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Telly Talk Soaps
UK Soaps Forum
An Oral History 1985-2015
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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 121078" data-attributes="member: 22"><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><u>1998</u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Garry: 1998, [I was] runner up in the Pie & Mash Competition.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lynne: Yeah, and you were ill for a week.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Garry: It was a dodgy pie.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Charlie Slater, speaking about his brother Harry in 2001: I haven't seen him for three years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stacey to Sean: Doreen next door — you know, the one that always used to look through the window.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stacey: My dad used to drink in [the Green Dragon pub].</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Trevor Morgan, speaking in 2001: A mate of mine's got a pub in Essex. I worked there a few years ago when he was setting up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sharon Watts: What have you been doing since then?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Trevor: Laying roads. It's good money.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley on working in a pub: I’ve done this all my life.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie Moon: There was this girl, this blonde, I used to fancy the pants off for such a long time and she'd been with the same bloke for months and I tried to prise her away, but she wouldn't have it. And then one night, I'm at this party and I see this brunette sitting on her own in the corner and she is well up for it. Turns out it's only the same bird, just wearing a wig. And she says to me, "When I wear the blonde one, I'm one person and when I wear the dark one, I'm someone else."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: A girl I went out with, I met her parents — I realised I'd been out with her mum. Now that's embarrassing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Marlene, Alfie's mother-in-law: You might have been my daughter's husband, but I remember how you used to look at me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: Marlene, if I remember things correctly, it was actually the other way round.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Liza Moon, Alfie's wife: Do you remember that time on the funfair? You were trying to win me a panda.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: And we missed the last coach from Southend if I remember rightly.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Liza: Yeah, and we spent the night asleep inside a waltzer. What was the panda's name?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: Amanda. Amanda the Panda, that was it. And we swapped it for two eggs and chips in some dodgy cafe, weren't it?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Liza: Yeah well, that was me and you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie on Liza: Spoilt rotten she was. Every time we had a row she used to go running back to her mum's.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Maxwell Moon to Alfie: You weren't exactly a model husband, were you, eh?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Marlene to Alfie: You always were a waste of space.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: I ain't all that good with relationships. They start off good, but I end up feeling hemmed in, like claustrophobic, and I end up letting them down.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie on Liza: One time she went back [home] for good and I moved in with Nana and Spence.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Spencer Moon to Alfie: Just like the old days, you and me making breakfast while Nan snores her head off.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: Remember that place near King's Cross we had a few years back?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Spencer: It [was] one room. There [were] drug dealers and pimps. It [was] a dump.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie Mitchell: I'm the intellectual in the Mitchell family. One GSCE and that's a record.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Charles Andrew Mitchell died 20th September 1998</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Grant on Charlie Mitchell's death: What happened?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: Heart attack. He was forty-two. He had a bit of a scare a couple of years back, but we never expected this.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Grant: Why didn't you let us know?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: I was supposed to organise everything, you know, like the notices and the funeral, but it all happened in a sort of blur. I didn't know who I'd called and who I hadn't.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie: At the funeral, everyone kept telling me I'd get over it. They didn't have a clue.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Phil: Still hurts, doesn't it?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie: Not as much as sitting there for two years watching him lose it, falling apart in front of you when you can't do nothing to help.