Ali Osman

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For the Australian criminal, see Ali Osman (Australian)

EastEnders character
Ali Osman
Portrayed by	Nejdet Salih
Duration	1985–1989
First appearance	19 February 1985
Last appearance	10 October 1989
Date of birth	10 April 1956
Marital status	Separated
Occupation	Café and mini cab owner
Family	Sue, Hassan, Little Ali, Mehmet

Ali Osman was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was played by Nejdet Salih.

Ali was a happy-go-lucky, easy going chap, which was in stark contrast to his highly strung wife, Sue. He had a compulsive addiction to gambling, which got him into trouble on more than one occasion and his marriage ended in disaster after he had his wife sectioned.

Contents 1 Character creation and development 2 Background 3 Cot death 4 Gambling, debts and infidelity 5 Ali's downfall 6 Family 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Character creation and development

Ali Osman was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Ali, a Turkish Cypriot, was originally intended to be named Chris. His name was changed to Ali when it dawned on Holland that he had given a Christian name to a Muslim. Ali was a well-intentioned attempt to represent the proportion of Turkish Cypriots who had immigrated to England and settled in the East End of London. 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.^[1]

Ali'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 Ali will be referred to as Chris.

"Chris is a Turkish Cypriot, his wife Sue is English, and they run the cafe just off the Square. In the evenings, Chris is also a minicab driver. They have a nine month old son named after Chris' dad - Hassan - and they are devoted to him....Chris was born in Cyprus in 1957. But, as it turned out in 1974, he was a Turk in a Greek zone. A refugee-camp followed. Then, the family was resettled in a Turkish zone. But, it never felt like home, and there was no money so, in 1975 they came to London...Chris married Sue in 1982...Chris is basically lazy, and a gambler. Not (yet) a compulsive gambler - but he is a passionate one...He's a bit of a peacock. He expects to be waited on hand and foot...Chris is always having to prove himself." (page 59)^[1]

The casting of Ali was a huge problem for Holland and Smith. During that time in the 80s only three Turkish-speaking actors could be located in London, and one of those was considered unsuitable. The other two, Haluk Bilginer and Nejdet Salih, were possibilities. Deciding which to cast caused major rows between Holland and Smith. Holland favoured Bilginer as he looked the part. He felt Salih did not have the physical presence needed and also believed that Sandy Ratcliff (the actress playing his on-screen wife) would "make mincemeat out of him". Smith disagreed. As Salih was actually Turkish Cypriot (whilst Bilginer was Turkish) she felt he would have actual knowledge to bring to the character and wouldn't have to act the part as "he was the part". He also lived in the East End, as did his large family. To resolve the conflict both actors were given readings with Sandy Ratcliff and Salih eventually won the role following a cheeky, sexist remark aimed at Ratcliff and her tardy time-keeping. Both Holland and Smith felt this typified the character perfectly. Ironically, both actors eventually featured in the series, as Bilinger was brought back to take on the role of Ali's older brother.^[1]

Before the show aired, Holland and Smith had already decided that Sue and her husband would be parents to a young baby named Hassan. However, as further characters were invented they realised that there would be a total of four babies in the show: Annie Smith, Martin Fowler, Vicki Fowler and Hassan. It was decided that it would be impossible for the studios to cope with four babies, and so they invented a storyline to eliminate one of the young babies from the cast. During this time in the 1980s, the issue of cot death was extremely prominent in the British press, partly due to an increase in casualties, but also because a doctor had gone public with the accusation that parents were to blame for the tragic occurrence.^[1] Holland and Smith decided that covering this issue in the soap would be a good way of 'setting the record straight', and so it was decided that Sue and Ali's baby would die from cot death in the early months of the show. This was the first of many controversial storylines in EastEnders' history. After the storyline aired in June 1985, the show was praised by audience and press alike for the sensitive and unsensational way this harrowing subject was treated. The sudden tragedy came as a surprise to the audience, especially since the bereaved parents were a couple whose feuding, fighting ways had made them appear rather comic in the early episodes of the show.^[2] The British Cot Death Foundation initially feared that a soap opera would trivialise the subject and frighten new parents. They tried to stop the episodes from airing, but in the end they were pleased with the way the subject was handled, and provided back-up support after transmission to many viewers who wanted more information on the subject.^[2]

The character of Ali lasted in the show for over four years, remaining after the mental breakdown of his highly-strung wife and depicting the plight of a single-parent father. Ali was eventually written out of the serial in 1989 following the departure of Smith and Holland from the series and the introduction of a new producer, Mike Gibbon.

