| abstract | - Janice Berry was the Community Centre’s Youth Club leader when Ken Barlow started his job as Community Development Officer in November 1975. Nothing more than a schoolgirl herself, Janice was instantly attracted to Ken and tried to chat him up, emphasising that she found boys her own age too immature and preferred older men. When she pointed out that both of them being single, they had a lot in common, Ken replied that there was the matter of some twenty years between them. Janice was not to be put off though and brought Ken cups of tea and offered to get her dad to help with the club’s electrics. He slowly came to realise though that there was another side to Janice. She used her position to bully other weaker members of the group, refusing to allow them entry to events if they didn’t provide her with cigarettes. Ken was first alerted to this when he spoke with mousy Debbie Shaw who, although she didn’t tell about the cigarettes, did tell him that Janice had her own door policy. Ken confronted Janice with this, only to be told that Debbie was a fantasist. When Mary Broughton, who had been warned off Ken by Janice, told him that she was leaving the club because of her behaviour, he decided he had to take action. Janice told Ken that she had been elected youth leader but he discovered that no actual count had been held. He therefore forced one to take place at which Mary and two other members, Keith and Angela, also stood as candidates. Although Janice and her allies tried their best to influence the vote, Mary won. Janice, having warned Ken that she was the only one who could keep the others in order, left the club in anger.
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