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Bradley Branning, speaking in 2008: I had a pet iguana once. He was called Luke. When I lost [him] I was devastated. I cried for weeks. Ten years on, I can still see his little face.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Our Zoe had a guinea thing once. Brought it back from death’s door.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kim Fox: I had a tortoise once.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Liz Turner, speaking to Patrick Trueman in 2010: You’ve got me thinking about a future for the first time since I lost Ted.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: I saw [a funeral procession] pulled in at a drive-through once — on my life. Bit much, isn't it? I mean, there you are laid out in the back waiting to meet your maker and everyone's ordering cheeseburger and chips.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Nina Harris, Irene's niece: When my granddad died, my mum had him cremated and for ages he just sat there on the mantlepiece. The rest of us didn't know how to handle it. I swear, people were coming by, using him like an ashtray. Then it was like, "Hello, Granddad's put on a bit of weight." The truth is she didn't want to say good-bye.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Phil on Jamie: It weren't me his dad asked to look after him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Phil to Jamie: Billy could have easily had you put into care. He did what Charlie wanted, kept you with family.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: Jamie, I took you in when no one else would have you, when you had nothing. If it wasn't for me, you'd have been on the streets.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy on Jamie: Who looked after him after Charlie died? You don't know what he was like then. I tried really hard with him, but he was always mouthing off, never grateful. He was out of control. I had nothing, but I still put a roof over his head and food in his mouth.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Grant: Yeah, and what about the bruises all over his body?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy to Jamie: Remember the way things used to be? I shouted and you jumped. You used to do as you was told.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sam Mitchell on Billy: He was always the weakest link, wasn't he? The runt of the litter. And what did he do? The first chance he found, the first opportunity, he found someone who was even lower down that pile than him, someone that he could dominate like everyone else was dominating him. He took it out on Jamie — because he was the bottom of the pile, wasn't he?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie: Billy used to trap me in the kitchen. He'd moan about the state of the place and then start laying into me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Phil: Billy [beat Jamie] with his belt.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sonia Jackson on Jamie: Billy used him as a punchbag.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie on Billy: All those years, all I wanted to do was to hit him back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Robbie: How long's this been going on?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie: Since my dad died.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Robbie: He's been knocking you around since then?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jamie: Every time he had a drink inside of him, which was most days.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy to Jamie: You dad was solid and then when he went, you got saddled with me and I just let you down — every time, in every way.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: My nephew Jamie, yeah? I used to batter him for no reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: I messed up with Jamie. When he really needed someone, I was horrible to him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy on himself and Jamie: We'd fight, we'd argue, but underneath I always knew that I loved him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Billy: We had some tough times, yeah, but I made sacrifices.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Nina on Irene: She really stuck by me through some hard times.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Nina on prostitution: I'm out of that now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dean Collins: I think I heard that before, didn't I? Just before you went freelance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Owen Turner to Libby: You remember coming here [Beech Brook], don’t you? You remember this place? One year, we came camping - me, you and your mum.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Denise Fox on a stone labelled Beech Brook 10/98: Owen gave it to her [Libby].</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kevin Wicks: Why is it wrapped in foil?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Denise: It’s supposed to be a gold nugget.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Chelsea: Owen made out he found it panning for gold in some stream.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Owen: Chelsea sat up there doing her nails, tutting, and we panned for the gold. She’s like, “You won’t find no gold, idiots.” We showed her, eh? We put the foil round the stone. Did you keep that stone?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Libby: Yeah.