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Lynda Block (Alison King) 1998-2002, 2003, 2005-2006, 2007
First Regular Appearance: 2.1 (#65) Left: 6.1 (#261) It Could Be You First Guest Appearance: 6.32 (#292) Just The Ticket Second Guest Appearance: 7.2 (#294) Long Live The King Second Regular Appearance: 9.1 (#357) Last Regular Appearance: 10.3 (#390) Fantasy Football Third Guest Appearance: 10.32 (#419) The Final Whistle Part Two Duration: EP: 65 - 261, 292, 294, 357 - 390, 419 | SE: 2.1 – 6.1, 6.32, 7.2, 9.1 – 10.3, 10.32 Position: Harchester United Chairwoman (2000-2001) / Chief Executive (2001-2002, 2005-2006) Last Seen: Returning to support the team as they play for the Premier League Title. Hopefully back for another long stay! |
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The female heart of Harchester United, Lynda Duxbury was born in 1972 and raised in Manchester. The oldest of three, Lynda had two sisters, Angie and Maxine. Lynda had an ambition to be around people who were going places, and was drawn to taking a job at Manchester Airport, working on the make-up counter. It was here in 1993 she met the man who would later introduce her to a world she had never particularly taken much interest in. Jerry Block was a rich, yet older, businessman who Lynda was excited had taken an interest in her. Lynda and Jerry, or JJ, as she affectionately called him, married two years later and Lynda settled into a comfortable life as Mrs Block. In the spring of 1998, Jerry embarked on his latest business venture, this time as a football club chairman and purchased Harchester United, a club which had just survived relegation by the skin of its teeth. This meant the Block's would be moving to the Midlands, and before long, Lynda had found a friend in Natalie Hocknell, wife of the recently transferred to Galatasaray, Dean. Lynda learns that Natalie has run away from Dean after he started hitting her in Turkey, and does her best to stop Natalie going back to him. Lynda is shocked when Dean later puts a pregnant Natalie in hospital. Also at this time, Lynda finds her head turned by new Argentinean signing Luis Amor Rodriguez. Luis makes Lynda feel like she never has before. He is passionate, stimulating and willing to devote time to her, leading Lynda to realise she no longer has much in common with Jerry, who spends more time at work than with her. Accepting her marriage is over and in love with Luis, Lynda makes plans to leave Jerry and fly away with Luis on the day Harchester win the FA Cup at Wembley. Jerry however has discovered their affair, and determined to keep Lynda, hires a hitman to shoot Luis during the on-pitch celebrations. Captain John Black gives his life to save Lynda, although she is grazed in the head by one bullet and suffers memory loss for some time afterwards. Jerry uses this to play on Lynda's emotions about Luis, making her believe he never visited her in hospital and was carrying on with other women back home in Argentina while she recovered. Lynda becomes suspicious of Jerry however, believing he knows the real reason why she was shot, leading Jerry to control Lynda further. Things get worse for Lynda with the arrival of her selfish sister Maxine, who becomes an ally to Jerry in his quest to have Lynda declared unbalanced, as she wants to move into her home and take her life. Lynda eventually escapes as Luis is returning from surgery in America, and he is determined to protect her. Together, they uncover the truth of Jerry hiring the hitman and using this against him, see him out of Harchester to Brazil with Lynda forcing him to relinquish the chairmanship to her! Luis plans to finish his playing career in his home country, but Lynda has found a new calling in running the club and having her own career again. The two lovers know they both want different things, and even a marriage proposal from Luis can not keep he and Lynda together. Ultimately, Lynda is left alone in Harchester with the club her only companion. On the rebound from Luis, Lynda develops an attachment to manager Ray Wyatt. This is bolstered further when Lynda, deciding to give up her lonely life in Harchester, decides to join Luis, only to find he has moved on and is marrying his first love. Ray too is feeling neglected, his wife Kitty has taken their son to Thailand to see her dying father. In Paris to approach Monday Bandele for a move to the Dragons, Lynda and Ray sleep together, and the result is Lynda becoming pregnant with his baby. On the scene at this time is Prashant Dattani, the club's second largest shareholder, who is always watching like a hawk, waiting for Lynda to fail. When Harchester fails a safety inspection, Prash puts the club into administration before Lynda can find an investor, and it soon becomes clear when Prash convinces the creditors to take his offer to buy the club that he was out to take it from Lynda all along. Lynda is helpless as Prash knows the truth about her baby with Ray, and threatens to expose it if she tries to stop him taking over. The stress becomes too much for Lynda, and she miscarries her baby, leaving her devastated. Having lost her child and the club, Lynda plans to leave Harchester, but wants to see what was her team play one last game before she goes. On the final day of the 2000-01 season, she sees Harchester qualify for the Champions League, but also learns Prash is set to sell the club for £40M, always just out for how much he could sell it for. Lynda confronts Prash in his office, high on emotion, but has to accept Prash has won and turns to leave. At that moment, Prash taunts her that she should have looked after herself better, otherwise she might not have lost the baby. It pushes Lynda over the edge, and she hits Prash over the head with a trophy sitting on the desk. The blow doesn't kill Prash outright, but makes him fall and cause fatal damage to his skull with a second impact from his desk. Lynda makes her exit abroad, staying