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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 119049" data-attributes="member: 22">1984Charlie Slater: Deeley boppers? They went out in 1984.Stan Carter: Mick’s eighth birthday, do you remember? West Ham against West Brom at home. Mick Carter: First ever match I went to. Stan: The three of us went. You spent all your Saturday money buying him a strip.Shirley Carter: It was worth it, though, to see his face when they won.Zoe Slater on her birthdate: First of the second, '84.Kat Slater: They took me to the hospital. Mum said I was to have a room on me own because I'd be more comfortable. I knew it was because she was ashamed. It felt like it was a dream, like it was happening to someone else and I was just watching. Afterwards, I went out to phone Dad.Charlie: They never used to let blokes on the ward in those days.Kat: I bet that suited you.Kat: The nurses came in and they wrapped you in this blue sheet thing and they gave you to me to hold. I started crying. Soppy cow.Zoe: That ugly, was I?Kat: You were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. They wrapped you up so tightly, all I could see was your little face looking up at me with the biggest, bluest eyes. A little tuft of jet black hair poking out the top. You were perfect. From the moment I held you, you were the best thing that ever happened to me. I'd never been proud of anything before, but I was then. I fell in love with you. I wanted the whole world to see you, to show them what I'd done, tell them you were mine, my little girl. And I felt perfect and all clean.Kat: When I had Zoe, she was only a few hours old, all red and wrinkled, and I remember looking down at her and putting my finger in her little hand, and this wave of love just hit me. It was so strong, it took my breath away. I was shaking, you know? I laid her down on the bed beside me and I just stared at her. I never felt nothing like that before. I was only fourteen and I didn't know what love was until then, not really. It was like butterflies in my stomach. Oh, I counted every hair on her head, every toe and every finger.Kat to Zoe: And then Mum come in and took you off me. She started walking round the room with you, telling you all the things she was going to do for you, how she was going to look after you -- all the things I should have been saying. And then Dad come in and I felt dirty again. He hardly looked at me.Charlie: When Viv handed Zoe to me in the hospital, she was just a tiny, vulnerable thing. There was no way I was going to walk away from her.Kat: I can still see their faces now when Mum picked her up. The second she was out my arms, my bottom lip went into spasm. I didn't want them to see so I just clenched me teeth together so hard. I was telling meself that it was all right and I was ready, but me heart was beating so fast I thought it was going burst out of me chest.Kat to Zoe: I had to lay there watching them fussing over you and all the time I wanted to scream at them to give you back. I couldn't because Dad would give me that look again and say how disappointed he was in me and why wasn't I like the others? So I didn't. When he left, I asked Mum if I could hold you and do you know what she said? "Best not." Best not. If only I could have held you, just for a few more minutes.Kat on Zoe: And the door shut and she was gone. I laid back down on the bed and I could smell where she'd been laying so I put my face down in theblanket and it was warm and I could smell that baby smell, but my arms, they felt so empty. And it all came out. I cried so hard I couldn't breathe. I phoned me mum and I begged her. I said it was all right, I could look after her. "Bring her back,” I begged her. "Let me have her." I begged and I begged. I was wailing down the phone. All that love and no-one to give it to.Alfie Moon: They used to take Zoe away from Kat when she was a baby. They used to take Zoe out of her arms because they thought it would be best for everybody if they didn't have a bond.Kat: You took my baby off me.Charlie: We did what we thought was best.Kat: Best for who?Charlie: Your mum loved you very much. She changed her whole life to sort you out.Kat: My sainted mother took my baby away because she was embarrassed of me, because she thought she knew all the answers, because you told her she was right. Anything for an easy life, eh, Dad? Anything.Kat: Things were never the same after that.Zoe: So you gave up.Kat: I never gave up. They took you away from me and I didn't know how to stop them, but at least I knew that I'd see you every day and love you, if not as a mum then as a sister. Shows you what an idiot I am. It turned into a nightmare.Kat to Charlie: Do you remember when we went home and you wouldn’t