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stacey on nail painting: I used to have a mate who could do stars and stripes and everything.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Libby, painting Chelsea’s nails in 2009: It’s just like colouring in when I was a kid.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Chelsea: Yeah, you were really good at that, never went over the lines or anything.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Afia Kahn: I was never ever any good at colouring in-between the lines.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Chelsea on Libby: There she’d be, all fired up. I’ve got loads of pictures like that in my head — Libby standing there, plaster round her glasses, her hair all over the place. There’d be this little girl just doing a poem or her times tables and I’d think, “Bless her”. And Mum would be sat there, you know, beaming with pride and I’d think, "I do love her”, you know? She weren’t exactly beautiful though — Libby standing there with her second-hand jumper, food all down her mouth. Mum used to say to me, “Chelsea, there are different kinds of beautiful. You’re lucky. You’re like Aunty Kim. Yours is on the outside.” She was just trying to be nice.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Liz Turner on Kim Fox: That girl has always been trouble and once she starts, Denise is never far behind.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kim on Liz: There was always something of the night about her.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kim: No women like me, never have.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Glenda Mitchell: I’ve never really had a close girlfriend.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Carol Jackson: That’s because you’re a man’s woman, isn’t it?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Julie Perkins: Do you know one thing I’ve never been short of, Janine?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Janine Butcher: Nits?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Julie: No — friends.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Daphne Fox, Denise and Kim’s younger sister, to Libby and Chelsea: My two niece-sisters. Remember? That’s what we used to call each other.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Daphne: I’m Denise’s sister.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Liz: Funny. She never mentioned you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Daphne: That’s probably because she was too busy being scared out of her wits by your psycho of a son.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley, speaking in 2010: How long is it since you’ve seen Denise?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Daphne: Too long. Now she’ll never know how sorry I am for all those things I said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Chelsea: I learned a long time ago that hope is just setting yourself up for disappointment.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Danielle: “Where there’s tea, there’s hope.” That’s what my mum used to say.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Danielle: “If no one else will give you a second chance then give yourself one.” Just something my mum used to say.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Danielle: When I was little I used to have this music box. I used to listen to it over and over. My mum used to sing to me sometimes. I can still hear her voice in my head.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ruby Allen: So the first nun says, “Quick, show the vampire your cross.” So she leans out the window and shouts, “Move, you idiot, we’re trying to get past!” That was my mum’s favourite [joke]. She’d never miss a chance to tell it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean: You used to love [playing snakes and ladders] when you were little. Play it all day long if you got the chance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stacey: Up the biggest ladder — that’s the one I was always aiming for.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean: Your dad loved a board game. [You’re] just like your father — a stickler for the rules.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stacey: Sean wasn’t though, was he? He always used to cheat if he thought he could get away with it. I remember it used to get on Dad’s nerves.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Heather on Buckaroo: The last time I played that was with Shirley when I was ill. She let me win, I reckon. She was good like that.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Zainab: I’ve never had much patience for board games.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ava on Dexter: I’ve watched him grow from a shy little boy into a beautiful confident young man. He is still the little boy that made me promise that I wouldn’t walk out on him like [Sam] did, that I’d never leave him alone.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ava to Sam: All those years of me trying to be mum and dad, he [Dexter] never stopped wanting you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dexter Hartman: Every birthday, every year, since I was about this high, I used to wish for the same thing. I just wished that my dad would come back. And I’m sorry, Mum. I know I used to tell you I wanted a computer game or a new bike or whatever it was, but I couldn’t tell you because then it wouldn’t come true. And I didn’t want you to think I didn’t love you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dexter on the possibility of his father returning: This is all I ever wanted ever since I was a little kid.