| Celestine and Etta Tavernier | |||||||||||||
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| Golding as Celestine | |||||||||||||
| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Leroy Golding (Celestine) Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence (Etta) |
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| Introduced by | Michael Ferguson | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 5 July 1990 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 22 July 1993 (Celestine) 3 March 1994 (Etta) |
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| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||
| Alternative image(s) | |||||||||||||
| Gordon-Lawrence as Etta | |||||||||||||
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Celestine and Etta Tavernier are fictional characters from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Leroy Golding and Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence respectively. Both appeared primarily in the serial as a married couple between 1990 and 1992. Celestine made a further guest appearance in 1993, while Etta made a guest appearance in 1994, both visiting remaining members of the Tavernier family who remained in the serial. Celestine was portrayed as a strict disciplinarian and a devout Christian who expected everyone in his family to show similar dedication to the church and abide by his rules. His unwavering demand for respect often alienated his children and almost caused the breakdown of his marriage.[1] Also religious, Etta was portrayed as a career woman; her most prominent storylines concerned marital problems and crises of faith.[1]
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Celestine and Etta were born in Trinidad. Celestine was raised by his grandmother after his mother died and his father left to find work in Jamaica. He came to Britain in 1966, recruited by London Transport, with the intention of studying at evening classes for a white-collar job. It was a time when most West-Indians were expected to work on the buses or in hospitals and not to be too ambitious. However, he achieved his ambition, conformed and worked hard and eventually got promoted to manager at Walford Department of Social Security (DSS).
Celestine married Etta Tavernier in Jamaica and after the birth of their first son in 1968 she joined Celestine in England, later having two more children. Etta decided to train for a job that she knew she could do well - teaching.
Celestine and Etta and their three children, Clyde, the oldest, and twins Hattie and Lloyd, moved to Albert Square along with Celestine's father Jules, when they were rehoused by the council in 1990 after Etta acquired a new job teaching at Walford Primary School.
Celestine was put in an awkward position in 1990 when he discovered that Arthur Fowler was working and signing on for dole money at the same time. He eventually decided that he couldn't 'turn a blind eye' to Arthur's fraudulent behaviour and turned him in to the authorities at his work, but his self-righteous attitude earned him few friends on the square.
Celestine was unwavering with his expectations of his offspring. He demanded respect and adherence at all times, and because of this he found it extremely difficult to relate to his children, who often felt that his strict rules were harsh and unfair. Celestine had a tempestuous relationship with Clyde in particular. Clyde felt that his father had 'sold out' by accepting the prejudices of his bosses who were slow to promote him, whilst Celestine couldn't relate to Clyde's lack of ambition. He was also regularly accused of turning his back on his roots by his father Jules and because Jules never went through Celestine's struggles for acceptance in a white community, he didn't really understand his son.
Celestine was a dedicated Church-goer and spent most of his spare time performing religious readings and educating 'young disciples' in the teachings of the Bible. Etta was also a devout Christian and a dedicated mother, but the big love of her life was teaching, so she was thrilled when she got promoted to 'acting head' at Walford primary in 1991. However, Celestine blighted what should have been a happy time for Etta by continuously arguing with her about her new job. Celestine, was unhappy about Etta's promotion as he felt threatened by her higher status and earning power and believed that she had deliberately set out to undermine his status as the head of the household. The rift between them nearly drove Celestine into the arms of another woman who he had been mentoring in bible studies. The woman, Yvonne, wanted more than friendship from Celestine and propositioned him one night following a row with Etta. It was a testing time for Celstine, but the sanctity of marriage was more important to him and he managed to resist the temptation.
Their marriage was tested again later that in 1991 when Etta decided that she wanted to undergo sterilization in order not to pass on her Sickle-cell gene to any future children (their youngest son Lloyd had already inherited the gene and his life had been severely limited because of this). Celestine refused to entertain the idea, however, as he felt that such an act went against their religious principles. Etta decided to go ahead with the sterilisation anyway, only to discover that she was already pregnant and that her unborn child was carrying a double dose of the sickle-cell gene. Upon realising this Celestine was forced to reappraise his priorities and to agree, unwillingly, to a termination. It was a traumatic time for the Taverniers, but the ordeal eventually managed to bring them closer and they emerged from it a much stronger couple.
In 1992 Etta was offered a permanent role as head teacher at Walford primary and Celestine proved that he'd learnt from his past mistakes by showing genuine happiness for Etta's success. However, in June of that year Celestine was offered a promotion in Norwich. Etta was unwilling to move but after Lloyd got into trouble with the police for joy-riding, she decided that a fresh start for the family might be best. So the couple left Walford for a new start.