Below is an outline of Ali Osman's storylines during his stint in EastEnders.

[edit] Background

Ali was the original owner of the Bridge Street Café, which he ran together with his wife Sue, who he married in 1982. In 1983, Sue fell pregnant, and she gave birth to baby Hassan in 1984. They initially lived at 23a Albert Square, but they moved to 47a Albert Square in 1986.

Ali was a Turkish Cypriot and he moved to London in 1975, along with his brother Mehmet, who he remained extremely close to. His strong family ties often interfered with the happiness of his British wife, who found it difficult to accommodate his ever present family. Despite Sue's protests, Ali went into partnership with his brother in June 1986, when he opened up a cab-firm, Ozcabs, which the pair ran from inside the café. Ali was often on the receiving end of racist slurs from the local villain Nick Cotton, who regularly referred to him as a "stupid Turk". The two were involved in a violent altercation in the first episode of the show and barred from The Queen Vic pub. Ali ended up coming out of the fight worse off, and was seen bruised and bandaged the following day.

[edit] Cot death

Ali's one vice was his addiction to gambling, and he and his reprobate brother were often seen risking their hard-earned cash on a game of poker, which Ali would regularly hold in the café after closing time. The café never really paid the bills, and what little money did come Ali's way would soon be frittered away at the bookies. This was often a huge source of concern for Sue, and she would often try to put a halt to Ali's gambling, albeit unsuccessfully. However, in June 1985 Ali's luck looked as if it was changing, when he rashly decided to wager his business on a bet and ended up winning a substantial amount of money.

The Osmans were overjoyed, however the very next day disaster struck when baby Hassan tragically died of cot death. Ali and Sue spent many months coming to terms with their son's death. Sue, in particular, took Hassan's death extremely badly, which culminated in her having a mental breakdown. Ali was seemingly unable to deal with Sue's fragile state, and their marriage disintegrated into a welter of depression. Eventually, with the help of Dr. Legg, Sue managed to come to terms with Hassan's death, although Ali often felt like he was 'walking on egg-shells' around his wife, who always seemed to be one step away from another mental breakdown.

During 1986, Sue became desperate for another child, but no matter how hard they tried, she and Ali couldn't conceive. Ali was most put out by this as he felt his inability to make Sue pregnant questioned his manhood. Sue became obsessed with getting pregnant again to replace her dead baby, even inventing a phantom pregnancy, which had Ali fooled for a while. At one stage, Ali even feared he might be impotent, and the continuous pressure from his wife only sought to push him away from her. He tried and failed to seduce every woman on the Square, which caused huge rows with Sue when she was informed about his amorous propositions. They managed to patch up their differences and in October 1987, Sue fell pregnant for a second time.

[edit] Gambling, debts and infidelity

In July 1987 Sue and Ali learnt that their landlord, Ashraf Karim, was selling their flat, leaving them to face a possible eviction. In order to buy the flat from Ashraf, Ali decided to raise the funds by gambling the café's takings. Unfortunately luck was not on his side, he lost the money and the flat was taken over by a mystery buyer. Several months later, Sue and Ali's lives were turned upside down by the arrival of noisy neighbour, Alan McIntyre, who moved into the adjacent flat. Alan would play his music at all hours, leaving the Osmans exhausted from lack of sleep. After several confrontations, Ali and Sue threatened to report Alan to the landlord, but were horrified to discover that Alan was the landlord and they were actually renting their flat from him. Things then proceeded to get infinitely worse for the Osmans at the hands of Alan, when their flat was broken into and their carpet was defecated on. After several confrontations, Alan and Ali managed to call a truce on their petty feud.

In March 1988, Sue gave birth to a boy, named Ali, after his father. Although Ali was overjoyed to be a father again, he found himself being increasingly excluded from his son's life by Sue, who had become so over-protective and obsessed with her son's welfare that she didn't trust Ali around him. Her obsession to be the perfect mother took its toll on their marital relationship too, as Sue had little time for Ali.

Sue began to tire of life in Walford and after much nagging Ali eventually tried to get funds together in order to facilitate their move. In doing so, he managed to run up huge gambling debts to Joanne Francis, manageress of Strokes wine bar, who was also a member of the criminal underworld known as The Firm. Desperate for money to hide his losses from Sue, Ali turned to his café employee, Ian Beale, for a loan. He agreed, but charged him 10 percent interest and later, when they couldn't meet the repayments, he demanded into partnership in the café. Ali refused, but Ian left the offer open, biding his time until he could force Ali out of the café permanently, to become sole owner.

