Ricky Butcher

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EastEnders character

Ricky Butcher
Portrayed by	Sid Owen
Duration	1988–2000, 2002–2004
First appearance	12 May 1988
Last appearance	3 February 2004
Date of birth	21 February 1973
Marital status	Divorced
Occupation	Mechanic
Family	Frank, Janine, Clare, Diane, Liam

Richard "Ricky" Butcher was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was played by Sid Owen.

Ricky was a bit simple and he always seemed to be led astray by the domineering women in his life. He's been married twice, but both wives left him for bigger and better things. He eventually left Walford to escape his evil sister, Janine.

1 History
2 Life with Bianca
3 Ricky's return
4 Family
5 External links

[edit] History

Ricky arrived in Albert Square, when his father Frank Butcher became landlord of the Queen Vic in 1988. Frank's stint in the pub was brief and it wasn't long before Ricky had moved into another residence on the square, along with his father, his stepmother Pat, his sisters Diane and Janine, and his grandmother Mo.

Ricky's history in Walford is rather complex; always a bit thick and too trusting, he often seemed the loser in life's game. He was quite a tearaway in his youth and was rarely out of trouble. Whilst working in the car lot with his father he stole a car before passing his test and managed to knock Pauline Fowler down in the process. He was fined seventy pounds and had his provisional licence endorsed.

He soon got over that, as he was becoming besotted with Shireen Karim. However, Shireen's father, Ashraf, soon put a stop to their blossoming relationship by forcing her into an arranged marriage. Ricky retaliated by hanging around with a gang of racist thugs and terrorising Ashraf for a while, which soon stopped when Frank got wind of his actions.

Ricky as he appeared in 1988.

Later on Ricky showed some talent at mending cars, so the Mitchell brothers took him on at their auto repair shop as an apprentice mechanic. At first they treated him with a heavy hand, but they soon began to see him more as a younger brother. Even so, they were suspicious of his intentions when he started going out with their much younger sister Samantha Mitchell. Sam had Ricky well and truly under the thumb, and he was willing to do exactly what she wanted. So when she decided that she wanted to get married at 16, he was powerless to stop it. Both the Mitchells and the Butchers were furious and tried to put a stop to their relationship, but this made Sam all the more determined and in June 1991 she and Ricky eloped to Gretna Green and tried to seal their union in secret. However, dozy Ricky wasn't very good at hiding his tracks and it didn't take Sam's mother Peggy long to discover where they were. Luckily for them, they managed to complete their nuptials before they were caught and even managed to persuade Peggy to attend a formal blessing back in Walford the following month. Their marriage was short-lived, as Sam soon grew bored and started to look for entertainment elsewhere. She left Ricky in 1993 when she started hanging around the modeling world.

Ricky and Sam's wedding

Ricky was devastated when his father had a breakdown and abandoned him in 1994 after torching his car-lot and leaving his family in massive debt. Ricky later became partners in the re-opened car-lot with Pat's son David Wicks. However he was always treated as a useless skivvy and after Roy Evans took over the car-lot in 1994 he went back to work as a mechanic for his ex-wife's brother, Phil Mitchell.

[edit] Life with Bianca

During 1994 Ricky fell for bolshy red-head, Bianca Jackson and it wasn't long before the young couple had moved in together. However, Bianca wasn't the easiest of women to please and her bullying and inconsiderate ways eventually drove him into the arms of her best friend, Natalie Price. The strain of having to satisfy not one but two Walford women started to take its toll on Ricky and it wasn't long before Natalie was urging him to split with Bianca so they could be together properly. When Ricky failed to do this, Natalie engineered things so Bianca caught them together, kissing in the Arches. Predictably, Bianca was furious. She threw chips in Ricky's face, dowsed him in beer and cut up all his clothes. Ricky was desperate to get her back and so he cruelly dumped Natalie and told her she was only ever good for one thing. A rejected and heartbroken Natalie then left town (although she would be back to claim her man in years to come). After much grovelling Bianca took Ricky back, although she never allowed him to forget his infidelity and even strayed herself with the womanising barman, Lenny Wallace.

Despite these problems the two eventually decided to marry in April 1997. Later that year Bianca fell pregnant and Ricky was overjoyed at the prospect of being a father. Their joy was short-lived as in November that year a pre-natal scan revealed that their unborn baby had both spina bifida and hydrocephalus. After a heart-breaking period of soul-searching, they decided to terminate the pregnancy. The trauma devastated them both, but it did bring them closer. In 1998 Bianca fell pregnant a second time and gave birth to son (Liam) later that year.

Later Ricky tried to become a motorcycle racer, but never succeeded at anything except getting convicted for dealing in stolen cars thanks to his long-time employer Phil Mitchell. In 1999 he and Bianca broke up following her affair with her mother Carol's boyfriend, Dan Sullivan. With her marriage in ruins, Bianca left the Square with Liam that year. Ricky, despite last minute jitters, did not accompany her. After mooning about for a while and receiving further humiliation at the hands of Dan, Ricky left Walford for pastures new in April 2000.

In 2002 in a special spin-off episode (which was a lead-up to Ricky's return to Walford later that year) Ricky met up with Bianca again in Manchester and they briefly rekindled their relationship. But Bianca, who was struggling as a single parent, was manipulated by Ricky's new fiance, Cassie, into believing that Ricky's life would be ruined if Bianca returned to him, and Bianca was also persuaded that she would never be able provide the kind of stability for Liam that Ricky could. Making a heart-wrenching decision, Bianca left Liam with Ricky and has not been seen since.

[edit] Ricky's return

Ricky returned to Walford with son Liam in August 2002 after discovering that his young sister, Janine, had gone on the game and become a drug addict. Upon his return, Ricky immediately proved he'd learnt nothing in the intervening years by returning to Natalie's arms (who was now married) whilst living with his ex-wife, Sam. His affair with Natalie caused the breakdown of her marriage to Barry Evans in February 2003 and later indirectly caused Barry's death by Ricky's sister Janine. Ricky planned to run away with Natalie but she found out (from Janine) that he'd slept with ex-wife Sam and left the square on her own. Janine had wanted Barry's wealth so she married him, and then, following an argument the next day, killed him by pushing him off a cliff on New Year's day 2004.

Ricky had little other storylines on his return, but things looked like they could be back on the up when his sister Janine asked him to work at the car lot and move in with her following Barry's death in 2004. Pat Evans and Natalie persuaded Ricky to do some investigating, which led to Janine confessing to pushing Barry to his death. Shocked, Ricky abandoned Janine, moved away from Walford with Liam and has not been seen since.