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ava on Sam: All of those Christmases, birthdays, anniversaries without him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Tanya to Lauren: Do you remember when you brought these [festively decorated fir cones] home from playgroup? There was more glitter on your face than there was on the cones.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Max: Do you remember I used to let you and Abi open one present, Christmas Eve?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lauren: Yeah.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Roxy on her and Ronnie’s traditional Christmas: A litre of vodka, two of these bad boys [cigars] and, in case we get a repeat of ’98, [condoms]. It’s tradition — you, me, the sunrise over Talamanca Beach.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Danielle on Christmas: We used to do this every year — carols, midnight mass.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Libby on Christmas: Chelsea always used to get me the best present. It weren’t the most expensive or anything — still the best. It was just the one thing that I always wanted. Of course, she never actually let on that she knew I wanted it. She was way too cool for that. She always knew just what to get me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Little Mo: Years ago, all the family was round and it was Christmas or someone's birthday or something, I don't quite remember, and everyone was having a laugh and a joke, we was all enjoying ourselves, and I went off into the kitchen to get some more drinks and Trevor followed me in there and I don't know what I'd done to upset him, but I must have done something because he punched me as I was leaning into the fridge, just here [the abdomen] where it wouldn't show. Took me ages to get me breath back, just to get some feeling in me legs, but when I did, when I finally went back in, there he was having a joke with Zoe, larking about with Dad.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Little Mo: Three years we'd been married. Why did you do it, Trevor, why?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Trevor: I was angry.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Little Mo: Why? Because I hadn't ironed your shirt properly? Because I hadn't cooked you a meal? Because I'd gone to the shops without telling you?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Trevor: No. It's more complicated than that. You're special. You're Cinderella.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Little Mo: So you hit me? I've spent years wondering what I did that was so bad that you would take your belt off and beat me with it like a dog.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda: One night, years ago, Mick was away somewhere. Lee was, what, five? It took me three renditions of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ to get him off. Anyway, I was putting Johnny down and Nancy started. She wanted something, I can’t even remember what it was. Anyway, I said no. She started screaming her head off, Lee woke up and Johnny started crying. I can still see the mark my hand left on her little leg.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sharon: You hit her.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda: We ain’t saints, Sharon. We’re mums.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda: You burnt down our home on Christmas Day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley: That was an accident.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda: We lost so much because of you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley: Yeah well, I did you a favour, really. You always did have bad taste.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda: Have you any idea how much you’ve hurt [Mick], Shirley? Turning your back on your own kids — I’ll never understand that — but to then walk away from your brother who’s devoted to you ...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley: You made him choose.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda, speaking in 2013: It’s been fifteen years [since I last saw Shirley].</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lee Carter: I ain’t seen Aunt Shirl in years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Johnny, speaking in 2013: I missed having you about, Aunty Tina.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley: Have you missed having me about and all?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Johnny: Yeah, of course.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley: Liar.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley to Johnny: We’ve met each other, what, a handful of times?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lee on Linda: She used to tell us stories as kids. She’d always replace the witch’s name with Shirley.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mick: Me and Lee, we’ve always been close. Of course, you’d have noticed if you’d have been around more often.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stan Carter: if you’d have let me be around, there might have been a chance. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stan on Lee: I ain’t seen him for years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Nancy: When youse two was my age [twenty-one], you was together and you had kids. You didn’t have no-one telling you what to do.