Nick Turner was one of the students at Granston Technical College who Ken Barlow helped with his applications for enrolment at University. Enquiring about Birmingham and Sheffield, Ken suggested to Nick that he apply to both and helped him with his application forms. Ken later told fellow teacher Olive Rowe that Nick had reminded him of himself some years earlier when he was a working-class student ready to go to university and take on the world. Nick, for his part, had noticed Olive's interest in Ken and had teased his tutor on having an admirer.