BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

Albert Square Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. It is the primary setting for the soap. ''EastEnders'' is filmed at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, towards the north-west of London. Much of the location ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

Walford Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. It is the primary setting for the soap. ''EastEnders'' is filmed at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, towards the north-west of London. Much of the location work ...

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

Oscar James Oscar James (born 25 July 1942) is a Trinidadian actor, who is based in the United Kingdom. He has had a long and varied career, but is best known for appearing on British television, in particular the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', where he pla ...

Cassie Cassie is a feminine given name and a short form of various other given names mostly used in English-speaking countries. It is more rarely a surname. People and fictional characters named Cassie include: People with the name Given name or nickna ...

Delanie Forbes Delanie Forbes (born May 1976 in Sidcup, London) is an English actress based in East Sussex. She is best known for her childhood role of Cassie Carpenter in BBC's ''EastEnders''. Forbes attended a school in Mottingham, South East London, and she ...

Neville Agard The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in 1986, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by the show's co-creator Julia Smith. The first character to be introduced du ...

Ian Beale Ian Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the drama's longest-serving main character and, following the departure of Pauline Fowler ( Wendy Richard) in 2006, became the only one ...

Adam Woodyatt Adam Brinley Woodyatt (born 28 June 1968) is an English actor. He is known for his role as Ian Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', which he played between 1985 and 2022. Early life and education Woodyatt was born on 28 June 1968 in W ...

Sharon Watts Sharon Watts (also Rickman, Mitchell and Beale) is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Letitia Dean. Sharon is one of ''EastEnders'' original characters conceptualised by creators Tony Holland and Ju ...

Letitia Dean Letitia Jane Dean (born 14 November 1967) is an English actress. She is known for her portrayal of Sharon Watts in the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders''. An original cast member from 1985 to 1995, she reprised the role from 2001 to 2006, and again ...

Michelle Fowler Michelle Fowler (also Holloway) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Susan Tully from the show's first episode on 19 February 1985 up until the character's departure on 26 October 1995. She returned on 24 De ...

Susan Tully Susan Tully (born 20 October 1967) is an English actress, television producer, and television director. Her most prominent television acting roles were those of rebellious teenager Suzanne Ross in ''Grange Hill'' and single mother Michelle Fowl ...

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punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

Lofty Holloway George "Lofty" Holloway is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Tom Watt. Lofty is one of the serial's near-original characters, making his first appearance in the third episode, which was first broadcast on 2 ...

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordscollege A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

Harry Reynolds Harry Reynolds may refer to: * Harry Reynolds (''EastEnders''), fictional character * Harry Reynolds (''Home and Away''), fictional character * Butch Reynolds (born 1964), American 400 meters sprinter * Harry Reynolds (cyclist) (1874–1940), I ...

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The Banned ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

Carmel Roberts Carmel Jackson (also Roberts) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Judith Jacob from 5 June 1986 to 24 August 1989. Carmel, a health visitor, was initially introduced in a recurring, minor role in 1986, when ...

Judith Jacob Judith Jacob (born 13 December 1961) is a British actress best known for her role as the health visitor Carmel Roberts in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', a role she played from 1986 to 1989.health visitor who is considerably older than Kelvin (who has just turned 17) but he moves in with Carmel but their age difference soon begins to take its toll. She soon gets tired of Kelvin's immature behaviour and asks him to move out after publicly dumps him in The Vic. Kelvin then makes a play for Ian's girlfriend, Tina Hopkins (Eleanor Rhodes), but she shuns his advances. With nothing left in Walford to hold him back, Kelvin decides to leave for

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in September 1987, to take a course in computer studies. His friends throw a leaving party for him but Kelvin shuns it 'as he hates goodbyes'. He departs Walford without a farewell from anyone. In 2010, Ian finds Kelvin on a social networking website and Kelvin tells Ian that he is now a songwriter with a model girlfriend, living in Shoreditch. However, after failing to meet up with Ian, Kelvin admits that this is a lie. In 2017, Michelle (now played by

Jenna Russell Jenna Russell (born 5 October 1967) is an English actress and singer. She has appeared on the stage in London in both musicals and dramas, as well as appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She performed the role of Dot in ''Sunday in the ...

) mentions Kelvin to her brother Martin Fowler ( James Bye), so he contacts him on social media on Michelle's behalf and later arranges a reunion. Michelle waits to meet him, but he does not turn up.