even look at me? One of the porters asked if you was my dad and you didn’t even answer him.Charlie on Kat: I just stood back and let it all happen to her, fall on her head. Easy option, easy life. Dad in his slippers doing nothing, just hanging over her, judging her, rubbing her nose in it.Kat on Zoe: When I got home, Mum and Dad had set her cot up in their room.Kat: Lying in my bed, listening to my baby crying and I can’t hold her, I can’t love her, I can’t pick her up. It was all just taken away from me. I wasn’t allowed to do any of it. It was my fault.Charlie: You were just a kid yourself back then.Kat: That’s what you both said, weren’t it? It was my fault. You ganged up. Sitting round the breakfast table lying, all of us lying.Charlie: We did our best for you, Kat, your mum and me.Kat to Zoe: I had to listen to everyone telling me mum how lucky she was to have such a beautiful baby, and all the time I wanted to scream at them that you were mine and it was me they should be talking to, but I couldn't. So more often than not, I had to leave the room. Everyone called me a stroppy cow and ignored me. Back on the stairs again.Kat: Dad sat me down and gave me this big speech about everything getting back to normal so stop asking to do things. "Leave Mum to it and don't make a fuss." She was right there, my beautiful little girl, and I had to ignore these feelings I had for her, ignore that I was her mum. I knew that if I cried and started again, Dad would just get angry. He had this thing in his head that he was helping me, that I'd got myself in this mess and if I was to question what him and Mum were doing, I was being ungrateful. He helped me by taking my baby away. I just ran upstairs and threw up. And then that night, I came out the bathroom and climbed into bed. I couldn't face going downstairs so I just lay there, but I couldn't sleep. Then I heard Mum and Dad going to bed and Zoe started crying, and I could hear her picking her up. There was muffled voices and I could hear Mum laughing. Dad told her to come and have a look at something and I knew it was Zoe, and I wanted to have a look and all. And then this feeling came over me and I just started to sob. I didn't want them to hear so I just put my face in the pillow. I never felt so alone and so wretched and I thought, "If I hold my face in the pillow long enough, I'll just die and the pain won't be there anymore." And then I felt this little hand touch me. It was Mo. She must have heard me sobbing so she climbed in the bed next to me. She held me so tight — my little baby sister. She called me Kit Kat. She was squeezing me and saying, "Don't cry, Kit Kat." Her little arms and legs were wrapped round me so tightly and this little hand was patting me. And you know what? I wasn't on my own anymore. In that glorious, unselfish moment, all the pain just went away. I grabbed her hands and I held them so tight, and it was like all that love I had bottled up inside me had somewhere to go. I could have killed myself that night if it wasn't for my baby sister — someone who loved me, who really loved me.Charlie, looking at an old romper suit: It only seems like yesterday since my little Zoe was crawling around in this.Charlie to Zoe: You've brought me a lot of happiness over the years.Zoe on Charlie: He's lied to me since the day I was born.Little Mo: He has loved you since the day you were born.Zoe to Kat: You lied to me my whole life.Kat to Zoe: Birthdays, Christmas, first day at school — always in the background, always with that same anger I had the day you were born. Always wanting to say something, but "best not".Kat: Zoe, ever since you was a baby, I told myself you wasn't having anyone but the best. You was going to have a prince, someone who'd care for you and never let you down.Kat: I have failed Zoe in every single way for every single year of her life.Zoe: My family never wanted me. I was a mistake. A stupid, dirty mistake.Kat to Charlie: You always said we shouldn't talk about it [Zoe's true parentage].Kat: Belinda and Little Mo were too young [to be told].Little Mo: Nobody thought to tell me.Big Mo: Your mum and dad did what they thought was best. We all did.Trevor Morgan to Little Mo: They [the Slater family] have done nothing but lie to you since you were a kid.Little Mo: You told me Zoe was my sister.Charlie: You were just a kid so your mum and me thought it would be best if ...Little Mo: For who, though?Little Mo: Why didn't you tell me about Zoe?Kat: Mum would have killed me.Little Mo: I've always felt like I was on the outside of this family looking in on the rest of you. Maybe I knew somehow that you all had this secret.Little Mo on herself and Belinda: When we come back, you treated me different.Charlie: Well, you weren't the baby