Thomas "Tommy" Duckworth born in September 1992 is the son of Terry and the late Lisa Duckworth. His mother was knocked down by a car when he was just a baby, and was later sold by his evil father Terry to his grandparents the Hortons (Lisa's parents), much to the distress of his other grandparents Jack and Vera Duckworth, who briefly looked after him. However he began to get regular visits to Jack and Vera, and was even given back to them briefly by Terry when the Hortons couldn't keep up paying the money, but eventually got full custody of him until he was eighteen.
In 2011, Tommy returned to the Street looking for Jack, only to learn he was dead. He moved in with Tyrone Dobbs a friend of Jack who considered him as a son. Tommy had an eye for the ladies, especially barmaid Tina McIntyre. After an on-off relationship with Tina where they had to face the return of Terry, Tommy's debts to a loan shark and her surrogacy with the Windass family, Tommy ended up leaving in 2013, having decided he'd had enough.
Biography
1992-2000: Early years
Tommy was born by caesarean while his father Terry was in Strangeways Jail serving a sentence for GBH. After spending a little time at 9 Coronation Street, Tommy and Lisa moved back to her parents house in Blackpool. Lisa and Tommy came back to the Street in January 1993 to live with her lover, Des Barnes. Sadly, Lisa was knocked down by a car outside the Rovers, and died on 12th February 1993.
Jack and Vera are delighted when Lisa gave birth to Tommy in 1992
Tommy's grandparents, Jack and Vera Duckworth, loved having their baby grandson living with them, but as both were getting on with years they struggled to look after him. Vera gave up her job to look after Tommy full-time, stretching the Duckworths' finances to breaking point and forcing Vera to start shoplifting just to put food on the table but she looked forward to the end of the year when Terry would be released, and they could all rebuild their lives as one family. Unfortunately, Terry had other ideas, and on Christmas Eve 1993 he told Jack and Vera that he had sold Tommy to Lisa's parents Jeff and Doreen Horton. Jack and Vera still saw Tommy regularly, but missed having him living with them.
In June 1996, Terry appeared back in the Street with Tommy. The Hortons had failed to pay the £2,000 a year they had agreed to pay Terry for Tommy. Eventually the Hortons got him back by paying £10,000, and got Terry to sign a document giving them total custody of Tommy until he was eighteen. Jack and Vera however regularly began to visit Tommy. They took care of him in the summer of 2000.
2011-2013: Return
Tommy travelled the world between 2010 and 2011. He turned up on the Street in March 2011 asking Tyrone where Jack was, and was shocked to hear that he had died. He began working as a mechanic with Tyrone and Kevin Webster although Kevin took an instant disliking to him. He had his eyes on barmaid Tina McIntyre. Although Tina was already in a relationship with Graeme Proctor and the pair split up after he left Weatherfield with his new wife Xin - initially the pair married to enable Xin to obtain a visa to avoid deportation, however Graeme slowly developed genuine feelings for Xin.
Tommy was happy when Tina moved into Tyrone's house as a lodger after she was forced out of the Corner Shop flat by Dev Alahan to make way for his daughter Amber. However, much to Tommy's dismay, Tina began dating local doctor Matt Carter, and Tommy attempted to warn him off, but it only drew them closer together. Tina and Tommy went a date in Nick's Bistro, however it didn't go down to well when Tommy found a piece of paper that Tina had written, which listed Tommy's pros and cons on. Tommy was angry with Tina and vice versa, but they eventually reconciled after Tommy's grandfather, Jeff passed away.
As Jeff and Doreen had raised him since he was a baby, his death hit Tommy hard, but coped well until Tommy's dad, Terry, showed up and, not knowing that Tommy was his son, punched him in the face for refusing to move his camper van. When Terry found out from Jason Grimshaw and Gary Windass that Tommy had inherited £12,000 from Jeff in his will, Terry was soon back to his old tricks trying to convince Tommy that he wanted him to work with him so he could get the money off Tommy. Tina, among others, didn't trust Terry but Tommy, desperate to have a proper dad, allowed Terry back into his life. They reconciled and Terry, unlike Tina, was quite happy to take Tommy's money and persuaded him to invest in Se7enth Hea7en, a new lapdancing club that he was starting up but admitted that he owed money to some loan sharks. Tommy offered to clear those debts but got caught in a whole new web of dilemmas. In order to pay his debts, Tommy took on extra work but he was so tired that he crashed his work's van and broke his ankle. Unfortunately as he was not working at the time he was driving the van, he had to pay the pizza company for the van as it was written off, landing him and Tina in more debt.
Worried about how they were going to pay their debts off, Tina took a second job doing Owen Armstrong's accounts and when she learnt that his daughter, Izzy and partner Gary were looking for a surrogate, she told Owen she'd be interested if the price was right. Owen offered Tina £15,000 and Tina agreed, upsetting Tommy and Rita Tanner. Rita told Tommy that Tina would need their help and support but Tommy could not offer her that after people learned that Tina was pregnant and assumed he was the father, until he told everyone in the Rovers that Gary and Izzy were the biological parents.
When Tina moved in ex-boyfriend David Platt after he was kicked out by his family, Tommy had enough and packed his bags, leaving for the Canary Islands. A few weeks later, Tommy contacted Tina and revealed that it was over between them.
Background information
- Chris Fountain was axed in August 2013 after videos surfaced on the internet of him making rap videos about rape and violence under the alias of "The Phantom". After his axing, the character's remaining scenes were aired over the next two months, and the character departed off-screen two weeks after his final appearance.
Quotes
"Unbelievable this, right going to get a sandwich from Roy's anybody want anything? Right in a bit." (Final line)