Harley Kendrick played by Malcolm Kennard

Episodes 82 - 236

Harley Kendrick arrived in Westside after meeting Toni Windsor on the streets. Knowing the importance of family he convinces her to return home and patch things up with her Dad. Toni takes Harley with her to meet her Dad Daniel but the two do not hit it off and Daniel is convinced Harley is trouble. Out on his own Harley hangs around the pub looking for food. George isn’t happy with his presence and places him in Bob’s care, telling him it’s either that or a night in the cells. Harley tells Bob that he has left his home on a farm after finding out he was adopted. He has come to Westside to look for his real parents. Bob agrees to help Harley if he promises to stay on the straight and narrow. Harley keeps his promise and Bob tells him he has found his mother, Annie. However she is sick after being involved in a motorbike accident several years ago. Harley visits his mother and his grandmother Edna, but he is not welcome at the house and Edna forbids him to see Annie again. Harley is in for a further shock when Bob tells him he is his father. He and Annie had an affair many years ago and Bob had no idea she was pregnant. Harley is full of resentment and doesn’t understand why Bob never came and found him; Bob explains that if he had known about him then he would have been a Dad to him. Harley makes a final attempt to visit his mother and Edna lets him in. However tainted with bitterness she locks Harley and Annie in the living room and starts a fire. Bob arrives at the house and finds Harley and Annie trapped and fighting for air. He gets Harley out safely but it’s too late for Annie and Edna who both die in the fire.

Harley decides to make a life for himself in Westside. His friendship with Toni blossoms and they start seeing each other in a romantic sense, however Daniel still disapproves and forbids them to see each other. This only pushes Harley and Toni closer together until Toni’s family leave Westside and she moves in with Elly. Confused over her new life, Toni tells Harley she just wants to be friends with him. So Harley spends time working on his new bike which Bob has done up for him and given to him as a present. Bored and out of work Harley hooks up with Lisa’s brother Sonny Bennett. Sonny makes Harley feel good about himself and Harley thinks he has a friend for life, but little does he know Sonny is using him in order to get revenge on Bob for helping to put him in jail 5 years ago. During this time Harley drives Sonny’s get away car, mugs Auntie Vi and assists Sonny is trashing The Advocate office. For Harley that’s the final straw and when Bob finds his beloved Harley Davidson badge amongst the wreckage, he feels he has no choice but to turn Harley into the police and hope that he can be taught a lesson. Harley is arrested and turns down Bob’s offer of help. He is also shocked that Sonny doesn’t confess to his part in the crime. Harley is let off with a fine but finds it hard to fit back into the Westside community.

Harley feels his only friend is Sonny and is thrilled when Sonny presents him with a van to make his car deliveries easier. Sonny tells Harley and Alice that they should go away together and arranges a time and a place to meet them. As Harley and Alice wait in the van the police arrive after receiving a tip off that the van contains drugs. As Harley and Alice stand by the police search the van and to their horror a hoard of drugs are found. The penny finally drops for Harley and he realises that Sonny has been using him to get revenge on Bob. With Sonny now on a rampage Harley fears for his safety and hits the road. When he returns Sonny has been caught and locked up but refuses to confess to planting drugs in the van. Bob once again fights Harleys corner and gets a confession from Sony’s partner in crime Nick who has also been set up by Sonny. The charges are dropped and Harley vows to start again haven been given a second chance.

With things back on track Harley and Toni decide to take their relationship to the next step. But after so much advice from their friends and guardians pressure gets to both of them and as the special night beckons Toni tells Harley she can’t sleep with him. Wires having been crossed the pair decide to split up and Harley starts spending time with Toni’s flirtatious friend Janine.

Having split with Toni and finding it hard to get another job Harley is tempted to leave Westside when his adoptive Mother Betty arrives. She tells him his adoptive father is sick and needs someone to take over the farm. Harley feels a responsibility towards the people who raised him, but when it comes to the crunch he can’t leave Westside and realises how much Bob means to him. He tells Bob he wishes to stay in town and work on their relationship and for the first time, Harley calls Bob ‘Dad’. Making things official Harley changes his surname and becomes Harley Brown.

