Linda Baldwin (Coronation Street)

Infobox soap character
color=#F0E68C
series=Coronation Street
name=Linda Baldwin
portrayer=Jacqueline Pirie
born= 23 June 1975
death=
residence = Dublin
parents = Ray Sykes
Eve Elliot
spouse = Mike Baldwin (1999-2001)
siblings = Jimmy Sykes
Ryan Sykes
Dean Sykes

Linda Baldwin (née Sykes) was a fictional character, in "Coronation Street", a British television soap opera. She is played by Jacqueline Pirie.

Linda arrived in 1998 and immediately found work as a machinist at Underworld. She befriended fellow machinists Janice Battersby and Alison Wakefield, becoming bridesmaid at the latter's wedding to Kevin Webster in January 1999. She strongly dissaproved of Hayley Cropper, as she was disgusted when she learned that Hayley was a transsexual, but they later became friends.

Linda had a particularly tough background. Her mother Eve walked out on the family when Linda was young and, her being the eldest of the Sykes clan, had to help her father Ray raise her three younger brothers. When she was 15 her close friend Karen Phillips started living with her following her estrangement from her parents and they later went on to work as machinists in a factory called Wheelers.

Shortly after her arrival, Linda's boss Mike Baldwin and his wife Alma broke up following the revelation of Mike's affair with a former prostitute named Julia. Linda comforted her boss and soon afterwards they were having sex together. They began an affair which culminated when Mike proposed to Linda. She accepted, knowing that he was a millionaire entrepreneur. As they planned to marry, Mike got in touch with his son Mark Redman and invited him to the wedding. Linda took a shine to Mike's son, who was not much younger than her, and she soon began an affair with him.

However, as the wedding day approached Linda decided to end the affair with Mark so that her wedding could go ahead. Mark, however, was infatuated with his father's fiancee and was devastated by her brush-off, so much so, that he halted the wedding by not coming at all, then dragging Linda out of the church to speak to him. Whilst Linda's bridesmaid Geena Gregory stalled the ceremony with a worried Mike standing at the alter by himself, Mark proposed to Linda. She turned him down, however, and returned to the church, telling Mike that he'd need to get a new best man as Mark had scarpered. With Mark drowning his sorrows outside the church, Mike and Linda became husband and wife on 10 September 2000.

No sooner than having got married, however, than did Mark arrive at the wedding reception to announce privately to his father that he'd been having an affair with Linda. The newly-wed bride confessed to Mike that in a moment of weakness she'd had a short-lived fling with Mark when he first arrived, but it was all over and she loved him more than anything else. Taking his new wife's side over his son's, an angry Mike disowned a devastated Mark and left for his honeymoon with Linda.

After returning, Linda did almost everything in her power to make her marriage successful and keep Mike happy, so that he wouldn't throw her out for her infidelity. However it soon became apparent that he still had a soft spot for his ex-wife Alma. This became more apparent when both Mike and Alma and other residents of the street were held hostage on 12 October 2000 at the supermarket Freshco's by two young thugs. The police eventually burst in and one of the young thugs was shot. However when Linda arrived at the scene, she not only found her husband with his ex-wife, but also recognised that the thug who had been shot was her younger brother Dean Sykes. Accompanied by Mike in the ambulance, a devastated Linda held her brother's hand as he passed away. After that she swore revenge on Emma Watts, the police officer who shot him.

It was then that Mike was introduced to Linda's family at Dean's funeral. Linda was very cold and distant to all her family members, treating them as if she was now above them, and she was especially hard towards her mother Eve. However after the funeral Linda managed to patch things up with her mother and Eve returned to the street with her, where she met and fell in love with Fred Elliott.

Linda's marriage continued to go downhill as Mike learned that Alma was terminally ill with ovarian cancer. This led to him caring for her and going on trips around the country with her, resulting in Linda embarking on an affair with a man named Harvey, one of Mike's clients, in May 2001. After being caught in the act by Mike in June 2001, Linda finally snapped and went round to Alma's to have it out with her. However, during their heated argument Alma collapsed and after calling an ambulance, Alma was carried upstairs to her bedroom by paramedics where she died in peace on 17 June 2001 with Mike, her best friend Audrey Roberts and Audrey's daughter Gail Platt by her side.

Linda was racked with guilt over the entire incident, and Mike soon made it clear that he could never trust her again. He announced that he wanted a divorce, but Linda was not prepared to go without a fight. After enduring months of heated arguments, Mike finally set his wife up by bringing his son Mark back to the street. As Linda prepared to rekindle their old romance, Mike walked in on them and triumphantly announced that their marriage was over.

They stayed together for an extra only for appearances sake as her mother was preparing to tie the knot with Fred. However as the wedding took place on 5 September 2001, Mike made it clear to Linda that she would be gone by the end of the ceremony. He called a taxi for her and, along with Mark, dragged her from her hotel room to the taxi and sent her packing. She was never seen again.

After her departure, there was much debate over whether Mike had killed Linda and disposed of her body or not. Her car was found near the canal, and both her mother Eve and her brother Jimmy vowed to find her. However, Eve later discovered from her ex-husband Ray that Linda was alive and well and living in Dublin with a rich fiance.