Character creation and development

Kelvin Carpenter was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of ''EastEnders'',

Tony Holland Anthony John Holland (18 January 1940 – 28 November 2007) was a British screenwriter, best known as a writer and co-creator (with Julia Smith) of the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. Early life Holland was the oldest of three children born to ...

and Julia Smith. Kelvin was originally intended to be named Kevin, and his father

Tony Carpenter Tony Carpenter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Oscar James, from 28 February 1985 until 28 May 1987. Happy-go-lucky Tony tries to carve himself a successful business and steady home for his family, bu ...

was originally named Alan. They were the first

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before ''EastEnders'' aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at the forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their contacts to relay information about their origins and lifestyles and were then able to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically. Kelvin's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, '' EastEnders: The Inside Story'' (In this passage, Kelvin will be referred to as Kevin and his father as Alan). :"Kevin wants to stay with his dad...How would Alan react to the discovery that Kevin's visiting his mother? How would Kevin react to his father trying to smuggle a woman for the night? And, how would dad react to son doing the same thing? What happens when they're competing for the same woman? As he wants to leave his mark - physically - on the walls of the building, so he wants to leave his mark on his son. Will Kevin take it, or leave it?" (page 58). The actor Paul Medford had been recommended for the role by four separate agencies. He was London born, and they deemed him good-looking, fashionable and street-credible, making him ideal for their vision of Kelvin. After a subsequent and successful reading with the actor

(who played his father), Medford was cast in the role. James was physically much bigger than Medford, and Holland and Smith thought it was a good idea for Tony and Kelvin to be not only different in ages, but different physical types as well. Storywise it was felt it would be possible to build on this and also give them different attitudes and beliefs. Kelvin became one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years. Several of his early storylines were actually intended for the character

Mark Fowler Mark Fowler is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. Mark, an original regular character when the series started in February 1985, became a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the ...

, but following the impromptu departure of actor

David Scarboro David Timothy Scarboro (3 February 1968 – 27 April 1988) was an English actor, best known for portraying Mark Fowler in the British soap opera ''EastEnders'' from the programme's inception in February 1985 until that April before appearing int ...

(the original Mark, who left after refusing to play a scene where the character delivered racist abuse to Kelvin), his storylines were subsequently given to Kelvin,

and

. The character of Kelvin remained in the show for over two years, and was eventually written out when Paul Medford decided to follow his ambition of becoming a singer/dancer on stage in 1987. In his final scene, Kelvin left the square without attending his leaving party. The real reason for this is because 'lot recordings' (scenes recorded on site in Albert Square) for each week's episodes normally occur two weeks before the studio recordings for the same episodes. When the leaving party was recorded in the studio, Paul Medford was already out of contract and had left the show.

Reception

Kelvin Carpenter has been described by author Hilary Kingsley as one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years. However, the way that ''EastEnders'' treated their black characters during the 1980s has been criticized by Robert Clyde Allen, author of the book ''To be Continued--: Soap Operas Around the World''. He has commented that "none of the black families n ''EastEnders''rivaled the Fowler/Beale amily'sposition at the heart of the programme's structure, and black characters were pushed to the margins of the storylines." The author goes on to say that although the character of Kelvin Carpenter mixed with characters such as Ian, Sharon and Michelle, "his personal life got little attention and he disappeared from the programme while the other young characters ereable to grow up in it." Before he was written out of the serial in May 1987, actor Oscar James, who played Kelvin's father Tony, controversially criticised ''EastEnders'' and the BBC for not promoting their black characters. He commented, "The powers that be do not think I am interesting enough. Is it because I am a member of an ethnic minority? How often do you see elvin's actorPaul J. Medford being publicised?...It's as though the BBC are playing us down. I can't believe the white majority of the public are against blacks being stars. They don't give a damn." Conversely, in ''The Black and White Media Show Book'', edited by John Twitchin of BBC TV's Continuing Education Department (published in 1988), the author praises ''EastEnders'' for portraying black people on mainstream television, and for giving them "respectable, fleshed-out parts which allow them to be the most difficult of things — 'normal people'." In a school-based study (1986) examining black representation on television from 1985 to 1986, a storyline featuring Kelvin Carpenter was used to assess how the character was perceived. The aim was to measure whether Kelvin was being portrayed as "normal" as opposed to a "trouble-maker", a category black people on television were typically labelled as prior to the 1980s. For the study, a storyline was used in which Kelvin began behaving like a "newly-converted revolutionary". Both groups, white students and black/Asian students, felt that Kelvin was not a trouble-maker, or menace, but was being portrayed as an eccentric, and both groups agreed that the Carpenter family were seen as having troubles as opposed to causing trouble, akin to the white families in the serial. However, the black/Asian group felt that the Carpenter family's problems were "less subtlety explored than those of their white counterparts, giving rise to possible racist misinterpretations."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Kelvin Male characters in television EastEnders characters Fictional Black British people Television characters introduced in 1985

Storylines

Character creation and development

Reception

References

External links