anymore.Little Mo: I was seven years old. I thought you didn't love me anymore. Zoe got all the attention. And Kat. Lynne was always your golden girl. Belinda was clever. And then there was me.Charlie: You were special too, you were.Little Mo: But I never felt it. I thought it was me. I just wanted to be loved. I used to try so hard.Charlie: The last thing I wanted to do was push you out.Little Mo: No one listened to me. Kat and Lynne, they always got listened to, but with me it was like, I don't know, everybody thought I was stupid or something.Little Mo: I was never the prettiest or the cleverest growing up. I was always on the sidelines. I was always ignored.Charlie on Little Mo: She was always so quiet, always did what she was told. Never demanded any attention so I never gave it. I never sat her on my knee and told her what a lovely girl she was.Belinda Peacock: It wasn't just Little Mo you ignored, it was all of us.Lynne Slater to Charlie: How do you know I'm strong, eh? You never had to find out, did you? Not like with the others. I was always the one sat in the corner with it all going on around me. Didn't mean I didn't need you.Belinda on Charlie: He didn't have time for [Little Mo], he didn't have time for me. No, what he really wanted was a son, a son he could play football with and have a laugh with.Charlie on the European Cup Winners' Cup Final 1965: It's a classic. The first time I saw it [on video], my poor Viv said she could have belly danced in front of me and there was no way I was taking my eyes off the screen.Pat: I can remember when videos were advanced technology.Belinda: Dad was never there for us like [Mum] was.Kat: How could he be? She never left him the space.Kat on Viv: She gave Little Mo's teddy bear to the jumble.Belinda: She was seven.Kat: She slept with that teddy bear every night of her life.Kat: When Mum and Dad took you little ones on holiday to that holiday camp, how old was you?Belinda: I don't know. Ten, maybe?Kat: You and Little Mo put [Charlie] up for [the "Best Dad" contest]. You both stood on a stage and you spoke into a microphone and you told everyone how your dad was the very best dad in the world, and he won.Belinda: Piece of nonsense.Kat: That weren't what you thought then. Do you know the first thing he did when he got back off that holiday? He came in to me and Lynne and before he even said hello, he showed us this [a photograph of Charlie winning the "Best Dad" contest]. He was so chuffed. He stood by the door with the biggest grin on his face saying it was the proudest day of his life, that his gorgeous little girls thought so much of him. It was just after Zoe was born. He worshipped you.Belinda: And we worshipped him.Kat: I hated him meself. I blamed him for everything. I thought, "He don't love me because if he loved me, he'd give me a cuddle."Zoe to Kat: You did make up [with Charlie] though, after I was born?Kat: Stayed out of each other's way, really. I went a bit wild. After he found out I was pregnant, he just put me down as a slapper. Didn't want to disappoint him again, did I?Kat: My dad had me down for a room in King’s Cross with a steady line of punters.Kat: A dirty little girl. That’s what I’ve always been.Kat, speaking about herself: “She’s always liked to keep it in the family.”Kat: I wore this [a T-shirt with "Dangerous when wet" written on it] to my first youth club disco.Zoe: You had no shame!Shirley Carter: I’ve entered a few wet T-shirt competitions in my time.Ian Beale on T-shirt slogans: Back in my day it used to say, “Frankie Says Relax.”Whitney Dean: Ah, the olden days!Kat: Do you remember there was that book that used to do the rounds at school? It was like a scoring system. One point if he asked you out on a date, two if you held hands, three if you kiss ...Lynne: ... if you kiss on the cheek ...Kat: ... and four, on the lips.Libby Fox: How old were you when you first had a boyfriend?Denise Fox: A lot older than [fifteen], that’s for sure.Denise: I never did give in to peer pressure.Zoe Newton, Nick's common-law wife, on their son Ashley: I was only fifteen when I had him.Nick to Ashley: It was her [Zoe’s] idea to give you a girl's name.Nick: I remember when Ashley was born. Proudest moment of my life. It's true. Never knew what all the fuss was about with kids. Then you see your own.Dot: Changes you, does it?Nick: Yeah, it does.Dot: Don't talk rubbish.Zoe Newton: You didn't even see him for the first three days of his life because you were on a pub crawl across London.Nick: I was out celebrating. It got out of hand.Dot on her grandson Ashley: I never held him as a baby. I never even knew he existed. [Nick] never told me.Zoe: He said he didn't want you going on about his responsibilities.Zoe on her parents: They never got on with