Stephen drowned the businessman in his swimming pool. Stephen then became engaged to Elaine Jones and took out a life insurance policy for her. Elaine broke it off when she discovered that he had forged her signature. When the police found Leo and Teddy's bodies, Stephen attempted to flee using his partner Jenny Connor as a hostage, but he was killed when Peter Barlow hit him with his taxi.

Biography[]

1957-1996: Childhood and backstory[]

Audrey Stephen Gail

Stephen with his mother Audrey and half-sister Gail

In 1957, following a brief relationship with Geoff Masters the previous year, sixteen-year-old Audrey Potter gave birth to a son she named Stephen, but was forced by her father to give him away to Malcolm and Joyce Reid, a young childless couple who were neighbours of the Potter family in nearby Richmond Road. Desperate to get Stephen back, Audrey hatched a plan to fall pregnant again and get married to the father, believing it would strengthen her claim. When Norman Jones showed no interest in her sexually, Audrey settled for his best friend Ted Page but, once pregnant, she realised she couldn't spend the rest of her life with him. She dumped Ted and he returned to army camp, oblivious about the unborn baby. Audrey's father hit the roof to learn that she was pregnant again but Audrey was determined to keep her child this time so he threw her out of the house before she gave birth to a daughter, Gail. Audrey used to take toddler Gail to the Reids' house on Richmond Road, and Gail would play with Stephen, unaware that he was her elder brother. In 1962, the Reids immigrated to Canada, taking five-year-old Stephen with them. Audrey and Gail waved them off on the train to Liverpool. Stephen attended college in Toronto, where he had his own band, playing lead guitar and vocals. He wanted to be a figure skater but could not find a suitable partner and felt he was no Christopher Dean. He joined a minor-league ice hockey team and gained acclaim in Toronto. Joyce died in 1978. In 1988, Stephen was involved in a serious car crash. Audrey flew out to help Malcolm to nurse him, and once Stephen had recovered, she returned to England, telling thirty-year-old Gail of Stephen's existence for the first time.

1996-2007: Brief visits to Weatherfield[]

Duckworths 1983
"If you've owt to say, spit it out before it flamin' well chokes yer"
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In 1996, Stephen visited Weatherfield on a business trip. While there, he got to know his biological mother better and meet his long lost-sister Gail. Following his stay, his estranged nephew Nick Tilsley was sent by Gail to live with him as Nick's relationship with his mother became stained and Stephen offered him a job in Canada, which Nick accepted. However, Nick returned in 1997 and married Leanne Battersby in January 1998, but they were divorced by the following April and Nick returned to Canada.

Stephen Reid 2007

Stephen in 2007

By 2007, Stephen had relocated to Italy and returned to Weatherfield to visit Audrey and Gail for Christmas. He offered his other nephew David Platt a job within his business, which David accepted. However, when David was found in possession of Ecstasy tablets, Stephen offered his niece Sarah the job instead, so Stephen returned to Milan with Sarah and her daughter Bethany. He was unable to attend Gail's fifth wedding to Joe McIntyre.

Sarah returned to Weatherfield seven years later in order to collect fourteen-year-old Bethany, who'd decided to flee there as she was bored of life in Milan. Having remained there for a couple of weeks, Stephen contacted Sarah and asked her to email him an urgent report but instead she slept with Callum Logan and put work off by claiming that the Wi-Fi was down. Bethany, wanting to remain in Weatherfield, sent Stephen an email which confirmed that Sarah was lying and he sacked her on the spot. Gail attempted to plead for Sarah's case over the phone, but to no avail.

2022: Return to the street and true colours are revealed[]

Stephen Reid 2022

Stephen in 2022

Stephen returned to Weatherfield in June 2022 following a summons by Sarah as the family were concerned as Audrey had fallen into a depression and had started drinking heavily. When he arrived, he found Audrey unconscious having drunkenly let herself into Trim Up North and accidentally pulled a decorative motorbike down on top of her the previous day. Stephen was furious with his family for letting her get into that condition and decided to stick around for a while to help her, although he left again a few weeks later when David made him feel unwelcome.

Two weeks later, Stephen returned however it soon became clear he was having money problems as his credit cards kept being rejected. It emerged that Stephen now had a few skeletons in his closet, he had lost almost all his money and had robbed his ex-wife Gabrielle's company to the tune of €200,000. Stephen knew Audrey had a lot of money stashed away and, with Gabrielle having tracked him down, tried to manoeuvre himself into a position where he could access it, with Audrey asking him to become trustee of her estate. He also manipulated Sarah to try and get hold of some of her funds which she'd tied up in Underworld.