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mick: And we wouldn’t have listened.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Linda to Nancy: You know what I used to love? When you were all little and one of you would run up and slip your hand into mine. Right then I knew exactly what I was — your mum, the only person who was going to protect you from everything bad in the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kat, playing charades with Little Mo on Boxing Day, 2000: “Brief Encounter".</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Little Mo: Oh, how did you know that?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kat: Because you did it last year and the year before that ...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Little Mo: Do you remember watching "It's A Wonderful Life" when Mum was still with us?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kat: Yeah.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James from London, post: 121078, member: 22"] [SIZE=5][u]1998[/U] Garry: 1998, [I was] runner up in the Pie & Mash Competition. Lynne: Yeah, and you were ill for a week. Garry: It was a dodgy pie. Charlie Slater, speaking about his brother Harry in 2001: I haven't seen him for three years. Stacey to Sean: Doreen next door — you know, the one that always used to look through the window. Stacey: My dad used to drink in [the Green Dragon pub]. Trevor Morgan, speaking in 2001: A mate of mine's got a pub in Essex. I worked there a few years ago when he was setting up. Sharon Watts: What have you been doing since then? Trevor: Laying roads. It's good money. Shirley on working in a pub: I’ve done this all my life. Alfie Moon: There was this girl, this blonde, I used to fancy the pants off for such a long time and she'd been with the same bloke for months and I tried to prise her away, but she wouldn't have it. And then one night, I'm at this party and I see this brunette sitting on her own in the corner and she is well up for it. Turns out it's only the same bird, just wearing a wig. And she says to me, "When I wear the blonde one, I'm one person and when I wear the dark one, I'm someone else." Alfie: A girl I went out with, I met her parents — I realised I'd been out with her mum. Now that's embarrassing. Marlene, Alfie's mother-in-law: You might have been my daughter's husband, but I remember how you used to look at me. Alfie: Marlene, if I remember things correctly, it was actually the other way round. Liza Moon, Alfie's wife: Do you remember that time on the funfair? You were trying to win me a panda. Alfie: And we missed the last coach from Southend if I remember rightly. Liza: Yeah, and we spent the night asleep inside a waltzer. What was the panda's name? Alfie: Amanda. Amanda the Panda, that was it. And we swapped it for two eggs and chips in some dodgy cafe, weren't it? Liza: Yeah well, that was me and you. Alfie on Liza: Spoilt rotten she was. Every time we had a row she used to go running back to her mum's. Maxwell Moon to Alfie: You weren't exactly a model husband, were you, eh? Marlene to Alfie: You always were a waste of space. Alfie: I ain't all that good with relationships. They start off good, but I end up feeling hemmed in, like claustrophobic, and I end up letting them down. Alfie on Liza: One time she went back [home] for good and I moved in with Nana and Spence. Spencer Moon to Alfie: Just like the old days, you and me making breakfast while Nan snores her head off. Alfie: Remember that place near King's Cross we had a few years back? Spencer: It [was] one room. There [were] drug dealers and pimps. It [was] a dump. Jamie Mitchell: I'm the intellectual in the Mitchell family. One GSCE and that's a record. Charles Andrew Mitchell died 20th September 1998 Grant on Charlie Mitchell's death: What happened? Billy: Heart attack. He was forty-two. He had a bit of a scare a couple of years back, but we never expected this. Grant: Why didn't you let us know? Billy: I was supposed to organise everything, you know, like the notices and the funeral, but it all happened in a sort of blur. I didn't know who I'd called and who I hadn't. Jamie: At the funeral, everyone kept telling me I'd get over it. They didn't have a clue. Phil: Still hurts, doesn't it? Jamie: Not as much as sitting there for two years watching him lose it, falling apart in front of you when you can't do nothing to help. Bradley Branning, speaking in 2008: I had a pet iguana once. He was called Luke. When I lost [him] I was devastated. I cried for weeks. Ten years on, I can still see his little face. Big Mo: Our Zoe had a guinea thing once. Brought it back from death’s door. Kim Fox: I had a tortoise once. Liz Turner, speaking to Patrick Trueman in 2010: You’ve got me thinking about a future for the first time since I lost Ted. Billy: I saw [a funeral procession] pulled in at a drive-through once — on my life. Bit much, isn't it? I mean, there you are laid out in the back waiting to meet your maker and everyone's ordering cheeseburger and chips. Nina Harris, Irene's niece: When my granddad died, my mum had him cremated and for ages he just sat there on the mantlepiece. The rest of us didn't know how to handle it. I swear, people were coming by, using him like an ashtray. Then it was like, "Hello, Granddad's put on a bit of weight." The truth is she didn't want to say good-bye. Phil on Jamie: It weren't me his dad asked to look after him. Phil to Jamie: Billy could have easily had you