John Harold "Jack" Duckworth is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Bill Tarmey.

Tarmey had previously appeared as a background character in many episodes featuring scenes in the Rovers Return, including some occasional speaking lines.

More than twenty years after first appearing, Tarmey eventually cut down filming due to problems with his health and often contemplated leaving the series.

Jack's storylines have focused on his long-standing marriage to his wife Vera (Liz Dawn) which has been complex and at times been described as "rocky".

His exit storyline was fairly documented in the media, receiving positive reactions and many state he is fondly remembered for his love of pigeons.

Whilst Jack is working a fairground ride, the waltzer, he meets Vera Burton (Liz Dawn), and they soon begin a relationship.

Since they had not been legally married, they make their marriage official by tying the knot in the famous Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.

Jack makes his first appearance on 28 November 1979 when Vera forces him to attend the wedding of her friend and colleague Ivy Tilsley's (Lynne Perrie) son Brian (Christopher Quinten) to Gail Potter (Helen Worth).

Prior to Jack's 1979 debut, Bill Tarmey often appeared as an extra in The Rovers Return Inn, playing darts.

Jack enrols with a video dating agency in 1983, referring to himself as "Vince St. Clair" and obtains a white suit, gold medallion and phoney trans-Atlantic accent.

Jack confesses to his friend Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy) that unbeknownst to Vera, he had knowledge of the affair, and had beaten her lover up; though he claims that he believes Terry to be his own son as he reminds him too much of himself.

Jack and Vera find it hard to cope financially, but Terry takes Tommy off of them and sells him to Lisa's parents Jeff and Doreen Horton and he goes to live with them in Blackpool.

Jack once agrees to sell his dead body for a large amount of cash to an artist (Maggie McCarthy) who enjoys painting stuffed humans, so he could buy Vera a Christmas present.

After the couple plan to relocate to Blackpool, Jack discovers Vera has died in her sleep in her armchair on 18 January 2008, devastating many of Weatherfield's residents.

Months later, Jack's grandson Paul Clayton (Tom Hudson), having returned to Weatherfield previously, confesses to the police to burning down Valandro's, Leanne Battersby's (Jane Danson) restaurant.

Jack is present once again in early-2010, when Molly and Tyrone are having marriage difficulties and is seen in the Rovers after the funeral of Blanche Hunt (Maggie Jones) in May 2010.

However, when Connie turns up at the house and cryptically demands why Jack hasn't told them the real reason for his stay, he is forced to reveal the truth.

After seeing Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire) collecting money in the Rovers to repair the roof of the local church, he anonymously donates over £2,000 to the fund.

When Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) confides in Jack about problems that he is having with his wife Claire (Julia Haworth), he attempts to reconcile the couple by encouraging them to talk to one another.

Jack goes home and whilst listening to a Matt Monro record "Softly As I Leave You", which Tyrone had given him as a present, he dies in his armchair and is joined by the ghost of Vera, who tells him off, yet again, for his scruffy appearance.

[3] Actor William Tarmey had previously been an extra in the serial, and in 1978 he played the small credited part of "Jack Rowe".

Of his previous credits, Tarmey states: "I'd worked on Coronation Street for about ten years throwing darts in the background and whilst doing that I was doing little cameo parts, on other programmes.

[13] Stuart Heritage of newspaper The Guardian describes Jack as having "a constant downbeat aura of a person who knows that his entire life has been a joyless procession of gloomy disappointments.

[16] Tarmey brands one of Jack's good qualities as being the fact he is not a thief, but did add "He regards stealing Alec Gilroy's (Roy Barraclough) beer as one of the perks of his job".

[3] Dawn opines: "It was very cleverly written, because Vera knew that Jack had a girlfriend on the side but she didn't know the other woman was Bet.

"[3] On 8 November 2010 Tarmey made his final appearance, with Jack dying in his armchair at his old Coronation Street house, following a birthday party at the Rovers.

[20] In January 1985, David Porter of current affairs magazine, Third Way, criticised Coronation Street's attitude towards employment, stating that being unemployed seemed to not be a problem for some characters as they were either "loved layabouts" or "acknowledged rogues", like Jack.

[21] In Dorothy Catherine Anger's book Other worlds: society seen through soap opera she brands Jack as one of the "middle aged men" who "over the years have, stymied their wives' efforts to be accepted as respectable".

[22] Dorothy Hobson in her book Soap Opera stated that marriages never seem to last in the genre, but added that Jack and Vera were an exception, in her opinion it was because although he loved her, he was terrified of sex.

"[14] Lucy Mangan writing for The Guardian reviewed the serial's theatrical piece Corrie!, stating: "The scene in which Terry arrives to take his son away from grandparents Jack and Vera is enough to precipitate a Proustian rush of tearful memories.