Stephen after killing Leo

Stephen after killing Leo Thompkins

As well as Audrey, Stephen set his sights on Jenny Connor who was now the owner of the Rovers. Hoping to find a way to get some quick cash off her, Stephen was able to get her into a clinch and the two passionately kissed, Before it could get any further, Jenny's ex-boyfriend Leo Thompkins returned unexpectedly and proposed to her. Stephen's situation quickly began to get worse; he was unable to access any cash but had done such a good job convincing his family he was still wealthy that Audrey decided against making him trustee and also wrote him out of her will since she didn't think he needed money. By now Stephen had lost everything, spending the last of his money on a suit from a charity shop, and was reduced to sleeping in his car. Leo had found out about Stephen and Jenny's kiss and began following Stephen, quickly deducing that Stephen was broke and also learning that he had attempted to sell 5 Grasmere Drive out from under Audrey. He confronted Stephen on the gantry outside Underworld, revealing he knew everything and fully intended to call the police after telling Audrey. Filled with anger and desperation Stephen attacked Leo, slamming his head against the steel railing then pushing him over the side, killing him. Although shocked, Stephen kept his composure and was able to remove the body later without being spotted.

Stephen spent the next couple of weeks trying to ensure that no-one in Weatherfield attempted to contact or track down Leo. Jenny was convinced that Leo had gotten cold feet about the two of them emigrating to Canada and had left alone, however began to worry when he didn't contact her. When Leo's father Teddy decided to go to Canada and track him down, Stephen started to panic but was able to guess the PIN number to Leo's phone (which he had retained) and put him off by sending a message as Leo claiming to be going travelling off the grid. At this point, Gabrielle was demanding her money back regardless of how Stephen went about getting it. When Audrey gave him her phone so he could modify it so she wouldn't receive so many notifications, Stephen couldn't believe his luck and quickly arranged to have the equity in 5 Grasmere Drive released to him, figuring that no-one would know what had happened until Audrey died. With Gabrielle pretending to be Audrey, Stephen successfully got his hands on the cash and used part of the money to pay off Gabrielle while keeping the rest for himself. Stephen's luck however ran out quick as Audrey announced very soon after that she planned to release the equity in the house herself to pay for her and her great-grandson Sam to go on the cruise and see the Northern Lights. Desperate to stop Audrey finding out what he'd done, Stephen offered to pay for the trip himself, which Audrey accepted.

Teddy later arrived back from Canada with news that the last texts Leo sent were from Weatherfield. In his desperation, he turned to alcohol to cope with the stress and became drunk. During his intoxicated state, he got into a physical altercation with Stephen, during which he realised that Stephen may have played a role in Leo's disappearance. As he stumbled back onto the road, he failed to notice an approaching van and was struck by it at full speed. After being hospitalised Stephen tried to finish Teddy off by squeezing his oxygen tubes however he was interrupted by Jenny and so Teddy later made a full recovery however he couldn't remember a single thing about before the accident leaving Stephen in the clear. When Teddy was discharged from hospital Jenny invited him to live with her in the Rovers which left Stephen panicked and rightfully so as after a while Teddy began to get his memory back in bits and this caused him to want to go back to Canada to find Leo and Stephen not wanting Teddy to discover the truth managed to talk him out of it, but it was after he had a chat with Billy Mayhew that made Teddy get his full memory back. After this revelation Teddy confronted Stephen outside Underworld and when Stephen invited him inside they had another physical confrontation which ended with Teddy telling him he was going to the police so Stephen snapped and smacked him over the back of the head with a hole puncher, killing him instantly and meaning Stephen had claimed his second victim. After pawning the hole puncher off onto Michael Bailey, Stephen with the help of oblivious residents Tim Metcalfe, Kevin and Abi Webster managed to stuff Teddy's body into a roof box and place him on the top of Audrey's car however he was later horrified to learn that Audrey had driven the car with up to the Peak District with Teddy's corpse on the top. This later didn't matter as she returned, complaining that the weight of the roof box had caused the car to slow down quite a bit. After she returned, Stephen dumped the roof box into Weatherfield Canal.

2023: Life of crimes and turned serial killer[]

By 2023, Stephen had secured a manager's job at Underworld. Following numerous clashes with owner Carla Barlow, Stephen began spiking her coffees with LSD to mislead the shareholders into believing that her mental health problems were returning, causing them to pass a vote of no confidence in her. In April, rival businessman Rufus Donahue worked out Stephen's involvement, as he had previously supplied him with LSD, and began blackmailing him into taking his offer over that of Owen Longford and Angelique Simmons' despite it being poorer. Seeing no possible way to take Rufus's deal over the superior offer, Stephen suggested that he could pretend to have taken Rufus's deal in order to encourage Owen and Angelique to increase their offer and then Stephen could give Rufus the difference without him even needing to lift a finger. Rufus initially agreed but when he later tried to negate on the deal, Stephen murdered him by lacing him with LSD and making it look like he accidentally drowned in his swimming pool. He then set up a fake consultancy firm called Seagull Limited, which he used to embezzle money from Underworld.

Around this time Stephen began dating Tim's mother Elaine Jones although he still had his sights on Jenny. Knowing that she had a lot of savings, Stephen wasted no time in sweeping Elaine off her feet and proposed to her which she accepted with the two buying a flat at Redbank Apartments. By now Stephen was finding it easier and easier to shrug off his crimes and planned to murder Elaine soon after they were married so he, as her next of kin, would inherit her money. However he plans for a quick wedding in Las Vegas were scuppered at the last second when Elaine's son Tim, who didn't trust or like Stephen, refused to let her leave and when Audrey told Elaine how much she wanted to see her son get married Elaine decided to prolong their engagement much to Stephen's frustration.

