Josie McFarlane

Josie McFarlane was a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.^[1] She was played by Joan Hooley between 1998 and 2000.^[2] Since leaving the serial, Jamaican-born actress Joan Hooley has publicly accused EastEnders and the BBC of racism and tokenism, for giving her character no significant storylines, and using her as a prop.

1 Character creation and development
2 Storylines
3 Criticism
4 References

[edit] Character creation and development

In 1998, EastEnders acquired a new executive producer, Matthew Robinson. Robinson was dubbed "the axeman" in the British press, after a large proportion of the EastEnders cast either quit, or were culled, shortly after Robinson's introduction. Among the departing characters were longrunning Asian family the Kapoors, including Sanjay, Gita and Neelam Kapoor.^[3] As they were the only Asian characters in the show, EastEnders received criticism for axing them from angry black and Asian MPs, including Oona King, MP for East End constituency Bethnal Green and Dr Ashok Kumar.^[4] In response to the criticism, bosses at EastEnders announced the upcoming arrival of various new ethnic minority characters in July 1998. These included, Asian doctor Fred Fonseca, and the Jamaican relatives of Mick McFarlane (Sylvester Williams), including his mother Josie McFarlane.^[4]

According to the press report, BBC bosses held a brainstorming session including black and Asian representatives among the writers and cast, to see how they could reflect black and Asian life in London more fully.^[4] Josie, played by Joan Hooley, and her stepdaughter Kim, played by Krystle Williams, made their first appearance on-screen in August 1998.

The character Josie has been described as "well-groomed...confident" and someone who "set high — if not impossible — standards, and inevitably people failed her."^[5] She had few central storylines of her own, and in November 1999, it was reported that Matthew Robinson was axing the character.^[6] According to a report in the Daily Mirror, actress Joan Hooley was called into Robinson's office "and told her services would no longer be required." An insider is quoted as saying, "The writers have been told to start thinking of ways to get rid of Josie. Obviously Joan was shocked, but the powers- that-be just didn't think it was working out." An EastEnders spokeswoman says: "Joan had come to the end of her contract with the programme."^[6] The character was written out of the serial after she was threatened with deportation for failing to renew her visa, making her last appearance on-screen in February 2000. Her exit has been described by journalist Danny Buckland as Josie's only decent storyline, but he adds "even this belated plot was unrealistic". Hooley commented, "There was no explanation about the visa problem. Also it is totally implausible that Josie would have gone back to Jamaica without her daughter Kim."^[7]

[edit] Storylines

Jamaican born Josie, was the mother of Mick McFarlane and she arrived in Albert Square in August 1998 to visit her son, who she thought was a successful musician. However, Mick's music career had failed and he had ended up selling CD's on a market stall in the Square, as well as running the Bridge Street café's night bistro. Josie, who always had high aspirations for herself and her family, was none too pleased to find out that her son had been lying about his professional status, but Josie was also harbouring a few secrets of her own.

Her husband, who she worshiped, had recently died, but before his death he had been defrauded in a Jamaican property scam and so Josie was now practically penniless. But perhaps more shockingly, Josie had fostered a young girl named Kim, who she claimed was a distant relative of Mick's. In actual fact, Kim was the illegitimate daughter of her philandering husband, and after her mother's death, Josie had kindly taken her in instead of seeing her go into care. When Mick was finally made privy to this information he was extremely shocked and even more surprised to find out that both Josie and Kim planned to stay in Walford instead of returning to Jamaica. Despite his initial misgivings Mick soon welcomed his mother and new sister into his home.

Josie and Kim later moved into number 3c Albert Square, where Josie became friendly with her downstairs neighbours, Dot Cotton and Lilly Mattock, although Josie and Dot used to bicker constantly.

Josie initially got herself a job as a barmaid at The Queen Vic and she later became the receptionist at Fred Fonseca's doctors' surgery. However, things did not run smoothly for her in her new post. Josie was a strict perfectionist, she also expected perfection from everyone else and she wasn't adverse to telling them so either. Her strict mannerisms only sought to frighten away half the patients. She eventually managed to settle down with a lot of coaching from Dr Fonseca, however, yet more problems arose when she discovered that her employer was homosexual. Josie was a strict Christian and she felt that working for a homosexual conflicted with her religious beliefs. She even went as far as to accuse him of coercing Kim into becoming a lesbian. She continued down a path of self-righteousness, judging everyone by her own, impossibly high standards. After she discovered that her son had gotten involved with ex-prostitute, Nina Harris, she could not condone their friendship and her aloof manner towards Nina infuriated Mick, who ended up branding her a 'lonely, bitter, old woman'. It took bigoted remarks by racist Jim Branning to make Josie realise that she was as prejudiced in her own way as he was, but by then it was too late. Having forgotten to renew her visa she was threatened with deportation and so she was forced to return to Jamaica, leaving Kim in Mick's care. She promised Kim she would return when she sorted out her visa, but so far she has not come back. Her last appearance was in February 2000.

[edit] Criticism

Following her departure from the soap in 2000, actress Joan Hooley publicly slammed EastEnders and the BBC for being "racist" and failing to give ethnic minority characters decent storylines, saying that the BBC was doing nothing to challenge TV stereotypes of blacks as "whores, gangsters, pimps and freaks". She said she felt "emotionally abused" after spending 18 months with the show without ever having "any kind of meaningful plotline or meaty dialogue".^[7]

She commented, "It was tokenism. I felt like a prop in the corner. It was very demeaning and a form of insidious racism. That is a very strong phrase to use against the BBC and EastEnders but I feel very badly about how they handled my character. They were just fulfilling a duty to have a black face in the show. The way most blacks are often portrayed on television reinforces the image of them as gangsters, pimps, whores and freaks. EastEnders could have helped provide a positive role model but they didn't take the opportunity."^[7]

Hooley claims that she was promised major storylines that never materialised, was asked to come up with ideas for black characters, but that all her pages of suggestions (including developing an interesting relationship with the character Dot Cotton or having Josie start her own business) were ignored. She also claims that she was only used for two-thirds of her contracted appearances. She said: "In the 18 months I was in EastEnders, I had no impact. There was nothing that made people sit up and take notice of what Josie was doing. It was like they remembered I was around and threw me a line where I would slide into the bar and say, 'Hello, how are you' and then sit on a stool and say nothing for the rest of the episode. I came to feel that I was letting the black community down because my character was so empty. People of my own colour often accosted me in public and accused me of playing a token black. I was so little-used that they even wrote me cheques for episodes I never appeared in. So why did they not use me? Why are they wasting the taxpayers' money? It was very dispiriting."^[7]

She accused the BBC of having an underlying lack of faith in the public's ability to accept that the UK has a multi-racial society, commenting ""The BBC likes to show itself off as being politically correct but I have seen some aspects that are not wholesome, even if it is unintentional. They may not believe it is there and they probably don't intend it to be there, but I have seen this insidious racism at first hand. There are degrees of racism and this, of course, is not the same as insulting or assaulting someone but it is still pretty distasteful. The BBC needs to know there is a degree of dissatisfaction among the public. I think people want to see that EastEnders is populated by many different ethnic groups. Black people in real life run businesses, fall in and out of love, have fascinating and exciting lives. So why can't we in EastEnders. We are not all losers or nobodies so why can't the BBC show that?...I really felt so ineffectual as a character because I had nothing to get my teeth into - there were no great dramatic scenes or relationships. My character was never given anything meaningful to say and that was such a wasted opportunity. My son said I should get out of EastEnders because it wasn't doing me any good as an actress or as a black woman...I have got to speak out so that things can change."^[7]