Storylines
Shelley comes to the rescue when staff are short behind the bar at the Rovers. She had worked behind the club bar when Duggie Ferguson was playing for Weatherfield Rugby League Club. They are very good friends but it never develops into any more than that. Shelley is later devastated when Duggie dies on a building site in February 2002. In the pub, Shelley proves to be a popular barmaid. After Fred Elliott (John Savident) buys the pub, Shelley and colleague Geena Gregory (Jennifer James) compete for the position of bar manager. Shelley is given the job and Geena resents this. Shelley settles into the job quite well though does tend to be a bit too lenient with the staff. Her best friend is Sunita Parekh, who works at the corner shop.
Shelley falls in love with Peter Barlow after he leaves the navy and returns to the Street over Christmas, 2001. They move in together into the flat over the bookies on Rosamund Street, and Peter buys the bookies. They have a rough patch and break up for a while after Peter's friend Ciaran McCarthy (Keith Duffy) visits, making a pass at Shelley. She doesn't tell Peter at first but when he finally finds out, Ciaran makes it sound as if Shelley came on to him. Peter becomes very jealous and Shelley, hurt that Peter didn't believe her, leaves. Once it becomes clear to Peter that Ciaran is lying, Peter cuts off his friendship and he and Shelley reconcile. Ciaran returns to Weatherfield for Peter and Shelley's engagement party and stays on, much to Shelley's chagrin. Peter and Ciaran begin to renew their friendship and Shelley ends up accepting it but never really trusting Ciaran, who later gets engaged to Sunita.
Peter and Shelley move into the pub when Fred moves in with his son Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) after the death of his wife Maxine (Tracy Shaw), but what Shelley doesn't know is that Peter is seeing another woman, Lucy Richards (Katy Carmichael), who gets pregnant. Peter can't find the words to tell Shelley, because every opportunity either gets interrupted or he loses his nerve. Just when he finally wants to tell her, a week before he is going to marry Lucy, Shelley's sister, Sharon, dies. Peter marries Lucy on the day of Sharon's funeral, but Lucy soon finds out that Peter had never broken up with Shelley and kicks him out for good. Peter, although not divorced, marries Shelley in July 2003. Peter's baby, Simon has just been born. By the end of the summer, though, Lucy spills the beans and tells Shelley about her and Peter's marriage and the baby. Shelley and Peter break up for good and Shelley then nurses a broken heart while trying to run the pub with the help of her mother, Bev.
In January 2004, Shelley has an ill-fated date with Newton & Ridley drayman Eric Gartside (Peter Kay). Eric tries his best to woo Shelley and takes her out for an expensive meal, however, when they go back to his house for a drink, she is quickly put off by his mother, Dolly. Shelley tells Eric that he is a lovely man but she doesn’t think things would work out between them. Shelley then starts seeing builder Charlie Stubbs, even though he had been previously going out with her mother, Bev. In spite of his relationship with Shelley, it doesn’t take Charlie long to bed Bev behind her back. Bev makes the awkward decision to come clean to her daughter, but Charlie makes sure that Shelley doesn’t believe a word of it. Shelley is hurt and frustrated by her mothers constant lies and interference in her love life and kicks her out of the Rovers. Devastated that her daughter could believe Charlie over her, Bev leaves Weatherfield.
On her return to Weatherfield, Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard) is offered a job and a room at the Rovers by Fred. Shelley and Liz don’t get on from the start, as Shelley had already hired Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) to fill the position left by Bev. Fred states that his choice is final, and Liz stays. It doesn’t take long for Charlie to begin to make a move on Liz. She refuses his advances and tells Shelley, who, true to form, rejects any claim that Charlie could cheat on her. Again, Charlie pressurises Shelley into believing him, and Liz is sacked from the pub and leaves Weatherfield briefly to help former Rovers landlady Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) in Brighton.
Charlie and Shelley’s relationship continues to be a picture of happiness to the other Street residents, and to Shelley herself. When Liz returns she is reinstated at the Rovers, but it isn’t long before Charlie tries it on yet again. She walks out, this time for good, and takes a job at the Weatherfield Arms. After Liz has left, Shelley becomes more and more concerned about Charlie straying. The height of this comes when a drunken Shelley marches over to No. 8 and confronts Gail Platt (Helen Worth), who she thinks is having an affair with Charlie. Shelley yells drunkenly at Gail, to which Gail famously replies: "Just go home and sleep it off, you silly girl!", and tells Shelley that Charlie was doing some building work for her. Shelley is shame-faced and Charlie tells her that she is stupid. Shelley grovels to Charlie and they stay together.
