Jean Slater
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| EastEnders character | ||||||||||
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| Jean Slater | ||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Gillian Wright | |||||||||
| Duration | 2004, 2005, 2006— | |||||||||
| First appearance | 16 December 2004 | |||||||||
| Profile | ||||||||||
| Date of birth | 12 January 1958 | |||||||||
| Status | Widowed | |||||||||
| Home | 23 Albert Square | |||||||||
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Jean Slater is a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. She is played by Gillian Wright. She appeared in December 2004 briefly and in December 2005. She returned as a recurring character in June 2006 and returned again for a longer stint from November 2006.
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[edit] Storylines
[edit] History
Jean is the mother of Sean and Stacey Slater. She rejected Stacey, who went to live with her great uncle Charlie.
She suffers from bipolar disorder and Stacey left her because she couldn't cope on her own. Stacey found out in December 2005 that Jean's condition had worsened, and went to live with her temporarily to help her out. When Jean attempted suicide and got sectioned, Stacey gave up trying to look after her and returned to Walford.
In her past, Jean's husband, Brian Slater, died in an accident on a building site, though it was later revealed that Sean had punched him in the head the day before, causing him to collapse and fall from the scaffolding. Sean ran away and joined the army when his father died but he turned up in Walford in August 2006, and became a regular character.
[edit] Brief Appearances
Jean returned in June 2006 when she was re-housed to a new flat. Stacey went to help her unpack, when she cut herself on a broken picture frame and had to be taken to hospital. She met Stacey's boyfriend Bradley Branning and took a liking to him, saying that he was perfect for Stacey. Jean appeared again in November 2006 when Stacey attempted to reacquaint her mother with Sean after his fiancée Ruby Allen revealed that he was alive and well. Jean had been led to believe that Sean had died in combat during his time in the army.
In July 2007 Jean appeared again when Bradley arrived at her home to announce that he had reconciled with Stacey, which left her delighted. Bradley then brought her back to Walford with him in order to celebrate the engagement of Bradley and Stacey.
In August 2007, Sean was arrested for the attempted murder of Patrick Trueman. Jean went to visit Sean in prison, along with Stacey, but he wasn't happy with her turning up. She later infuriated Sean when she said that Stacey was like her late father, but that he was like her. In his rage Sean told her he never wanted to see her again and called her a freak, before storming off back to his prison cell.
After Sean's release from jail, the real assailant Craig Dixon having been discovered, Jean began to plan Stacey's wedding with her. In September 2007, an elated Jean announced to Stacey that she would make her wedding dress for her. Stacey was secretly horrified by her mother's suggestion, but held her tongue as Jean busily planned out how she would make the dress. When Stacey's great-great aunt Mo Harris sent wedding dresses to the house for Stacey to try on in a bid to cheer her up, she inadvertently invited Jean over to view Stacey's fittings. Jean was devastated when she saw Stacey in a wedding gown and ran out, screaming that she wouldn't come to the wedding. She was eventually met by Max Branning at the railway station, who had run into a tearful Stacey earlier, and he tried to calm her down by taking her for a drink. He made Jean see sense and she returned to the Slater household where she patched things up with Stacey and they decided that it would be better if she did a poetry reading at the wedding instead.
On 1 November 2007, Jean attended Bradley and Stacey's wedding and, despite faltering at first, managed to go through with her poetry reading. Although Stacey originally walked out of the ceremony the marriage still went ahead and Jean, along with the other residents of Albert Square, proudly waved off her daughter and new son-in-law as they left for their honeymoon in Lanzarote just shortly after the reception.
The next day, Sean was furious to see Jean still staying at the Slaters' house and forced her to leave, throwing her cases out of the door. When she was in the Square, some teenage boys were launching fireworks and one of them knocked Jean to the floor. Sean, watching with fury, ran over and pinned one of the gang onto a parked car. This scared Jean, and so Sean walked away rather than upset her, which showed he cared about his mother to some degree, despite his apparent dislike of her. He went over to Jean's flat and after taking some of her tranquillisers, fell asleep there. Jean hoped that her son's presence might be the start of a reconciliation between the two of them, as they had never been close, but Sean began showing increasing hostility towards his mother, despite having tried to make things up by doing a few jobs for her whilst at her flat.
[edit] Permanent Stay in Walford
After Bradley and Stacey returned from their honeymoon and began to live with Bradley's step-grandmother Dot Branning, Jean turned up on their doorstep unnanounced and asked her daughter if she could live with her as her neighbours were redecorating and making an awful noise. Stacey and Bradley reluctantly agreed, but Jean's pestering and interfering proved too much for Dot and she sent Jean, Bradley and Stacey away to live at the Slater household. Jean has remained there ever since, having never went back to her flat.
On Christmas Day 2007, Jean was invited to have dinner with the rest of the Slaters' at Bradley's father Max and stepmother Tanya Branning's home. The day was enjoyable, with even Sean turning up and sitting next to his mother during the meal. However, whilst exchanging gifts Bradley and Stacey were presented with their wedding DVD from Bradley's half-sister Lauren Branning. The DVD contained footage of Max and Stacey discussing their past affair and sharing a kiss and Lauren, who watched the DVD before hand, had originally threw the DVD out but her mother Tanya had found it amongst the rubbish and made Lauren give it to Bradley and Stacey, not knowing what exactly was on the tape. As the Branning and Slater families gathered to watch the DVD an image of Max and Stacey kissing flickered upon the screen. Jean was devastated by what she saw and tried to convince herself that Max and Stacey were pretending and playing a joke on everybody. She also refused to leave the house, before finally coming to terms with the fact that Max and Stacey had had an affair. She then left with Charlie and Mo. The result was that both Max and Tanya's and Bradley and Stacey's marriages were over.
Since then, Jean has tried to do everything to help Stacey come to terms with the break-up of her marriage and even influenced the friendship between her daughter and Steven Beale. She was devastated when Stacey was taken to hospital after overdosing on drugs in February 2008, but mother and daughter were brought closer together over the ordeal after Stacey got better and returned home from Tring, having visited Bradley in the hope of a reconciliation.
In May 2008, Jean was taken hostage by Sean in the back of Charlie's cab. He unintentionally drove her to the building site where his father died and whilst there mother and son had a heart-to-heart as Sean blurted out that Roxy Mitchell was pregnant with his baby. Jean was elated at the thought of her becoming a grandmother but after Sean told her that he intended to force Roxy into having an abortion, she made him see sense. Sean later drove Jean back home, much to the relief of Mo, Charlie and Stacey.
[edit] External links
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