Charlie Pickering was a slightly cheeky schoolboy at Bessie Street School when Ken Barlow was made Deputy Head there in January 1972. When watching a slideshow on the First World War that Ken presented, he told him that his own grandfather was in that conflict and asked why it was called the "Great War" and if it was so bad, why his grandad always talked about it. The character was only named in his last penultimate appearance.