The new houses and shops were completed in February, and gradually became occupied. Newlyweds Des and Steph Barnes, played by Philip Middlemiss and Amelia Bullmore, took over No.6, and ruffled a few feathers when, to win a bet with Des, Steph lured Kevin Webster upstairs and shaved off his moustache. The Barnes were a flashy, well-off young couple - branded as yuppies in the media - who exemplified producer Mervyn Watson's notion of the new Coronation Street attracting a different kind of character.