Shirley Carter

Infobox EastEnders character 2


character_name=Shirley Carter
actor_name=Linda Henry
creator=Kate Harwood
years=2006—
first=7 December 2006
classification=Present; regular
dob=1963
status=Divorced
home=43b Albert Square
occupation=Barmaid
husband= Kevin Wicks
sons=Jimbo Wicks Deano Wicks
daughters=Carly Wicks

Shirley Carter [" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/characters_cast/characters/character_shirley_c.shtml Shirley Carter profile page] ", "bbc.co.uk". URL last accessed 2006-12-07] (previously Wicks) is a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera "EastEnders". She is played by Linda Henry. [" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/news/news_content/news_20060908.shtml Linda Henry to join the cast] " "bbc.co.uk", URL last accessed 2006-09-12] She made her first on-screen appearance in December 2006, and appeared in Walford on New Year's Day 2007.

Character creation

The character of Shirley Carter was introduced by producer Kate Harwood as the former wife of Kevin Wicks (Phil Daniels) in 2006. The character's upcoming arrival was announced in September 2006, at which time it was also revealed that actress Linda Henry would be playing the role. Henry had appeared in the serial before during the early 1990s, as Lorraine Salter, the mother of Nicola Stapleton's character Mandy. Speaking about her new role, Henry said: "I'm thrilled to be joining 'EastEnders'. I'm both nervous and excited as I've watched it for many years." [cite news|url= http://www.rte.ie/arts/2006/0911/eastenders.html|title=Former Bad Girl to join EastEnders|publisher="RTE Entertainment" | date = 2006-09-11| accessdate=2008-09-02]

torylines

Shirley is the mother of Deano and Carly Wicks and the ex-wife of Kevin Wicks. She also had another son, James (nicknamed Jimbo), who died. She left home when her children were young, and they did not see her until December 2006, when they hitched a lift with her in Dorset, not knowing who she was. Shirley planned to introduce herself to Carly and Deano, but before she could reveal her identity, Kevin discovered her plan, and forbade her from seeing her children.

Shirley followed her children to Walford in January 2007, and despite Kevin's best efforts, her true identity was revealed. Carly was immediately hostile, but Deano proved more receptive so, despite hostilities, Shirley moved to Albert Square. Shirley was hiding a secret for Kevin; it transpired that he was not the biological father of Carly or Deano. The truth eventually came out, and a devastated Carly rejected Kevin. Shirley showed compassion, and she and Kevin ended up having sex; something Kevin immediately regretted as he was already in a relationship with Denise Fox. Trying to put his tryst with Shirley behind him, Kevin proposed to Denise; however, Shirley tried to ruin their wedding. After confessing their one-night stand to Kevin's landlady Pat Evans, they got into a cat fight and were arrested. Shirley was released from custody before Pat could warn Kevin; she went to the ceremony and confronted Denise with the truth, but was shocked when Denise married Kevin anyway.

Shirley found employment as a barmaid at The Queen Vic public house, and became sexually involved with Polish builder Erek in 2007, but their casual fling ended after he punched Deano. Deano turned to Shirley for support when he was charged for framing Sean Slater for attempted murder. Shirley encouraged him to flee Walford before his court case, but Deano opted to face up to his responsibilities; he attended the trial and was imprisoned. Shirley turned up late for the hearing as she was hit by a car. The driver, Vinnie Monks, was attracted to Shirley, and ignored her many knockbacks. Shirley's friend Heather Trott eventually convinved her to reconsider dating Vinnie, but the relationship soured when Shirley discovered Vinnie had been lying about his financial, parental and marital status — he had a daughter, Hayley, from a broken marriage and no money.

When Shirley discovered that Kevin had been selling cut-and-shut cars, she threatened to inform the police unless he persuaded Carly to talk to her. When Kevin failed to do this, Shirley confronted him while he was trying to steal a dangerous cut-and-shut car that had accidentally been sold to Yolande Trueman. Unable to get rid of Shirley, Kevin threw her into the car, his plan being to take it to a junkyard; however, the car was short on petrol and they were unable to get to their destination, so Kevin and Shirley decided to race the car and then set it alight, making it look like the work of joyriding vandals. While Kevin raced dangerously in the car, Shirley goaded him to go faster; he drove off at speed, but the car bonnet opened and Kevin crashed into wreckage, leaving him impaled by a metal pole. Shirley attempted to keep Kevin alive but failed, and he died moments before New Year 2008. Kevin's death left the Wicks family devastated, and Carly told Shirley she wished it had been her that died. Despite Shirley's efforts to comfort her daughter, Carly continued to reject her, and left Walford in January 2008. Deano returned in February, but his stay in prison had affected him. He attacked Shirley, saying she was responsible for everything bad that had happened to him and also left Walford.

In March 2008, Shirley grew closer to her boss Phil Mitchell as a result of his son Ben's matchmaking, so when Shirley started behaving erratically — drinking copious amounts of alcohol, and turning up late for work — Phil was concerned. Shirley became hostile towards everyone, and Phil later found her unconscious after tripping whilst intoxicated. He took her to hospital, where Shirley revealed the cause of her distress, she had found a lump in her breast and feard it was cancerous. Tests were done, but Shirley was too afraid to get the results, fearing she had breast cancer. Phil proved supportive, leading Shirley to suspect he was attracted to her; however, he rebuffed her advances so Shirley decided to get back together with Vinnie instead — he had returned to Walford to win Shirley back. Shirley refused to tell Vinnie about her cancer scare, and after weeks of avoidance, she still could not bring herself to get the test results. She was eventually forced to by Phil and to Shirley's relief, her lump was benign. On May 16, when she and Heather ended up in prison for a night, she admitted to Heather that Phil had pushed her away, while Heather admitted that there was not a spark between her and Minty.
On July 2008, Shirley missed Vinnie's birthday party when she took Ben to the community centre for him to compete in a dancing competition as Phil refused to do this. But this was in the way of her relationship with Vinnie as he found out about this and knowing that she only had feelings for Phil. Due to this he threw her out of the house.

References

External links

*EEcharlink|shirley_c