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Karl “Fletch” Fletcher (Terry Kiely) 1997-1999, 2000-2003, 2004-2005, 2007
First Regular Appearance: 1.1 (#1) First Departure: 2.76 (#140) First Guest Appearance: 3.7 (#147) Second Regular Appearance: 3.48 (#188) Second Departure: 7.2 (#294) Long Live The King Second Guest Appearance: 7.19 (#311) Sheikover Third Regular Appearance: 8.10 (#334) Who Ate All The Pies Last Regular Appearance: 8.32 (#356) Play Off Third Guest Appearance: 10.24 (#411) Dragonslayer Sunday 8th April 2007 – 10.32 (#419) The Final Whistle Part Two Duration: EP: 1 - 140, 147, 188 - 294, 311 - 312, 334 - 356, 411 - 419 SE: 1.1 – 2.76, 3.7, 3.48 – 7.2, 7.19 – 7.20, 8.10 – 8.32, 10.24 – 10.32 Squad Number/Position: (#9) Striker (1992-1998) (#8) (1998-1999) (#11) (2000-2003, 2005) / Temporary Player Manager (2001, 2005) Last Seen: In death: Wrapped in a plastic sheet in the boot of Don Barker’s car. As a ghost: In DT’s last ever scene, with a smile for the goal that won Harchester their first Premier League Title in 21 years. |
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1972-82, 1989-97 The son of 1970’s and 80’s Dragons legend Jonny Fletcher, Karl Roderick Walter Fletcher was born in January 1972 and was raised by his father to be his successor to the Harchester throne. The nickname “Fletch” and his immense talent as a striker weren’t all Jonny passed onto his son, for the womanising ways and cocaine habbit of his father would become a feature from Karl’s early adult life. As a boy Karl was the Dragon mascot for the team at home games, and never out of the 1997-99 Fletch had it tough during Harchester’s first season back; his mentor Ron who had championed him as a player left the club, and younger players were favoured more despite Karl only being twenty-five himself. When his dabbling in cocaine saw him receive a three-month ban from football, Karl turned reckless, and began fooling around with chairwoman Stephanie Jacobs and her daughter Georgina at the same time. The discovery of this was the last in a line of heartbreaks for young Georgina, and she took an overdose. Fletch set his mind on putting his career first again, and his game was given a great boost with the promotion of Sean Hocknell from the youth team. Fletch had played with Sean’s older brother Dean the previous season, but found in Sean a sidekick and the two became best friends, soon sharing the vacated Baker house together. When Sean marries Mica Masters on a drunken night in Las Vegas, Fletch can see she will be trouble for his naïve buddy, and it puts a strain on their friendship. Fletch himself gets involved with canteen girl Kelly James, but she cares more for him than he does for her, and following Harchester’s historic FA Cup win of 1999, he leaves the club, and her, for Real Mallorca. 1999-00 Only a few months into his spell with Mallorca, Fletch gets the news that Sean has died in a plane crash, and returns to Harchester briefly for his memorial. Fletch is furious to overhear Scott Lucas critisising Sean's skill as a player, and gives him a punch for disrespecting his friend's memory. Fletch later meets with Dean, and is given back the tape he and Sean made on the FA Cup final day, which ultimately condemns Jerry Block as being behind the Wembley shootings. Towards the end of the season, Harchester face Real Mallorca in the UEFA Cup, and Karl contributed to knocking his former club out of the competition. He has become disillusioned at the club however, and with Harchester languishing at the bottom of the table, Karl’s re-signing was the boost the club needed. Fletch didn’t return without bringing his regular share of drama; he’d hooked up with Kelly once again out in Mallorca, despite knowing she was now engaged to Wes Kingsley. All it took was a bitter lose away for Fletch to gleefully spill the beans aboard the coach, resulting in Wes breaking his jaw! A humiliated Kelly wasn’t finished with Fletch either, and used her father’s car scrapping business to have Karl’s beloved yellow Lamborghini crushed into a cube, before presenting it to him in front of a photographer who snapped Fletch crying over the flattened remains of his motor! 2000-02 Beginning his first full season back with Harchester, Fletch experiences something he has never had to comprehend in his career - a dangerously unbalanced stalker in Craig Enwright. This culminated in Craig attacking Fletch with a baseball bat and holding Lynda Block captive in her own home, before being rescued by current manager Ray Wyatt. Also this season, Fletch becomes a pawn in Prashant Dattani’s plot to gain control of the club from Lynda, on the promise he was to be made player/manager. Prash became chairman, but Fletch found his time in charge reduced to a single day, before being left out of team selection altogether. Fletch was furious with Prash, and trouble later brewed when Dattani was found clubbed to death in his office. An unfortunate set of circumstances found Karl on trial for his murder, and he leaned on Lynda for support, before the two slept together for the first time. After being allowed to play what may be his last game, Fletch is found guilty, but Lynda stands up and admits she was responsible. Fletch grows to hate Lynda for how she’d let him suffer for something she’d done, while at the same time allowing himself to fall in love with her. With Lynda latched on to Sam Irving for security, and her sentencing looming, Fletch asks Lynda to marry him, but she doesn't feel the way he does. While on his way with the team to the UEFA Cup Final, the coach crashes on the M1. 