Mike Baldwin had a brief relationship with florist
Maggie Dunlop (Jill Kerman). Problems for the pair soon emerged when Maggie became pregnant and she eventually ended things with him after Mike refused to buy the florist's she worked in. She married Harry Redman shortly before the birth of her son, Mark. The Redmans moved away, and Mike did not see Mark for years. One major storyline involving Mike came in 1983 when he had an affair with local resident
Deirdre Barlow (
Anne Kirkbride) during her marriage to central protagonist
Ken Barlow (
William Roache). At first Deirdre had dated Mike, but then decided Ken suited her better for marriage. Ken and Deirdre soon married, but she turned to Mike when her marriage with Ken began to face problems. After she had confessed everything to Ken about the affair, Mike turned up on the doorstep in the hope of taking her away; but in the end she decided to stay with Ken after choosing him over Mike. This event began the long-running feud between Mike and Ken, with the two men becoming sworn
arch-enemies in the process. In 1986, Mike began dating Ken's daughter,
Susan Barlow (
Wendy Jane Walker) – who was many years his junior – and soon proposed to her. She accepted despite family reservations; when Ken found out about his daughter's relationship with Mike, he confronted him at the factory and punched Mike after telling him "I've had enough of your poisoning in my family - more than enough!!". Ken was further upset to hear about Susan's prospects of marrying Mike, but he reluctantly accepted this after Susan confronts her father about her decision. Mike eventually married Susan in May 1986, but their marriage steadily failed a year later due to the pair having a dispute about their plans for the future. On discovering that Susan was pregnant, Mike wanted her to become a stay-at-home wife and mother. But Susan decided to have an
abortion, and moved to
Newcastle after Mike broke up with her in response to this. The result of Susan's departure and the break-up of her marriage with Mike escalated the animosity between him and Ken. This soon continued when Mike later found out Ken had cheated on Deirdre with his mistress
Wendy Crozier (Roberta Kerr) and proceeded to taunt Ken about it. Eventually, after Deirdre discovered Ken's betrayal and ended their marriage in 1990, he faced many problems and went in
The Rovers Return Inn public house to cope with his troubles. But then Mike taunted Ken in public and provoked him into a fight that ended with the latter's humiliation. Years later, Ken got his life back on track when he met Maggie and began dating her until he learned about her past with Mike. Eventually the couple broke up due to Ken's growing resentment towards Mike. By then, Mike's on/off relationship with local neighbour
Alma Sedgewick (
Amanda Barrie) lasted the longest. He initially abandoned Alma to marry wealthy widow
Jackie Ingram (Shirin Taylor), who inherited a factory from her late husband Peter - the latter of whom had died of a heart attack during an argument with Mike over their past as business competitors. However, Mike's marriage with Jackie lasted one week when she discovered his
marriage of convenience agenda. She responded by breaking up with Mike and threatening him with a shotgun if he did not get out of her sight. Then in 1992, Mike proposed to Alma after her relationship with Ken failed; she accepted and Mike finally married her soon afterwards. Several years later, Mike's marriage with Alma was tested when he contemplated going into business partnership with fellow entrepreneur
Stephen Reid (
Todd Boyce) and was initially unaware that Alma had been smitten with Stephan. But then Stephan attempted to get one over Mike by seducing Alma, who responded by slapping Stephan and reconciling with Mike afterwards. The year 1996 saw Mike making another sworn nemesis – this time with local taxi driver
Don Brennan (
Geoffrey Hinsliff). The conflict between them started when Mike bankrupted Don in a poker game many years ago before he later tricked him into buying a garage at an overrated price; Don consequently lost everything and he blamed Mike for his losses. Later on, Don confronted Mike in the pub and attempted to punch him; Mike dodged it and humiliated Don by punching him back. By 1997, the quarrel between them had intensified as Don sought to get revenge on Mike. At one point Don vandalised what he believed to be Mike's car, only to later find out that it was somebody else's vehicle. Don then broke into Mike's factory and set the building on fire. However, Don's plan backfired as he destroyed evidence that would have led to Mike facing police charges of counterfeiting his products. Thereafter Mike was acquitted from police investigation and he received an insurance claim that all but financially saved his business from liquidation, thereby allowing Mike to reinstate his business into an underwear factory called "Underworld". Don, enraged by his failure to get revenge on Mike, decided to target Alma by kidnapping her in his taxi while her husband was taking his solicitor for dinner. Alma's plight culminated dramatically when Don tried to kill her by driving the taxi into a canal, but they both survived the crash and Don was held in police custody whilst Mike comforted Alma over the ordeal. Several months later, however, Don escaped and resolved to kill Mike at all costs. Don soon ambushed Mike in the factory and attempted to beat him to death, but was interrupted and forced to flee. Mike then rushed outside to find Don inside Alma's car, intending to run him over. Don drove the car at Mike, who ducked out of the way in time; Don crashed the car into the viaduct and was killed when the vehicle exploded as Mike watched on along with many other residents. In 1998, Mike clashed with Ken again over Deirdre when the pair learned that she was facing a prison sentence after being implicated by her ex-fiancé
Jon Lindsay (
Owen Aaronovitch) for his fraudulent activities. But the two rivals are soon forced to work together and they eventually managed to exonerate Deirdre by exposing Lindsay's past felony as a bigamist. Coincidentally, Mike's marriage with Alma was in trouble due to him spending less time with her throughout the Deirdre prison scandal. Mike assured Alma that he loved her, but then their marriage ended permanently when he cheated on Alma by having a short-lived fling with his employee Julia Stone when she blackmailed him for large sums of cash. When Alma discovered the betrayal, she confronted Mike and broke up with him; Alma later divorced Mike and thus reverted her identity back to her old maiden name of Halliwell. Unable to win Alma back, Mike began to romantically settle himself with loud-mouthed machinist
