Neil Mitchell was a local handyman who met Angie Freeman when he replaced the windows at 7 Coronation Street in July 1992. There was a mutual attraction but nothing came of their brief flirtation. Four months later, Neil was outfitting the new salon at 2 Coronation Street for Denise Osbourne when Curly Watts asked him to convert the loftspace of No.7 into an observatory. Neil took the job but inadvertently caused trouble for Curly when he mentioned it to Curly's fiancée Kimberley Taylor, who had other ideas for the loft. He also had fun with Mavis Wilton by joking that Curly would point his telescope at her house.