After Maya Sharma (Sasha Behar) burns down Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin)’s grocery shop empire, Shelley thinks, that since they are friends, Charlie could do all of the rebuilding work for Dev. Over dinner at Dev and Sunita’s flat, Shelley makes suggestions to Dev that Charlie would do the work for cheap and that he could start as soon as possible, since he has little work on the go. This enrages Charlie who, back at the Rovers, tells Shelley that she has seriously undermined him and made him look like a fool who couldn’t get any work. Again, Shelley grovels.
In December 2004, Shelley makes contact with her mother, Bev. The two women arrange to meet for lunch and Shelley tells Charlie that she is going to a Newton & Ridley Christmas party. Sly Charlie phones the brewery, who tell him that there is no such party, and his suspicions start to increase. He confronts Shelley who tries to deny her whereabouts at first, but when Charlie accuses her of seeing another man, she admits that she’d been to see Bev, and that they plan to meet up again. Charlie then makes Shelley phone Bev and tell her that she doesn’t want to see her any more. Charlie continues to put Shelley down, and after every phone call he accuses her of talking to her mother.
A few weeks later, Bev turns up at No. 1 and asks Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) to pop next door to the Rovers and fetch Shelley because the two women need to talk. Shelley lies that everything is fine with Charlie and tries her best to make Bev think the same. As she is leaving, Bev tells Deirdre to keep an eye out on Shelley as she thinks that Charlie was treating her badly.
For New Year 2004, Charlie buys Shelley a new dress; however, it transpires that the dress is two sizes too small for her. Charlie pretends to be upset that he has got the wrong size, but then hints that instead of getting a replacement, Shelley should try and lose some weight. Shelley is upset by this, and tells him to get the dress in a larger size. Instead, Charlie gives the dress to his workmate Jason Grimshaw (Ryan Thomas) who hastily gave it to his barmaid girlfriend Violet Wilson (Jenny Platt). Shelley is humiliated when Violet turns up at work in the dress, and causes a scene in front of a pub full of regulars. In the end, Charlie manages to get his own way (as usual) when Shelley suggests that it would be a good idea to lose a bit of weight.
Charlie further isolates Shelley until she ends up hiding away from every one in her bedroom for several months. She pushes away all her friends, including Ciaran who ends up leaving Weatherfield. Shelley thinks having some plastic surgery on her face would help her feel better about herself so Charlie pays for it. She then thinks that they should get married and Charlie goes along with it, not thinking she'd actually go through with it. In the meantime, he finds her a psychologist called Zack (Ralph Ineson) because she is also retreating from him. Charlie doesn't realise that Zack would start to give Shelley the confidence she needs to start standing up to him. He tries to fire Zack since he is paying the bills. This seems to be the last straw Shelley needs. She does manage to get to the church and so does Charlie after a night with another woman. Then Shelley dumps Charlie at the altar and takes herself home through the streets of Weatherfield, head held high. She throws Charlie out of the pub and starts rebuilding her life and her friendships.
After Bev agrees to marry Fred, Shelley starts to feel more left out and overshadowed in the pub when Bev started acting the landlady even before the wedding. Shelley decides she needs a fresh start and gets a job at a country pub in the Peak District. Before she leaves, she has a one night stand with Charlie. She returns a month or so later to help Bev with the wedding, only to reveal that she has become pregnant after the night with Charlie. Bev wants Shelley to terminate the pregnancy but Shelley is determined to keep it, a new baby and a fresh start. She insists that Charlie not find out about it. Bev slips and tells Deirdre who is horrified because Charlie is now going out with her daughter Tracy (Kate Ford). Deirdre insists she is going to tell Tracy before Shelley but Shelley gets there first leading to a confrontation in the back room of the pub. Tracy confronts Charlie and tells him to make Shelley have a termination. Shelley nearly gets away without seeing Charlie but he confronts her. She insists she will keep the baby and never ask him for a penny. He doesn't believe her, but she leaves nonetheless, telling him the baby would never know who its father is.
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