frank bradley, played by tommy boyle, made his first screen appearance on 8 july 1970. frank and his friend jud johnson turned up looking for ray langton (neville buswell) and, after swearing that they were reformed characters, talked ray into giving them a job. ray employed frank and jud to build a display cabinet for ernest bishop's (stephen hancock) shop, but they stole a camera and threatened to pin the blame on ray, unless he helped them with a robbery. ken barlow (william roache) scared frank and jed off by posing as a policeman. a newly returned bet lynch (julie goodyear) was not put off by frank's past and embarked on a "passionate affair" with him. at nineteen, frank was almost half bet's age and she was worried that he would leave her. bet tried to get frank to commit to her, but he felt trapped and broke off the relationship.