Des Barnes is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Philip Middlemiss. Storylines Des was deeply in love with Steph (Amelia Bullmore), but she did not seem to care as deeply for him, and eventually left him for another man. Des had been building a boat in the back garden for years, and the date of the launch coincided with Steph leaving him. He burned the boat on a canal. When Terry Duckworth (Nigel Pivaro) was in prison, Des offered his back garden to his ex wife Lisa (Caroline Milmoe) for their son Tommy to play in. His relationship with Lisa gradually strengthened, until Terry's mother Vera (Elizabeth Dawn) told Terry that Des and Lisa were spending time together. Terry subsequently arranged for some criminal associates outside prison to beat Des. Lisa found out that Terry was behind the beating and declared her marriage to Terry over, and moved back to Blackpool with her parents. Des visited Lisa several times, then asked her to move back to Weatherfield with him. Vera was furious, accusing Des of breaking up her son’s marriage and referring to him as a bookie's runner. Lisa was killed in February 1993 when she was run over by a car whilst crossing the street from the Rovers. Des was affected a lot more than Terry. Tommy went to live with Lisa's parents in Blackpool, but Des still saw him when they brought him to Weatherfield to visit Vera and Jack (Bill Tarmey). After Lisa's death, Des began dating Raquel Wolstenhulme (Sarah Lancashire). She eventually moved in with him, but she knew that he was never going to ask for her hand in marriage, breaking their relationship. However, the two were reconciled when Des advised against her seeing someone she had met on a modelling assignment. Soon after Des embarked on an affair with Tanya Pooley (Eva Pope), who was dating Des's boss, Alex Christie (Gavin Richards) at the time. Tanya could not resist Des and saw it as an opportunity to get at Raquel, whom she did not like and often bullied. One night Des went to see Tanya and found Alex with her. During the resulting fight between the two men, Raquel arrived and discovered the affair. Raquel later got engaged to Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy). Des appeared at their party and forced Raquel to admit that she did not