Ralph Dobson was sales manager at Ingram's Textiles and a close friend of Peter and Jackie Ingram. Ralph was put in charge of Mike Baldwin when Ingram made Mike work's manager on the shop floor to get at him. Mike convinced Jackie she should make a go of running the factory herself and passed this news onto Ralph. Ralph saw that Mike was now pulling the strings at the factory and handed in his resignation, advising Jackie that she was out of her depth and that Mike was poison.