Linda Sykes (
Jacqueline Pirie). It seemed as though as the pair formed a romantic interest in each other, but it quickly turned out Linda is a golddigger who was only interested in Mike for his fortune. It was then Mike's long-lost son
Mark Redman (
Paul Fox), the product of Mike's past fling with Maggie, came to Weatherfield to settle himself in the street. Mike steadily bonded with Mark and took him on at the factory as manager. Soon enough Mike's relationships with both Mark and Linda had developed, but little did he know that Mark and Linda would end up having an affair when she seduced his son behind his back. Mike eventually proposed to Linda and they got married, but then he learned about her affair with his son after Mark reveals the truth to him. When he confronted the pair over the betrayal, Mike was tricked by Linda into believing that Mark had been pursuing her and that she tried to end their affair - when in reality it had been the other way round; Linda was the one pursuing Mark behind his father's back. But in the end Mike believed Linda and forgave her, disowning Mark as a result. A month later, Mike is held hostage alongside Ken and many other residents in a supermarket siege; the crisis ended when the gunman, Linda's brother Ryan, was killed and it was then Mike comforted Linda over her loss despite the ordeal. Following the supermarket siege, Mike and Ken called a truce with each other. But this doesn't last long when Susan resurfaces and reveals that she has a son named
Adam (
Iain De Caestecker/
Sam Robertson), before later telling her family that Mike was the father; Susan had been lying when she said she had terminated her pregnancy years ago. When Mike finds out that Susan lied about the pregnancy and that he is Adam's father, he threatened to fight for custodial rights for their son; Susan thereupon attempted to escape again, but tragically she crashed her car on the motorway and was killed. Adam survived the crash and was rushed to hospital, where Mike and Ken along with his family learned about the tragedy. Ken blamed Mike for Susan's death and the two rivals started a custody battle over Adam following Susan's funeral, during which Mike told Adam that he was his father. In the end Mike was awarded custody, but he returned Adam to his
boarding school in
Scotland as his friends were there. By mid-2001, Mike's marriage with Linda seemed to have improved. But trouble soon reemerges when Alma returns and tells Mike that she is dying of
cervical cancer. At this point, he realised that marrying Linda was a mistake and resolved to spend time with Alma in her last few days of life; Linda grew unhappy with this and so slept with Mike's new business associate Harvey Ruben in retribution. When Mike found out what Linda had done, he admitted that Alma was dying and slapped Linda when she reacted indifferently to the news. Mike threatened to end his marriage to Linda, but eventually agreed to give her one more chance following Alma's funeral; Alma had died after spending time with her last ones, including Mike. Before she died, though, Alma learned that Mike had disowned Mark and persuaded him to make peace with his son in her honour; Mike agreed to this and Mark went to visit his father on the day Linda's mother,
Eve Sykes (
Melanie Kilburn), was due to marry his best friend
Fred Elliott (
John Savident) at the same church where Mike and Linda had got married a year ago. However, Mike later overheard Linda taunting Mark over their past affair and how she managed to trick his father into believing her over his son. This caused Mike to realise that Mark was telling the truth about Linda all along, and he responds by breaking up with Linda after confronting her over the extent of her lies and deceit. Afterwards, Linda disappeared mysteriously and Mike was accused of murdering her; he was soon questioned by the police on suspicion of murder, but the charges were quickly dropped when Linda was found in
Ireland with a new man. In 2004, Mike's extended family came to Weatherfield. Among them were Mike's son
Danny (
Bradley Walsh), as a result of a fling between Mike and his sister-in-law
Viv (
Patricia Brake) in the past. Danny's wife and Mike's daughter-in law,
Frankie (
Debra Stephenson); their son and Mike's grandson,
Warren (
Danny Young); and Danny's other son and Mike's other grandson,
Jamie (
Rupert Hill). Towards the end of 2005, Mike was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease, aged 63. He soon split from his fiancée
Penny King (Pauline Fleming). He once asked his close friend
Rita Sullivan (
Barbara Knox) how her husband
Len Fairclough (
Peter Adamson) was doing – when he had in fact died more than 20 years earlier. He also went into The Rovers Return and asked where his old flame
Bet Lynch (
Julie Goodyear) was, not remembering that she had left the pub 10 years earlier. A further misunderstanding caused him to become estranged from Adam. Soon enough Danny engineered sole inheritance of Mike's empire at the behest of his girlfriend
Leanne Battersby (
Jane Danson). In 2006, Mike's condition had rapidly deteriorated to the point where he was eventually admitted to hospital with
pneumonia in early April that year. But then Mike escaped and made his way back to his factory in Coronation Street, where he was found by his old rival Ken. Shortly afterwards, Mike collapsed and died in Ken's arms after having a massive
heart attack. He was 64 years old. His passing – like that of Alma in 2001 – was respected with the theme tune not being played over the credits, though a continuity announcement was made. His last words were "You're finished, Barlow. Deirdre loves me; she's mine." Over the last few months of his life, he had been confusing the past and present: Alma, his beloved former wife who had died in 2001, was often mentioned, as was Bet – he even broke into Bet's former home in 2006, only to be confronted by Leanne's father
Les (
Bruce Jones) as he was the current tenant. In October 2019, Adam discussed Mike's death with Ken and states the irony of Mike dying in Ken's arms, given the rivalry that Ken and Mike had with each other in the past decades. ==Reception==