In order to meet his repayments to Ian, Ali turned to gambling yet again in the hope of raising his fortunes. After a rare win at the horses, Ali celebrated his success in The Queen Vic, boasting of his lucky run to anyone who would listen. His tales of wealth caught the attention of the local prostitute Donna Ludlow, who seduced Ali later that night and the pair ended up in bed together. However, devious Donna was only out to blackmail Ali, and later told him that she would tell his wife what had happened unless he agreed to give her money. For many months Ali was forced to pay Donna the hush money. However in March 1989, a blazing row between Donna and Sue, resulted in Donna maliciously confessing their seedy affair. Upon finding this out, a devastated Sue turned to Ali's brother for comfort. Sue wanted revenge on her cheating husband and so she pretended to Ali that she had been having an affair with Mehmet, which culminated in her kissing him in front of Ali. Thinking that his brother had been sleeping with his wife, Ali viciously attacked Mehmet and banished him from his life. After much rowing, Sue decided to flee Walford with Little Ali without informing her husband that she was going, or where she'd be.

Ali spent months searching for his missing wife to no avail. However, in May that year, he found Sue visiting baby Hassan's grave and snatched Little Ali back. Upon losing her son, Sue became deranged, and in order to keep his mentally unstable wife away from his son, Ali was forced to get Sue sectioned. Sue was admitted to a mental institute, leaving Ali to bring up his son and run his businesses alone.

[edit] Ali's downfall

Ali spent the rest of the year struggling to keep the businesses afloat. Things looked bleak for him when he discovered that the man he was renting the lease of the café from, was doubling the rent. Ali could not afford the increase, and Ian used this opportunity to try and force him into relinquishing the lease over to him. Ali was repulsed by the idea, and in a final bid to save his failing business, he attempted an insurance scam by torching his café. The fire was spotted and put out by Ian, who quickly worked out that Ali was to blame. Ian then gave Ali an ultimatum and Ali had no choice but to sign his business over to him. Ali had the last laugh however, when he neglected to inform Ian that the appliances that came with the café were on hire purchase (HP), and it wasn't long before the HP men had stormed the café to reclaim their unpaid for goods. To make matters worse, Ali had news that Ian's rent was to increase by £1000 the following month, a fact that Ali had been aware of before selling him the lease. Ian was furious and the two were involved in a blazing row, which resulted in violence and a feud that lasted for the remainder of Ali's time in Walford.

Meanwhile, a jobless Ali soon found employment from a sympathetic Frank Butcher, who hired him to work in his new car-lot. However, juggling his parental responsibilities and holding down a job proved to be difficult, and Ali was often forced to bring his young son to work with him. His work suffered as a result, which didn't impress Frank and he threatened to fire Ali unless he sorted things out. In desperation, Ali decided to hire an unregistered child-minder to look after his son. As the weeks went by, many residents of Walford began to notice that 'Little Ali' was not being cared for adequately and when the local health-care worker, Carmel Jackson, discovered this, she began to do some investigating. After an impromptu visit to the minder, Carmel discovered that she was seriously neglecting the children in her care, leaving them alone all day with no one to look after them. In the wake of this, Ali decided to quit working for Frank and he took up cabbying instead, so he could keep his son with him all day. Unfortunately this too was shortlived as his car was stolen soon after, and once again Ali was jobless. He was forced to relinquish the care of his son to his parents, who lived outside Walford.

To make matters worse, Ian had persuaded the owner of the café to sell the entire premises to him, and he subsequently refused to pay Ali any further installments for the lease he'd purchased months earlier. Ali (now completely broke) once again turned to gambling to get himself out of severe debt. However, this time luck wasn't on his side and after losing to his landlord Alan, Ali was thrown out of his premises. Ali went berserk and started bashing up the Square with a crowbar, until his family turned up and forced him to return to Cyprus with Little Ali. His last appearance was in October 1989.

[edit] Family

• Father: Hassan Osman
• Brother: Mehmet Osman
• Sister: Ayse Osman
• Wife: Sue Osman
• Sons: Hassan Osman (deceased), Little Ali Osman
• Nephews: Rayif Osman, Murat Osman
• Niece: Emine Osman

[edit] Trivia

• Although Ali's original character outline states that he was born in 1957, this was subsequently changed, and he later states that he was born in April 1956 on-screen, whilst he is registering the death of his son.^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ali Osman BBC character profile
• Ali Osman, EastEnders cast cards
• Ali and Mehmet Osman fighting over Sue at YouTube