Desperate for cash, Stephen decided to move up his plans and took out a life insurance policy for her without her knowledge (naturally naming himself as the beneficiary) and replaced her blood pressure medication with high energy caffeine pills. Unfortunately, his plans around Carla backfired as she decided to sell Underworld since she believed it was causing her mental health relapse. Stephen didn't have the money to buy it and it looked like the factory was going to end up in the hands of Owen Longford, who was Jenny Connor's new boyfriend that Stephen had tried and failed to put off. Owen made it clear that he intended to fire Stephen as soon as he took charge of the factory. Stephen became desperate and during an argument at the flat Stephen came close to murdering him only to be interrupted by Elaine and Sarah with a surprise Canada Day celebration. The craziness successfully put Owen off from buying the factory, but now Carla's interests in Seagull Limited had been peaked by Owen's interest and demanded to speak to them. Stephen managed to get Gabrielle to pretend to be in charge of the fake company and Carla was completely fooled (despite a close call where Sarah entered the office during the online conversation), however, later as Stephen and Gabrielle celebrated the successful con Elaine saw Gabrielle on the screen and Stephen kept up the lie that she was a business associate. Stephen was now desperate to do away with Elaine, as not only did he need her money but he was also hoping to get back together with Jenny. As the caffeine pills had failed to do the job, Stephen instead decided to fake her suicide. Before he could follow through with this, he discovered that the insurance company had a policy of waiting twelve months after a suicide before paying out. Forced to alter his plans, Stephen planned a trip for the two to the Peak District where he hoped he could kill while making it look like an accident. However just before setting off the couple called into see Gail to borrow a picnic basket and found her going through old photos one of which was on Stephen and Gabrielle. Elaine saw the photo and, recognising Gabrielle as Stephen's so-called business partner, began to panic as she realised she had been manipulated. She headed home and collected Tim on the way and returning to the flat, they broke into Stephen's locked document folder and found the forged life insurance policy. Tim sent Elaine to stay with him and Sally and started packing her bag when Stephen walked in looking for Elaine. Tim confronted him over his lies and, when goaded by Stephen, pushed him up against the wall and threw him aside causing Stephen to bang his head on the metal stair bannister. Stephen screamed at Tim to leave, but then a couple of minutes later collapsed in the street as the seemingly minor impact had in fact caused a bleed on his brain causing him to be rushed to hospital and into surgery. Upon regaining consciousness, Stephen said that he slipped and hit his head. Elaine decided to see Stephen and find out why he lied to save Tim. Stephen told Elaine that he did it for her sake, as he wanted them to be able to put everything that happened behind them. She asked him about the life insurance policy but he denied forging her signature, saying it was on the day of her collapse and she must have forgotten signing the form. Elaine questioned Stephen about his video call with "Claire", in reality Gabrielle. He insisted that she only resembles Gabrielle. Elaine admitted that it was possible but, unable to trust him, she broke off the engagement and told the Metcalfes that Stephen was history. With his plan to kill Elaine finished, Stephen called up and cancelled the insurance policy.

Duckworths 1983
"If you've owt to say, spit it out before it flamin' well chokes yer"
This article or section is unfinished.
Please edit this article to fill in the missing parts and remove this message when done.

Personality[]

Stephen often thinks less of others, but hides this beneath a calm and polite demeanour. He constantly lies to others in order to further his own plans — when these manipulations don't work out, however, he is prone to explosive fits of rage in private.

Relationships[]

Duckworths 1983
"If you've owt to say, spit it out before it flamin' well chokes yer"
This article or section is unfinished.
Please edit this article to fill in the missing parts and remove this message when done.

Background information[]

Duckworths 1983
"If you've owt to say, spit it out before it flamin' well chokes yer"
This article or section is unfinished.
Please edit this article to fill in the missing parts and remove this message when done.
Stephen Reid 1996

Stephen in 1996, before the character was depicted as an antagonist

The character was mentioned as far back as 1988 when Audrey Roberts visited him, with Stephen appearing in a photograph alongside Audrey and his adoptive father Malcolm Reid. Stephen was shown to have a different appearance prior to Todd Boyce's casting eight years later, as Stephen was shown with brown hair instead of blonde.

Boyce appeared irregularly as Stephen between January 1996 to January 1997, and returned for a one month stint ten years later in December 2007. During absences Stephen would regularly be mentioned by his family, with them normally going to visit him off-screen.

Boyce returned to the part in 2022 in a regular capacity, with Stephen now depicted as an antagonist who attempted to defraud Audrey and commit multiple murders. Boyce departed for good the following year and that October, Stephen was killed off.

First and last lines[]

"You just took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting you here!" (First line, to Audrey Roberts)

---

"T...Ti..." (Final line, to the bystanders at the accident scene)

Appendices[]

Duckworths 1983
"If you've owt to say, spit it out before it flamin' well chokes yer"
This article or section is unfinished.
Please edit this article to fill in the missing parts and remove this message when done.

See also[]

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