Nick. They ain't never seen [Ashley], not since he was born.Martin Fowler to Ashley: [Nick] left you and your mum the first chance he had. He wasn't bothered about either of you. He used to rob little old ladies just to get a few quid for his drugs.Nick on abandoning his son: The state I was in at the time, I probably did you [Ashley] a favour.Dot: It must have been hard for you, bringing up a boy on your own.Zoe: You could say that.Ashley Cotton: I didn't know I had a nan.Charlie Cotton, Jr: I never had a grandma. I never really had anyone apart from me and Mum. Her parents are dead. I think we’ve got some relatives in Ireland, but most of them I’ve never even met.Charlie: I thought you were a monster.Dot: Did [Nick] tell you that?Charlie: That’s all he ever said — you know, how he made out that you always treated him. Pat Butcher: I didn't even know you was alive. Not a letter, not a call, nothing. Why did you never write? Why didn't you let me know where you were? Why didn't you tell me [about your wife and children]?David Wicks: You wouldn't have been interested.Pat: You never were much good at putting pen to paper.Elaine Peacock: There’s something I never told you, something I never wanted to tell you. Your dad, he was everything to me, but that didn’t stop me having an affair. It’s the biggest regret of my life. It didn’t last long, three months. You were six or seven at the time. I ended up telling your dad.Linda Carter: Who was it? Did Dad know him? Was it a customer?Elaine: I was chained to that bar twenty-four-seven. Who else was I going to meet?Linda: How could you do that? You had the perfect marriage. All I ever wanted was a marriage like yours.Glenda Mitchell on her first affair: He was my tennis coach. Up until that point I’d been the faithful wife. I was just another notch on his tennisracket.Roxy Mitchell: He’s a tough nut, Phil. Remember when you clocked him over the head with a tennis racket?Ronnie Mitchell: He was cheating.Roxy: Yeah. Still a little bit extreme though.Ronnie: I was only ten. He was twenty odd. Anyway he deserved it. He was a bully.Peggy Mitchell: No, you’re wrong. He was a good boy.Minty Peterson to Ben Mitchell: I hit your dad with a cricket bat once. I didn’t mean to. We was just mucking about. Next thing I know he’s on the deck. If that weren’t bad enough, your Uncle Grant come over, took one look at him, started laughing and then he looked up at me and I thought, “Oh my word, I’m in trouble now.” Nothing happened because, like I said, it was just an accident.Den Watts to Lofty: I remember when you started [working at the Vic]. You made Ethel look like Superwoman.Saeed Jeffrey, manager of the grocery shop on Bridge Street: When Mum and Dad went home [to Bangladesh], how long did they give us to learn about the business? About a month.Naima Jeffrey: And we got married in the middle of it!Saeed: I was going to be a doctor or solicitor, only I couldn't get the qualifications. I failed. I was going to take over [Naima's] dad's business, but I wasn't good enough. I failed.Lynne Slater: Exams, I wish I'd taken a few of them.Kat: I was rubbish at school. I had Zoe before I had a chance to sit my CSEs.Lynne to Kat: Remember Deirdre Pyke? She won all those music certificates at school and we all had to stand there and clap her. The smug look on her face.Cora Cross to Ava: Just because you went out and got yourself an education, lady, that don’t mean you’ve got any common sense.Linda: You got to meet the real actual Princess Diana? In person?Fiona “Tosh” Mackintosh: I had appendicitis as a kid. She was opening a new wing at the hospital. Radiant she was, like there was a light shining out of her.Linda: What was she wearing?Tosh: Pale blue blazer-skirt combination with white trim.Billy Mitchell to Tessa Sanderson: 1984, Los Angeles [Olympic Games] — I had a massive crush on you.Billy speaking to Tyler Moon and Fatboy: When I was your age [twenty-five], I was busy playing the field.Masood Ahmed: Chatting someone up in a nightclub’s not what it’s cut out to be. Believe me, I tried it enough times when I was your age [twenty-two].Ayesha Rana: Seriously?Jack Branning speaking to his niece Abi: I remember what it was like at your age [twelve] - everyone making decisions for you. It’s not easy, I know.Naima: Our marriage was arranged. I went through with it because I'm a part of our culture. We took it very seriously.Saeed: So why did you marry me?Naima: I thought so long as we drew up a working contract, which we did, things would be all right.Saeed: I know why you married me. Because as a married woman with a contract drawn up to suit yourself, you'd have more freedom than you'd have living with your family. You used me, didn't you?</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?