Pat Phelan is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by Connor McIntyre. He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 2 October 2013. The character was introduced as an acquaintance of builder Owen Armstrong (Ian Puleston-Davies), who later goes into business partnership with Phelan that soon turns out to be part of the latter's revenge plot against both Owen and his protégé Gary Windass (Mikey North) over a £4,000 debt they forced him to repay. The storyline led to Gary's mother Anna Windass (Debbie Rush), also Owen's romantic partner, getting raped by Phelan after he coerced her into sleeping with him in exchange for ending his blackmail threat against her family. He then departed on 14 April 2014.
The character was reintroduced on 19 January 2016. His reign of terror continued as Phelan clashed with archenemies Anna and Gary once more, during which he establishes a romantic relationship with their next-door neighbour Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) and later ends up marrying her. He also commits a number of crimes, which include conning several residents out of their money in a fraudulent property scheme; causing the death of Eileen's boyfriend Michael Rodwell (Les Dennis); blackmailing and then murdering Michael's surrogate son Andy Carver (Oliver Farnworth) after holding him captive in a basement for several months; kidnapping his former partner-in-crime Vinny Ashford (Ian Kelsey) and having him killed by Andy on the same night of the latter's murder; killing Andy's best-friend Luke Britton (Dean Fagan); and getting Anna wrongfully jailed after successfully framing her for injuring their mutual acquaintance Seb Franklin (Harry Visinoni) in a ladder accident. Phelan's long-lost daughter Nicola Rubinstein (Nicola Thorp) was introduced in 2017, a development that continues exploration of the character's background; their father-daughter bond ended when Nicola discovered her father's true nature, including the alleged discovery that Phelan had previously raped her late mother Annabel and beat up the latter's husband Issac in the past.
Eventually Phelan's crimes are exposed in March 2018 and during a confrontation with Eileen, he falls into the sea and is presumed dead. Phelan returns as part of a series of special post-watershed episodes, which concluded when he was killed-off by Anna in the end. During the character's second stint, he was named one of the best soap villains of all time and in the programme itself; alongside the likes of fellow Corrie antagonists Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) and Richard Hillman (Brian Capron) respectively.
Development Departure On 31 January 2018, it was confirmed that Phelan would be leaving the show in an "explosive stunt".
Storylines Backstory Pat Phelan started residing in Weatherfield, a fictional district in Greater Manchester, years before his first arrival; he was born on 30th October 1963 and grew up becoming a builder and businessman.
2013–2014 In October 2013, Phelan was introduced as a business client of Weatherfield proprietor Owen Armstrong (Ian Puleston-Davies) when the latter visited his house to confront Phelan over his £4,000 debt; Owen had previously done a job for Phelan, who then refused to pay for it. Phelan explained that he was bankrupt and that all of his financial assets are bequeathed to his wife Valerie (Caroline Berry), who had earlier refused to pay Owen when he visited her salon shop to confront Valerie over her husband's debt. In response, Owen summons his protege Gary Windass (Mikey North) and the pair break into Phelan's house; they steal his motorbike and lock it away at Owen's building yard to force Phelan into repaying the debt he owes. Phelan later confronts Owen at his yard and initially threatens to call the police, but is forced to relent when Owen makes it clear that he knows all about Phelan's "shady" past and also threatens to tell Valerie about his recent infidelity. Left with no other choice, Phelan pays Owen the £4,000 he owes him and is given back his motorbike; Phelan then deaprts but not before after being introduced to Owen's girlfriend and Gary's mother: Anna Windass (Debbie Rush)
Two months later before Christmas 2013, Phelan visits Owen at his house with a business proposition; to put forward a flat-conversion contract, with Owen acting as the project's front since Phelan is bankrupt. Despite family reservations, Owen becomes interested in the offer and meets up with Phelan in early 2014 to discuss their potential partnership. Phelan tells Owen that he needs £80,000 stumping up for the costs, but guarantees that he would make over £200,000 profit and gives him 24 hours to discuss the deal with his family. While Anna opposes the idea due to her belief that Phelan is a conman, Owen's youngest daughter Katy (Georgia May Foote) convinces her father to go ahead with the partnership; Owen thus goes into business with Phelan.
With the business appearing to run smoothly, Anna decides to visit Phelan and apologize for her reservations against him. Phelan accepts her apology but then surprises her by making a sexual compliment on her appearance. For the next few weeks Anna finds herself unsettled with Phelan's presence, especially when he delivers a card to her and she finds out it is about his inappropriate affection towards her. She eventually invites Phelan to her house and demands that he back off, but he ignores her warning and instead accuses her of trying to come onto him. He then makes a move on Anna, who responds by throwing him out of her house. She later feigns illness to avoid another meeting with Phelan and Valerie at the Bistro, only for her desperation to be perceived by Owen's older daughter Izzy (Cherylee Houston) that night. When Anna is unable to stop Izzy from prying her suspicions, she reluctantly confides that Phelan attempted to rape her. Izzy comforts Anna and agrees to not tell Gary, especially as he is also Izzy's boyfriend at the time.