at Jeff Stein's villa in Mallorca, but is persuaded to return to Harchester by new club owner Sam Irving, who is a fan and offers her the role of Harchester's chief exec. It appears Lynda is entering another Jerry situation with Sam, who is another older businessman who can provide her with a comfortable lifestyle, while in love with Lynda more than she is with him. But at this same time, Lynda is growing closer to Fletch, especially as he has been charged with killing Prash, something she desperately hopes he will be acquitted of. Fletch and Lynda sleep together, but when he is actually found guilty of Prash's murder, Lynda stands up in court and comes clean. For a while after, Fletch is outraged with Lynda, for how she could leave him to suffer for months, and he even terrifies her by holding her in her home with a fake gun. While Lynda stays with Sam for security, and even accepts his marriage proposal, Lynda knows Fletch is in love with her, and giving him one last loving embrace at the club, it is witnessed by Sam. Lynda believes she is doing the right thing by marrying Sam, but Sam turns the tables on her by exposing she and Fletch at the alter, and ditches Lynda. Lynda decides to let Fletch go, and makes a last minute attempt to flee abroad, only to be stopped in her tracks by the news of Harchester's coach crash on the M1 while on their way to the UEFA Cup Final. The tragedy forces Lynda to stay and face up to her actions, and is subsequently sentenced to six years in prison for Prash's murder. Even away from the club, Lynda continues to have an affect felt outside the walls of Harchester Women's Prison. Early in 2003, Lynda gives birth to Fletch's son, Louis, and after a couple of months with him, she knows she has to give him to Fletch and his new wife Abi to raise. Fletch, while shocked at first, loves his son, especially as he and Abi cannot have children of their own, but when he is forced out of Harchester and takes a move to Saudi Arabia - Lynda is scared for Louis' safety and refuses to allow him to be taken to the Middle East. Because of this, Fletch leaves alone, and Abi stays behind to look after Louis. Lynda is shocked when Fletch later returns Louis to her, having broken up with Abi, and now has to turn to sister Angie to have Louis. Louis remains with Angie even after Fletch returns to England, and Lynda is granted early release having completed half of her sentence. As if by fate however, Lynda's release coincides with another tragedy when all but three of the Harchester United team die in the Millennium Stadium coach explosion, including Fletch which stuns Lynda. Lynda is not expecting to be working for the club again, so it is a surprise when she receives a letter from the club's new manager Felix Hahn, offering her her old job as chief executive back. While apprehensive at first, for the heartache she had suffered at the club in the past, Lynda had never lost her love for Harchester United. Indeed her return was exactly what the fans and club needed following the worst tragedy in its history - a fond figure from it's recent past. One feeling that grips Lynda in her first months back at the club is that the illusive present owner of Harchester is someone she knows well. The way the owner conducts himself with hiding behind letters instead of instructing in person, and mad-cap schemes leads Lynda to believe Jerry has returned and is chairman again. Lynda finds a company, BlockMedia, and believes it is Jerry's headquarters, but when she gets there she discovers it is Jerry's son from his first marriage running it. He tells Lynda Jerry died a year ago, and back at the Dragon's Lair she breaks down over how she'd once loved Jerry and was shocked to only now learn he's died. The owner continues to cause havoc and mistrust for Lynda, his refusal to show himself causes an impostor to trick Lynda into believing he is the real owner, when really he is a mailroom man stealing £2M of the fans' money. Lynda has one loyal friend by her side this season, first team coach, and later manager Alex Dempsey, who too is having his life steered by the controlling owner. Alex is a great support to Lynda, and is secretly carrying a torch for her, which she later realises she does for him too. Lynda feels she has found someone she could build a future with, but this is thrown into jeopardy when Casper Rose reveals himself to be the owner, and in a moment of rage, quite like when Lynda struck out at Prash, Alex hits him with an ink bottle which kills him. Alex is guilt-ridden about what he's done, and is about to confess to the police when Lynda discovers she is pregnant. With Alex co-inheriting the club with Eugene, Lynda sees it as a secure future for their baby, so convinces Alex not to confess, but before she knows it she is the number one suspect! Lynda is pursued by the same detective who investigated Prash's murder, and is arrested, prompting Alex to frame Ashleigh King in order to get Lynda out. Lynda and Alex hope Ashleigh will receive a diminished responsibility verdict, but the trouble isn't over as a new letter sender informs them he knows the real truth. Lynda is worried sick, and it starts to affect her pregnancy as before. Lynda ends up in hospital and learns D.I. Burrows was sending the letters. Knowing he isn't going to give up until the truth is out, and desperate to protect her baby, Lynda leaves Harchester without telling Alex. Alex now turns himself in, and as he awaits his trial, out of the limelight, Lynda has her second child. A few months later she is a special guest at the Lair for Harchester's historic title clash against Chelsea, there to witness Harchester's two winning goals. A fire breaks out, causing an unseen amount of damage to the club. To quote Lynda herself: "Whenever this club has a problem it will always be down to me to sort it". Another stint for Mrs Block was surely on the cards! |
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