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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 118304" data-attributes="member: 22">Carol Jackson: I remember when I was in the Co-op with Bianca once. She was screaming at the top of her lungs because I wouldn’t give her any dolly mixtures. People were staring at me. Shop assistants were tutting.Heather Trott: What did you do?Carol: I walked out and left her. It wasn’t until I got to the bus stop that I realised what I’d done. You know I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve wanted to slam out that door, disappear to a Greek island.Heather: So how did you cope?Carol: A bottle of Blue Nun and a bag of chips normally did the trick.Connor Stanley, speaking in 2010: I might take us out tonight.Carol Jackson: Oh, a bag of chips at the bus stop? I’ve not done that since I was seventeen.Pat Butcher to Bianca: Your mum had seen off more blokes than World War I by the time she was [seventeen].Carol: By the time I was seventeen, I had a couple of kids round me ankles.Pauline on Carol: She didn't know when to say no.Jim Branning on Carol: She trusts people too much. Lot of blokes in the past have used that against her.Carol: I never thought about the future. I just let things happen to me.Carol: I remember saying to myself when I first had kids, “I’ll do anything — put up with any pain, go through any hardship — but please God, don’t let my kids die before me.”Robbie Jackson, Carol's son: I wish my mum had had an abortion when she was having me.Sonia Jackson: Mum probably didn't want any of us, but she had us, didn't she?Carol to Robbie: I couldn't wait for you to be born. You were so beautiful with lovely dark hair.Bianca to Robbie: You were born with your brains in your bum.Sonia: What's Robbie's dad called again, Mum?Carol: Gary.Carol on Robbie: His father's never shown no interest in him.Robbie: What was my dad like?Carol: Your dad? Well, he was a good looking bloke. Bit lazy, I suppose.Robbie: He was a loser, wasn't he?Carol: No, I wouldn't say that.Gary Bolton, Robbie’s father: I was as bad as they said I was and more besides.Robbie: I know Mum loved you.Gary: And I loved her. I just couldn't give her what she wanted — a faithful husband, a dad for you and Bianca.Jim to Robbie: [Gary Bolton was] a complete and utter waste of space. Bianca's dad, that David Wicks, he was a saint compared to your father.Derek Branning: You should have seen it — Sunday lunch, the whole Branning clan round the table, Max and Jack trying to outdo each other. He had hair then, Max, but just as freckly, and Jack, he was going to be the next Marlon Brando, all mean and moody. Carol, face like thunder. April with her dreams of the future. Suzy with her latest boyfriend in tow, different one every week, her — and the roast potatoes steaming up the window and me carving the joint and the laughter ringing out. That’s what I remember the most, the laughter.Alice Branning, Derek’s daughter: It sounds lovely.Derek: Yeah, it was.Max Branning on his childhood: It weren’t a happy time.Max to Jim: You weren’t around.Max: Custard creams — these always remind me of being a kid. My dad used to get one of these and a Rich Tea — do you remember those things? Horrible they were, like cardboard. He’d cover them up and get me to choose. Do you know what he did? Even if I got right, even if I guessed right, he’d always give me the Rich Tea. I mean, that’s not right, is it? Not fair for a little kid. What sort of father was he, eh? Funny thing is — custard creams, I never really liked them.Dot Branning: Garibaldi biscuits — squashed fly, we used to call them.Max: When I was a kid, I used to love sherbet lemons. Used to get them in this big jar, get them by the quarter pound. Jim would get them, but he never used to give me any.Abi Branning: Did he eat them all himself?Max: No, he used to give them to Jack, all of them, and he’d just look at me and I’d feel like ... I don’t know, I’d feel all sorts of things.Max to Jack: What I remember is you having all the attention, all the best sweets and all the best toys, and if I ever had anything good, you’d go crying off to Dad because I was never allowed to be happy, was I?Dot: Jim always said that of the two [Max and Jack], Jack was the gentleman.Jack to Max: When we were kids, you used to give me a whistle when Mum was coming round the corner. I’d give you a shout if I thought the teachers were onto you. I mean, that's what brothers do.Max on Jack: He don’t listen to me. Never has.Carol on Jack: He was always the strong one.Suzy Branning on Jack: He’s second best and he knows it. He’s spent the whole of his life trying to prove different.Jack to Max: You’re the weaker brother. You always were. You’re the runt of the litter.Derek to Max: You’re the runt of the litter. You always have been. Me and my father, we used to laugh at you, pushing you around.Jack: When I was a nipper, Derek was always telling me to be a man. “Don’t let anyone push you around.”Michael Moon: Derek? As I recall, he was in charge of the pushing most of the time.Jack: That was his idea of education, weren’t it? "Be a man" meant to be in control — be in control of yourself, be in control of your family, be in control of your work.Max to Jack: You remember that medal, Granddad’s medal? Dad used to keep it in that little leather box, remember? He used to boast about it, didn’t he, how brave he was. He won it in Dunkirk saving all his mates. Six years old he was, and that was the only thing he had to remember him by. And me and you, we used to fight just to hold it, didn’t we? Sit there, listening to the same old story. Do you remember the day it went missing, how mad he was, tearing the house apart? How I got the blame because he found the empty box under my bed? Well I didn’t take it, Jack, you did. You did and you messed things up with me and Dad. After that he couldn’t even look at me and you, you were always there, weren’t you — good little boy whispering in his ear, turning him against me.Max on Jack: When we were kids, he ruined every single thing I had.Max: You’re selfish, Jack. Always have been.Jim on Max: Selfish, ungrateful — he always has been.Jim on Max: He never used to be so bitter and twisted.Jim: That Max, he picks people up when it suits him and drops them when it don’t. He always has and he always will. That one’s never stuck at anything in his life.Max: You gonna bend me over your knee, just like old times?Jim: You deserved every blow, mate, every smack you ever got. The only mistake I made is I didn’t hit you harder. Heather: I got a medal when I was a kid.Shirley: What for — bravery?Nigel Bates: Didn't have my first date till I was twenty.Joe Wicks on Nigel's first girlfriend: Did she have a dad from hell?Nigel Bates: No — three big brothers.David Wicks: My [driving instructor] was a seedy old geezer with a nervous twitch from sitting beside so many learners all of his life.</blockquote>

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