| Archie Carpenter | |||||||||
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| Hollyoaks character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Stephen Beard | ||||||||
| Created by | Bryan Kirkwood | ||||||||
| Duration | 2008–10 | ||||||||
| First appearance | 3 November 2008 | ||||||||
| Last appearance | 28 May 2010 | ||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Date of birth | 2 February 1989 | ||||||||
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Archie Carpenter is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Stephen Beard. The character first appeared on-screen on 3 November 2008 until his exit on 28 May 2010.[1] He was introduced as the younger brother of then established Zoe Carpenter, when he moved into the college halls of residence. In March 2010, series producer Paul Marquess axed the character as part of his cast cull and major revamp of the series.
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Archie's character was created to be a new student studying at Hollyoaks Community College and was given immediate links with other characters such as an on-screen sister, Zoe Carpenter. It has been mentioned on and off screen that the two character experienced different upbringings from their parents.[2]
Auditions were held for the part of Archie Carpenter with the result of the auditions seen to be unique other castings within the series as the news of the actor to portray the character first surfaced on a reality television series.[3] In 2007 a new reality television series was commissioned by MTV in the United Kingdom called Living on the Edge, which focused on teenagers living their lives in the wealthy village of Alderley Edge in the UK.[4] During series two only one cast member returned to the series, Stephen Beard. Whilst the second season was airing Beard was seen auditioning for various roles and documented the whole audition process for the character of Archie.[5] He was later offered the part on a six month contract, later being offered another contract for the same period of time.[3]
In early 2010 it was announced that Allan had stepped down from the position of executive producer, with Paul Marquess taking over the role.[6] It was soon revealed that he planned revamp Hollyoaks, changing the productions team,[7] then began a cast cull starting with the axing of three established characters.[8] Stephanie Waring (who plays Cindy Hutchinson) then revealed that all remaining cast members feared their characters would be next to depart from the series.[9] One month later the cast cull continued as Marquess announced his plans to axe a further 11 characters, including Archie at the end of Beard's contract.[10] He finished filming in early 2010[10]
Archie has been portrayed as a promiscuous character, one that doesn't think of the consequences of his hasty actions. At the time of joining the show, Beard said of his character: "He is a bit of a womaniser, he's constantly on the look out for new talent but he gets shot down a lot too, I think he thinks far too highly of himself! He'll go to the point that not many blokes will, he will never give up."[5] In an interview with media website Digital Spy he said of his character: "He's definitely a wild one. People who have watched Living On The Edge may draw some comparisons. I go to a certain point in life, but Archie's definitely got bigger balls - he'll take things all the way. He's got no fear. At the same time, though, he has a sensitive side. He's like the big class clown but when he gets a knock, he really feels it. I think Archie's intended to bring a bit of light-hearted humour to the show."[3] He has also been described as a wannabe entrepreneur coming up with wild ideas of how to make money fast.[2] The character's promiscuous ways have been clearly portrayed on-screen through his many one night stands with characters including: Sarah Barnes, Hayley Ramsey, India Longford and Myra McQueen.
In December, Leila Roy accused him of stealing chocolates from her advent calendar however it was later revealed she had been sleepwalking and stole them herself. He kissed Sarah Barnes who later saw Archie kissing another girl. Archie tried to win her back, however she continuously rejected him. In a final attempt to regain her affection he posted a billboard of himself half naked. In February 2009, he tried it on with Sarah again. In March, Sarah gave in and began a relationship with him however Sarah ended the relationship when she caught him trying it on with her lesbian friend Lydia Hart. Sarah began dancing with Lydia to get back at him. In June, Archie tried to stop his parents finding out about Zoe's failed college course by "collapsing". Myra McQueen gave him mouth-to-mouth and he got up calling her a "troll" leading to Myra and Mercedes Fisher trying to attack him. Later, Archie was naked in bed, kissing an unseen person. He lay back down and revealed he had slept with Myra.
Archie along with Kris Fisher, Elliot Bevan and Zak Ramsey moved into Warren Fox's old flat after his death. While clearing out the attic the boys found £100,000 of Warrens money and they all agreed to keep the money in a safe for a few months. If no one came looking for it they would split it four ways. However, things got dangerous when Archie got greedy. He called his friend Jed to help pretend to kidnap him so that the other boys would give Jed the money so that Archie could run away with it. However Kris had run to Nancy Hayton's with the money and planned to go to the police with it. Jed then kidnapped Archie for real and planned to throw him over a roof if he did not get the money. Elliot, Zak, Kris and Nancy came to his rescue but, fed up of how the money affected their friendship, Kris threw the money over the roof. After this everyone turned their back on Archie, mad at him for trying to betray them. During freshers week Archie sleeps with India Longford and then humiliates her by ignoring her in front of everyone. In October 2009, Archie receives a call in which he does not identify on screen. The unknown caller informs him that Zoe is charged with the murder of her best friend and Archie's ex girlfriend Sarah Barnes who has just died in a skydiving accident when her parachute failed to deploy which resulted in her death. Unbeknown to everyone, Lydia Hart Sarah's girlfriend has framed Zoe for Sarah's death as she was the culprit who sabotaged Sarah's parachute that was intended to kill Zoe. Archie is keen to support his sister. During an argument with Lydia, Archie realises Lydia was the saboteur and accuses her during Sarah's wake. Zoe is found not guilty with everyone believing Sarah committed suicide.
Archie develops a drug habit and drops an ecstasy tablet in Nancy's flat which is then nearly taken by her young nephew Charlie Dean. Elliot also gets the blame as he had let Archie in. Neither Nancy nor Elliot want to speak to Archie again. On a night out with Kris and Zak, Archie makes comments about Zak's dead brother Caleb who was killed on patrol in Afghanistan. These comments offended Zak and he punches Archie. This leaves Archie with no friends in the village. Archie leaves after Elliot is taken into hospital having taken Archie's pills.
In 2009 Ruth Deller of entertainment website Lowculture criticised Archie stating: "Zoe’s generic lairy student brother serves no purpose, essentially being an even more obnoxious version of Zak, whilst Zak is still on the show. And there’s no believability about his relationship with Zoe whatsoever."[11]
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