Barney Holt was a work colleague of Eddie Yeats who came to 13 Coronation Street along with fellow binmen Alec Dewhurst and Johnny Webb for Hilda Ogden's Christmas party in December 1980. Alec was in a paralytic state before he arrived at the party and had to be supported into No. 13 by Barney. He was propped up against a wall where he stayed all of the evening, deathly white and staring vacantly into space. Barney, well-lubricated but in a more coherent state, spent the evening trying to chat up almost all of the women present, starting with Elsie Tanner and then moving on to Audrey Potter, asking who was taking her home. He even tried his luck with Hilda, who was upset that husband Stan didn't intervene but was more bothered that Barney tried to swipe his pint. The party was ruined when