2002-03 Fletch escapes with broken bones, but that and his broken heart over Lynda is mended by Abi, his phyiotherapy nurse. After a whirlwind romance, they married. This coming season Karl showed his true commitment to the club when he took on rogue manager Patrick Doyle in his bet to cause Harchester’s relegation. Patrick spiked Fletch with cocaine in order to take him down before arranging a drugs test, which Karl narrowly passed. By the time Fletch realised his best friend Jamie Parker was in deep with Patrick, it was too late, for his life had been destroyed. He took the team hostage, accidentally shooting Abi and causing her to be unable to have children. At this same time, Lynda made contact from prison to inform Fletch and Abi she had given birth to his son Louis, and it was now time to give him up to Fletch. It was Fletch and Abi’s only chance to have a child, and the three became a family. This was to be short-lived however, as incoming Chief Executive Pilar Hernandez wanted European football's hottest-property Luke Davenport as Harchester’s new striker and saw Fletch as past it. In a financial crisis, Fletch signed for Al-Arabi 2004 Six months later, Pilar visits Fletch to request his help in bringing much needed investment to the club, as the chairman of Fletch’s club has equally wealthy connections. Fletch brings Sheik Al-Shaziz to Harchester, but when Pilar realises Fletch will give her job to Jeff Stein if the Sheik backs him, she uses the discovery that Abi had a one-night-stand with Marcel to send Fletch on his way. Karl had avoided all temptation himself, and is heartbroken that Abi couldn’t stay committed. He returns Louis to Lynda and flies back to the Middle East, with he and Abi later divorcing. Fletch transferred back to LaLiga and signed for Real Murcia, living a more reclusive lifestyle. His world collided with another Harchester link at this time in Gina Moliano, sister of his former team mate Eddie, and the two fell in love. That Christmas, Harchester are in 2005 Fletch learns a young boy Byron has told the club he is his son, and he worries it could be true when the boy's mother is one of his old flames. Though he isn't Byron's real dad, Fletch comes to appreciate the boy. Harchester’s current manager Don Barker was not a fan - despite Fletch regaining his fitness and scoring on his debut return game. When Barker is convalescing after an angina attack, Fletch gets his second chance as player/manager, but it is something Don again scuppers leaving Fletch feeling bitter. Now thirty-three, Fletch learns that Harchester won’t be renewing his contract beyond this season, and sees it as being betrayed by the club he has dedicated his life playing for. When Barker offers him a much-needed pay-off to secure West Ham’s promotion, Fletch attempts to give Ryan a spiked water bottle only it is Gina who ends up being poisoned by cyanide! Fletch gets engaged to Gina whilst she is in hospital, but Barker frames him for the poisoning and he is charged. Fletch is released when the team, dogged by Gina, put up his bail money, and when he and Barker spot each other from across the Dragon's Lair pitch, a chase ensues. The two men then have a violent confrontation in the dressing room, where Barker falls back onto Fletch, causing Karl to be stabbed through the head with one of the coat pegs, killing him almost immediately. Barker wraps Fletch’s body in plastic and plans to burn it with petrol canisters, but is caught at the Millennium Stadium and drives his car with Fletch’s body in the boot into the Harchester team coach. 2007 A couple of years later, Katy Irwin and friends Phil and Deano purchase Fletch’s FA Cup winning shirt from 1999 for Jason Porter’s twentieth birthday. Sean Campbell uses the shirt along with chicken bones and a drop of Jason’s blood, to perform a medieval ritual of Jason's initiation into their gang the Invincibles. A bulb blows in the living room spooking the boys, and Sean lets the others know it was something he made up, but soon Jason is hearing the voice of Mr. Harchester from beyond the grave! When he first appears - only visible to Porter and wearing his FA Cup strip, Fletch is seemingly hostile to Jason, picking away at his conscience over his place at the club and his relationship with Katy. When Jason's wedding to Katy falls apart, Fletch reveals he was hoping Jason would prove him wrong, and is here to guide Jason through the one game that should have been his - the Premier League Title decider. As the game entered extra time, Harchester and Chelsea were drawn 1-1 when the ball fell to Jason. As if Fletch were standing on the pitch with him, the 12th man in the team, about to score his 236th goal, Jason took his shot, and the crowd cheered. Fletch smiled. A Harchester legend forever. |
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