Mo Harris
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| EastEnders character | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Mo Harris | ||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Laila Morse Lorraine Stanley (flashback) |
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| Introduced by | John Yorke | |||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2000— | |||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 18 September 2000 | |||||||||||||||||
| Profile | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 18 February 1936 | |||||||||||||||||
| Status | Widowed | |||||||||||||||||
| Home | 23 Albert Square | |||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Market trader (clothing) | |||||||||||||||||
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| Mo as she appeared in EastEnders: Pat and Mo, played by Lorraine Stanley. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Maureen "Mo" Harris (née Porter) is a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, who has been in the series since 18 September 2000. She is played by Laila Morse. Mo was also played by Lorraine Stanley in a soap 'bubble' EastEnders: Pat and Mo, delving into her past with Pat Evans, which aired in 2004. Mo provides a background of light entertainment for the harrowing rape and incest that characterise the Slater family.
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[edit] Character creation and development
The character of Mo and the rest of the Slater family were created during workshops with Tony Jordan and John Yorke. London actors were invited to improvise in groups, and the characters were created during these improvistations.[1][2] According to the BBC's head of drama series, Mal Young, the family was brought in as the serial did not "have enough solid families in the soap, there were a lot of fractured families and people who were alone."[2] Laila Morse was cast as Mo, and made her first on-screen appearance on 18 September 2000. She was named "Arrival of the Year" by TV critic Ian Hyland in 2000.[3]
The character of Mo has appeared in two spin-offs of EastEnders. She appeared in the 2004 'soap bubble' EastEnders: Pat and Mo, which explored her past with the character of Pat Harris through flashbacks, in which she was played by Lorraine Stanley. The episode was broadcast to give the viewer "and understanding of, and history to [the] characters".[4] She also appeared in the straight-to-video spin-off EastEnders: Slaters in Detention in 2003.
[edit] Personality
Mo has been described as "a very strong person [who] loves the family [and] wouldn't have anything said about them" by Morse.[1] She has been said to "hold the family together … [acting] as a surrogate mum to her granddaughters".[5] Her criminal activity has led to her being described as a "female Fagin or Del Boy"[6] and the "queen of knock-off".[7]
[edit] Storylines
[edit] Background
Mo was born into an impoverished East End family, so she quickly became a fighter who wouldn't take nonsense from anyone.
She had her daughter, Vivian, at the age of 15, following a one-night-stand with an older man called Stuart Mullins.
Pat Evans was Mo's best friend when she was younger. Johnny Allen had also riled Mo in the past, when they were youngsters. Johnny moved to Albert Square in January 2005, and Mo said that no matter what Johnny was then, she would always remember him for being a "sap" when they were younger.
Mo was married to Pat's brother Jimmy, and helped Pat through her turbulent relationship with Frank Butcher, and when Pat began prostituting herself. She had two children by Jimmy, called Billy and Jean. Mo later had an affair with club owner Tony Cattani (who had introduced Pat to prostitution), and Pat exposed it to Jimmy, causing a rift in their relationship.
Jimmy disowned Pat because of this, but when he was dying of cancer he wanted to see her again. He wrote a letter to her but Mo didn't post it, and when he died in 1979, Mo didn't invite Pat to his funeral.
[edit] Life in Walford
Mo moved to Albert Square in September 2000, a year after the death of her daughter Viv, with her son-in-law Charlie Slater, and granddaughters, Lynne, Kat, Little Mo (who is named in her honour) and Zoe. It was later discovered that Zoe was actually Kat's daughter, conceived when Charlie's brother Harry raped Kat, who Viv and Charlie raised as their own.
Upon her arrival in the Square, her rivalry with Pat Evans arose again. They would make snide remarks at each other, but eventually they buried the hatchet at Jimmy's grave, when they planted a tree in his memory on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. Mo later went to Pat's flat to give her the letter Jimmy wrote her on his deathbed, but halted at the door and decided not to.
On 26 October 2000, Mo delivered Sonia Jackson's unexpected daughter Chloe.
Much of her time is spent wheeling and dealing with other residents of Albert Square, usually selling stolen goods. She has been assisted at this by both Mickey and Darren Miller in the past. She once set up a sex chatline on her mobile phone, calling herself "Madam Whiplash".
She works on Stacey's clothes stall on Bridge Street market, which has previously been owned by Kat, Zoe and Kelly. She suffers from piles, which she refers to in Cockney rhyming slang as her "Farmer Giles". At Christmas 2005, one of Mo's dodgy deals backfired, when she thought she was buying a cheap turkey, but ended up with a live parrot, who she named Corky.
She had a brief relationship with Bert Atkinson, but ended it because Bert was sleeping with her friend, Ina. They got back together but broke up again when Bert's ex-wife Evie arrived in Walford, terminally ill.
After a trip to see her granddaughter, Belinda, in Lanzarote, Mo brought some duty free cigarettes back to England and sold them around the market. She sold some to Pat, and some to Lauren Branning, who claimed they were for her father, Max. Lauren's mother Tanya later caught her smoking them with Jay Brown, and was angry with Mo when she learnt where she got them from.
On 6 March 2007, two customers on the stall told Mo that they had heard she could sell them some cheap cigarettes. When Mo produced the cigarettes, they revealed that they were Revenue and Customs officers. They searched Mo's house and found nothing, until Charlie came in with a bundle of cigarette boxes for recycling. She was summoned to a magistrates' court for tax evasion, where she was sentenced to 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty. She vowed to make Tanya pay, as she suspected her of informing the authorities.
On 9 March she was playing darts with Charlie and Carly Wicks in The Queen Vic. Carly was having an argument with her mother, Shirley, when Shirley grabbed Carly's hand, resulting in the dart Carly was holding flying out of her hand and landing in Mo's buttock. Phil Mitchell had to remove the dart and perform first aid on Mo, including rubbing cream into her buttock.
Along with the rest of the Albert Square residents, Mo proudly watched as Stacey Slater, a part of her extended family whom she, along with her son-in-law Charlie, had taken under their wing when her mum threw her out in November 2004, walked down the aisle and married Bradley Branning on 1 November 2007. Mo threw Stacey a hen night on 30 October, making margueritas for everyone, and invited Stacey's mum Jean Slater, as well as Tanya Branning, Preeti Choraria and Honey Mitchell. Although Stacey originally walked out of her wedding, the ceremony went ahead and Mo looked on with the rest of the Slater's and Branning's as Bradley and Stacey left for their honeymoon in Lanzarote. However whilst they were away on honeymoon, Mo tried to flog their wedding presents on her stall, but Charlie made her run around Walford trying to get all the goods back after realising what she'd done.
In January 2008, she played matchmaker for Garry Hobbs and Dawn Swann, reading Dawn's tarot cards and telling her she would find her love wearing a red shirt (one of which she had sold to Garry earlier that day).
[edit] In popular culture
The character of Mo Harris has been spoofed in the cartoon sketch show 2DTV and also in Alistair McGowan's Big Impression.
[edit] References
- ^ a b EastEnders Revealed: The Slaters Special.
- ^ a b "Seven move in to Albert Square", BBC News, 2000-09-30. URL last accessed 2008-02-16.
- ^ "TV Watch: Arrival of the Year", Sunday Mirror. 2000-12-31.
- ^ "Spin off when you're winning", The Guardian, 2004-01-19. URL last accessed 2008-02-16.
- ^ Soaplife Issue 14, 2000-08-29.
- ^ "Mo Harris", Meet the Slaters. URL last accessed 2008-02-16.
- ^ "Mo Harris", What's On TV. URL last accessed 2008-02-16.