put into care. He did what Charlie wanted, kept you with family. Billy: Jamie, I took you in when no one else would have you, when you had nothing. If it wasn't for me, you'd have been on the streets. Billy on Jamie: Who looked after him after Charlie died? You don't know what he was like then. I tried really hard with him, but he was always mouthing off, never grateful. He was out of control. I had nothing, but I still put a roof over his head and food in his mouth. Grant: Yeah, and what about the bruises all over his body? Billy to Jamie: Remember the way things used to be? I shouted and you jumped. You used to do as you was told. Sam Mitchell on Billy: He was always the weakest link, wasn't he? The runt of the litter. And what did he do? The first chance he found, the first opportunity, he found someone who was even lower down that pile than him, someone that he could dominate like everyone else was dominating him. He took it out on Jamie — because he was the bottom of the pile, wasn't he? Jamie: Billy used to trap me in the kitchen. He'd moan about the state of the place and then start laying into me. Phil: Billy [beat Jamie] with his belt. Sonia Jackson on Jamie: Billy used him as a punchbag. Jamie on Billy: All those years, all I wanted to do was to hit him back. Robbie: How long's this been going on? Jamie: Since my dad died. Robbie: He's been knocking you around since then? Jamie: Every time he had a drink inside of him, which was most days. Billy to Jamie: You dad was solid and then when he went, you got saddled with me and I just let you down — every time, in every way. Billy: My nephew Jamie, yeah? I used to batter him for no reason. Billy: I messed up with Jamie. When he really needed someone, I was horrible to him. Billy on himself and Jamie: We'd fight, we'd argue, but underneath I always knew that I loved him. Billy: We had some tough times, yeah, but I made sacrifices. Nina on Irene: She really stuck by me through some hard times. Nina on prostitution: I'm out of that now. Dean Collins: I think I heard that before, didn't I? Just before you went freelance. Owen Turner to Libby: You remember coming here [Beech Brook], don’t you? You remember this place? One year, we came camping - me, you and your mum. Denise Fox on a stone labelled Beech Brook 10/98: Owen gave it to her [Libby]. Kevin Wicks: Why is it wrapped in foil? Denise: It’s supposed to be a gold nugget. Chelsea: Owen made out he found it panning for gold in some stream. Owen: Chelsea sat up there doing her nails, tutting, and we panned for the gold. She’s like, “You won’t find no gold, idiots.” We showed her, eh? We put the foil round the stone. Did you keep that stone? Libby: Yeah. Stacey on nail painting: I used to have a mate who could do stars and stripes and everything. Libby, painting Chelsea’s nails in 2009: It’s just like colouring in when I was a kid. Chelsea: Yeah, you were really good at that, never went over the lines or anything. Afia Kahn: I was never ever any good at colouring in-between the lines. Chelsea on Libby: There she’d be, all fired up. I’ve got loads of pictures like that in my head — Libby standing there, plaster round her glasses, her hair all over the place. There’d be this little girl just doing a poem or her times tables and I’d think, “Bless her”. And Mum would be sat there, you know, beaming with pride and I’d think, "I do love her”, you know? She weren’t exactly beautiful though — Libby standing there with her second-hand jumper, food all down her mouth. Mum used to say to me, “Chelsea, there are different kinds of beautiful. You’re lucky. You’re like Aunty Kim. Yours is on the outside.” She was just trying to be nice. Liz Turner on Kim Fox: That girl has always been trouble and once she starts, Denise is never far behind. Kim on Liz: There was always something of the night about her. Kim: No women like me, never have. Glenda Mitchell: I’ve never really had a close girlfriend. Carol Jackson: That’s because you’re a man’s woman, isn’t it? Julie Perkins: Do you know one thing I’ve never been short of, Janine? Janine Butcher: Nits? Julie: No — friends. Daphne Fox, Denise and Kim’s younger sister, to Libby and Chelsea: My two niece-sisters. Remember? That’s what we used to call each other. Daphne: I’m Denise’s sister. Liz: Funny. She never mentioned you. Daphne: That’s probably because she was too busy being scared out of her wits by your psycho of a son. Shirley, speaking in 2010: How long is it since you’ve seen Denise? Daphne: Too long. Now she’ll never know how sorry I am for all those things I said. Chelsea: I learned a long time ago that hope is just setting yourself up for disappointment. Danielle: “Where there’s tea, there’s hope.” That’s what my mum used to say. Danielle: “If no one else will give you a second chance then give yourself one.” Just something my mum used to say. Danielle: When I was little I used to have this music box. I used to listen to it over and over. My mum used to sing to me sometimes. I can still hear her voice in my head. Ruby Allen: So the first nun says, “Quick, show the vampire your cross.” So she leans out the window and shouts, “Move, you idiot, we’re trying to get past!” That was my mum’s favourite [joke]. She’d never miss a chance to tell it. Jean: You used to love [playing snakes and ladders] when you were little. Play it all day long if you got the chance. Stacey: Up the biggest ladder — that’s the one I was always aiming for. Jean: Your dad loved a board game. [You’re] just like your father — a stickler for the rules. Stacey: Sean