Harley tells Kim that it was Sonny who trashed The Advocate and admits that he just went along for the ride, Kim gives Harley his job back and he promises to be a great worker! With his job back and things going well with Bob, Harley focuses his efforts on Toni. However she has embarked in a relationship with Max and the two men decide to fight it out for Toni’s affections. Toni is not thrilled by the idea but training gets underway and Harley enlists the help of Auntie Vi to help him win back his woman. Before the fight Toni tells Harley it’s him she wants to be with, but having made a bet with Max Harley is determined to go through with the fight and let the best man win. Max wins the fight and Harley steps away from Toni. However Max realises the two are meant to be together and drops his side of the bet allowing Harley and Toni to reconcile.

Whilst Sonny is back wreaking havoc on Westside, Harley and Toni escape to the bush and sleep together for the first time. Declaring they are in love they return to Westside happier and more together than ever. Putting their relationship to one side they help Elly and Bob to realise their feelings for each other and provide support for them after Elly is shot.

After a spell of good fortune Harley is dismayed when Sheridan Sturgess puts him out of a job by closing The Advocate. Desperate to make a life for himself Harley asks Sheridan for a job at her TV company WTV8. She refuses at first but sees something in Harley that she likes and hires him as her gardener, chauffeur and general assistant. Harley’s new job and Toni’s exams see the two grow apart and Toni call things a day, insisting this time it is over for good. However they are drawn back together when Toni tells Harley she is pregnant. He is convinced they can be a family and make things work together but Toni is unconvinced. He tells her will marry her and support her but Toni doesn’t want to have the baby. The decision is taken out of their hands when Toni loses the baby. Harley is distraught but remains convinced that he and Toni can work things out until she tells him she no longer loves him.

Harley throws himself to work and when Paul Berry turns up at the studios in a rage Harley captures it all on camera. He finds himself a new position at work but nobody in Westside is too pleased that he has exploited a member of their community. He also finds himself in Sheridan’s bed when she demands he strips for her. Harley finds himself excluded from the Westside community and things get worse when he helps Sheridan with her story on Bob and neglected child Dylan. Bob throws the pair of them out of the rectory and Harley captures his anger on tape. When Bob is wrongfully arrested for the murder of Dylan’s father Gus, Harley’s tape becomes crucial and incriminating evidence. With Bob facing jail and Harley visits him and tells him he has neglected him to save Dylan. He is mad at Bob for screwing up his and Elly’s life and tells him he had to do what he did to make a name for himself at WTV8. But Bob has little time for Harley and their bond is threatened further when Harley’s name appears on the credits for Sheridan’s story against Bob. When Bob is released from jail an innocent man, Harley makes an effort with him and calls Bob’s friend Jack to the rectory to help Jack out. Bob is grateful to Harley and returns to the church.

Harley continues his job at WTV8 but once again raises anger when he films somebody jumping to their death. Bob tells him that instead of filming the event he should have helped the person who wanted to end their life. Harley turns to Sheridan who has no time for him and instead gives full power of WTV8 to her brother Michael. Unimpressed by Harley’s attitude Michael sacks him and Harley takes refuge at the home of WTV8 secretary Fiona. There he indulges in a night of drugs and sex with Fiona and her friend Tracey. Sheridan realises what Harley is up to and warns him to stay away from Fiona and to come off the drugs. But Harley feels his career is going well and doesn’t want to stop his new habit. Worried for his welfare Sheridan tells Bob that Harley is on drugs. Bob confronts Harley who doesn’t deny what Sheridan has said. Bob is devastated but tells Harley he will always be there for him. Harley’s habit continues and he picks fights with all those around him. Bob still vows to stand by him and he and Harley make their peace.

Whilst out with Fiona and Tracey, Harley takes another line of drugs. He has a seizure and collapses in a car park. He is taken to hospital where he lies in a coma. Bob is told that Harley is most probably brain dead and is only being kept alive by the life support machine. Bob makes the heartbreaking decision to turn off the machine, but as he does so Harley starts breathing again. Not out of the woods, but fighting for his life Harley remains in a coma as the residents of Westside hold a telethon to raise money for his treatment. A clinic in New York can offer him the treatment he needs but the money everybody raises is simply not enough to get him there. The money is finally donated by Sheridan who realises that Harley is her only friend. She tells Bob she will take Harley to New York and settle him into the clinic. Bob and Toni say their goodbyes to Harley and Toni tells him she still loves him. Remaining in a coma Harley is flown to New York and everyone in Westside prays for his recovery.

Harley never returned to E Street and from the little we heard he never came out of his coma. Harley was the original rebel from the wrong side of the tracks, but once he found love and his Dad he made a new start and a proper life for himself. Harley was never far away from trouble and his tragic ending showed that but he was never a bad guy and it’s a shame we never got to see Harley on the street again.