However, when Gary begins to take notice of the secret, Izzy is forced to tell him about the incident. Later on that evening, Gary confronts Phelan at the worksite once Owen and the other builders have left the area. Gary demands that Phelan stay away from his mother, but Phelan rebuffs this and begins insulting Anna by calling her names. This causes Gary to snap and punch Phelan, which leads to the two having a physical fight; Phelan easily gets the upper hand until Gary ends up striking him over the head with a plank of wood, knocking Phelan unconscious as a result. Gary, believing he has killed Phelan, calls Owen to tell him what has happened; Owen and Gary later go to the worksite to deal with Phelan's body, only to end up discovering that Phelan has vanished.
A few days later in March 2014, Phelan reappears in Weatherfield and summons Gary and Owen without the rest of their family's knowledge — implicitly telling the duo how he plans to get revenge on them over the incident. When they attempt to end their partnership with Phelan the following morning, he takes Gary and Owen into the site office and shows them the CCTV footage of Gary attacking him. Phelan assures Gary and Owen that he has further copies and then demands that either they complete the work for a minimum wage — gleaning no profit — or he would hand the CCTV footage into the police. Despite Gary's reluctance, Owen complies with Phelan's orders as he does not want his grandson Jake to grow up without a father figure if Gary were to be sent to prison. Phelan relishes in blackmailing Owen and Gary, such as ordering the former to wash his car and getting the latter to dig a grave for a dead pigeon. This effectively strains Owen and Gary's relationship, as they begin to take their frustrations out on each other as well as their family. Phelan continues to overwork the pair by forcing them to remove perfectly fitted windows from the building his crewmen are working on, an act which nearly causes Gary to lash out at Phelan again until Owen quickly separates them. Gary soon plans to get even on Phelan by stealing a shipment of tiles from him, but Phelan quickly finds out that it was Gary and was ready to report him to the police until Owen manages to stop him — pointing out that Gary's wages are already being docked because of the situation he caused in the first place. Phelan agrees not to report Gary to the police, but instead decides to keep the £80,000 that Owen invested onto their business project — which turns out to be what Phelan had intended to do all along to exact revenge on Owen for stealing his motorbike and being forced to pay what was owed. When Phelan takes Valerie on a holiday the next day, Gary breaks into their house in an attempt to extract the CCTV footage; however, Owen quickly stops him in his tracks — reminding Gary that Phelan has multiple copies. The two start planning on seeking other job opportunities in order to prevent Phelan from blackmailing them any further; however, this fails when Phelan discovers their intentions after learning of the break-in at his house and quickly deducing that Gary was behind it. In retaliation, Phelan arranges for Owen to be removed from the council's list of approved builders — effectively blacklisting him, which meant Owen could no longer get any independent work.
In April 2014, Phelan demotes Owen from his position as the project's site manager — replacing him with a disrespectful foreman: Clive (Gary Whitaker), who constantly antagonizes Owen throughout his shift. Towards the end of the evening, Phelan orders Owen to clean up the worksite alone before leaving the area with Clive — who unknowingly forgets to collect his lighter; Owen later finds the lighter and plans on setting fire to the worksite, destroying Phelan's empire in the process. Just as he prepares to do so, however, Anna confronts him for running late in attending Faye's school play and soon learns of the situation that Phelan has inflicted upon their family. After failing to convince Valerie to get her husband to back down, even when telling her about the actions Phelan has caused, Anna personally visits Phelan and pleads with him to go easy on Gary and Owen; with Anna further stating that Gary had once been in the army and had the traumatic experience of losing his comrades. At first, Phelan appears to ignore Anna's pleas when he insists that she joins him for lunch, but thereupon gives her an indecent proposition: to have sex with him and he would let Gary and Owen go from the project. A disgusted Anna initially refuses to accept Phelan's "transaction", but decides to give in when she later finds Gary having a mental breakdown over the escalating situation. The next day, Anna meets up with Phelan at the Dunford Hall Hotel — where the two have sex as Phelan had planned. Afterwards, Phelan teases Anna as she furiously leaves with a contract that he planted to represent his bargain of their deal. He soon pays the whole family a visit at their house and fulfills his agreement with Anna by telling Gary and Owen that they're out of the project — fabricating a story on how Anna spoke to Valerie about the situation and managed to coax her into persuading him to put their differences aside. After getting Owen to sign a contract that releases him and Gary from their duties, Phelan hands over the disc containing CCTV evidence of his assault before leaving the house — though not before he declares victory against the family, sarcastically telling them "It's been a pleasure". Phelan subsequently departed Weatherfield with Owen's £80,000 investment off-screen.