wasn’t though, was he? He always used to cheat if he thought he could get away with it. I remember it used to get on Dad’s nerves. Heather on Buckaroo: The last time I played that was with Shirley when I was ill. She let me win, I reckon. She was good like that. Zainab: I’ve never had much patience for board games. Ava on Dexter: I’ve watched him grow from a shy little boy into a beautiful confident young man. He is still the little boy that made me promise that I wouldn’t walk out on him like [Sam] did, that I’d never leave him alone. Ava to Sam: All those years of me trying to be mum and dad, he [Dexter] never stopped wanting you. Dexter Hartman: Every birthday, every year, since I was about this high, I used to wish for the same thing. I just wished that my dad would come back. And I’m sorry, Mum. I know I used to tell you I wanted a computer game or a new bike or whatever it was, but I couldn’t tell you because then it wouldn’t come true. And I didn’t want you to think I didn’t love you. Dexter on the possibility of his father returning: This is all I ever wanted ever since I was a little kid. Ava on Sam: All of those Christmases, birthdays, anniversaries without him. Tanya to Lauren: Do you remember when you brought these [festively decorated fir cones] home from playgroup? There was more glitter on your face than there was on the cones. Max: Do you remember I used to let you and Abi open one present, Christmas Eve? Lauren: Yeah. Roxy on her and Ronnie’s traditional Christmas: A litre of vodka, two of these bad boys [cigars] and, in case we get a repeat of ’98, [condoms]. It’s tradition — you, me, the sunrise over Talamanca Beach. Danielle on Christmas: We used to do this every year — carols, midnight mass. Libby on Christmas: Chelsea always used to get me the best present. It weren’t the most expensive or anything — still the best. It was just the one thing that I always wanted. Of course, she never actually let on that she knew I wanted it. She was way too cool for that. She always knew just what to get me. Little Mo: Years ago, all the family was round and it was Christmas or someone's birthday or something, I don't quite remember, and everyone was having a laugh and a joke, we was all enjoying ourselves, and I went off into the kitchen to get some more drinks and Trevor followed me in there and I don't know what I'd done to upset him, but I must have done something because he punched me as I was leaning into the fridge, just here [the abdomen] where it wouldn't show. Took me ages to get me breath back, just to get some feeling in me legs, but when I did, when I finally went back in, there he was having a joke with Zoe, larking about with Dad. Little Mo: Three years we'd been married. Why did you do it, Trevor, why? Trevor: I was angry. Little Mo: Why? Because I hadn't ironed your shirt properly? Because I hadn't cooked you a meal? Because I'd gone to the shops without telling you? Trevor: No. It's more complicated than that. You're special. You're Cinderella. Little Mo: So you hit me? I've spent years wondering what I did that was so bad that you would take your belt off and beat me with it like a dog. Linda: One night, years ago, Mick was away somewhere. Lee was, what, five? It took me three renditions of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ to get him off. Anyway, I was putting Johnny down and Nancy started. She wanted something, I can’t even remember what it was. Anyway, I said no. She started screaming her head off, Lee woke up and Johnny started crying. I can still see the mark my hand left on her little leg. Sharon: You hit her. Linda: We ain’t saints, Sharon. We’re mums. Linda: You burnt down our home on Christmas Day. Shirley: That was an accident. Linda: We lost so much because of you. Shirley: Yeah well, I did you a favour, really. You always did have bad taste. Linda: Have you any idea how much you’ve hurt [Mick], Shirley? Turning your back on your own kids — I’ll never understand that — but to then walk away from your brother who’s devoted to you ... Shirley: You made him choose. Linda, speaking in 2013: It’s been fifteen years [since I last saw Shirley]. Lee Carter: I ain’t seen Aunt Shirl in years. Johnny, speaking in 2013: I missed having you about, Aunty Tina. Shirley: Have you missed having me about and all? Johnny: Yeah, of course. Shirley: Liar. Shirley to Johnny: We’ve met each other, what, a handful of times? Lee on Linda: She used to tell us stories as kids. She’d always replace the witch’s name with Shirley. Mick: Me and Lee, we’ve always been close. Of course, you’d have noticed if you’d have been around more often. Stan Carter: if you’d have let me be around, there might have been a chance. Stan on Lee: I ain’t seen him for years. Nancy: When youse two was my age [twenty-one], you was together and you had kids. You didn’t have no-one telling you what to do. Mick: And we wouldn’t have listened. Linda to Nancy: You know what I used to love? When you were all little and one of you would run up and slip your hand into mine. Right then I knew exactly what I was — your mum, the only person who was going to protect you from everything bad in the world. Kat, playing charades with Little Mo on Boxing Day, 2000: “Brief Encounter". Little Mo: Oh, how did you know that? Kat: Because you did it last year and the year before that ... Little Mo: Do you remember watching "It's A Wonderful Life" when Mum was still with us? Kat: Yeah.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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