Celestine returned briefly in July 1993 when he found out that his daughter was planning on marrying Steve Elliot and was extremely shocked to find out that she was pregnant. Celestine was also shocked to meet his previously unknown of niece, Gidea Thompson, and he was appalled to find out that his father, Jules, had abandoned Gidea's grandmother - who at the time was pregnant with Gidea's mother - many years earlier.
Etta returned briefly in March 1994 to stop Steve Elliot (Hattie's ex-boyfriend) from attempting to contact her daughter and to try to persuade her father-in-law, Jules, to come and live with them following his mugging.
In the latter part of 1989 EastEnders acquired a new executive producer named Michael Ferguson, who took over from Mike Gibbon. Ferguson had previously been a producer on ITV's The Bill — a hard-hitting, gritty and successful police drama, which seemed to be challenging EastEnders in providing a realistic vision of modern life in London. Due to his success on The Bill, Peter Cregeen, the Head of Series at the BBC, poached Ferguson to become executive producer of EastEnders.[2]
Following a relatively unsuccessful inclination towards comic storylines throughout 1989, Ferguson decided to take the soap in a new direction in 1990. Big changes were implemented both off-screen and on-screen.[2] Ferguson altered the way the episodes were produced, changed the way the storylines were conceptualised and introduced a far greater amount of location work than had previously been seen. EastEnders scriptwriter Colin Brake has said that it was a challenging period, but "the results on-screen were a programme with a new sense of vitality, and a programme more in touch with the real world than it had been for a while".[2]
As a consequence of these changes, a large number of characters were axed in early 1990 as the new production machine cleared way for a new direction and new characters.[2] Among the new characters were the Jamaican Tavernier family, who collectively arrived on-screen in July 1990, composed of grandfather Jules (Tommy Eytle), his son and daughter-in-law Celestine (Leroy Golding) and Etta (Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence), their eldest son Clyde (Steven Woodcock), and their twins Lloyd (Garey Bridges) and Hattie, played by Michelle Gayle. Colin Brake has described the Taverniers as the major new additions that year, and it heralded the first time that an entire family had joined the serial all at once. Their introduction has also been described as a well-intentioned attempt to portray a wider range of black characters than had previously been achieved on the soap.[2]
Etta was Gordon-Lawrence's first television role.[1] Golding, a relatively inexperienced actor at the time of his casting, was sent to audition for the part of Celestine as a means of getting him used to the audition process.[3] He was awarded the part and claims that his inexperience helped rather than hindered the Tavernier family to gel together as it created a sense of "camaraderie" among them; he suggests that he and his screen wife Gordon-Lawrence "played very well off each other".[3]
The Taverniers backstory scripted them as Trinidadian immigrants, who came to the UK in the 1960s and battled their way through a racist society to achieve.[1] Kingsley describes Etta as "the real boss at home, clever enough to let Celestine and Jules believe they were the heads of the household"[1] Meanwhile, Celestine has been described "as someone so straight and upstanding that he'd have to be given a surgical procedure in order to have an unclean thought."[3] Author Hilary Kingsley suggests that Celestine was the "most upright, law-abiding citizen of Albert Square [...] but he doesn't get much thanks for it."[1] She goes on to say that Celestine is "not a happy man, though. He knows his father thinks he has lost his roots. His older son Clyde thinks he has 'sold out' and accepted the prejudices of his bosses who've been slow to promote him. His twins wish he'd loosen up and get excited about something other than their school reports and the cricket results."[1] Kingsley suggests that it was Celestine's relationship with Etta that proved most problematic for him however, stating that "He loves [Etta] and has always been loyal. but when she decided to push ahead in her career he began to feel slighted."[1]
Celestine and Etta's most prominent storylines concerned marital difficulties. Kingsley suggests that Etta's independence and decision to undergo sterilisation and have an abortion, wounded Celestine's male pride and plunged their marriage into turmoil.[1] However, the Taverniers marriage remained intact when "Celestine realised he had to change or he'd be the loser".[1]
Half the Tavernier family, including Celestine, Etta and Lloyd were written out of the serial in 1992. On-screen Celestine was given a promotion in Norwich and left Walford. However, Celestine appeared again in 1993 and Etta in 1994 as part of storylines that were focusing on the remaining characters of the Tavernier family, Jules, Hattie and Clyde.[3]
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