| Yolande Trueman | |||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||
| Portrayed by | Angela Wynter | ||||
| Introduced by | Louise Berridge | ||||
| Duration | 2003–08 | ||||
| First appearance | 16 September 2003 | ||||
| Last appearance | 3 October 2008 | ||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||
| Profile | |||||
| Date of birth | 25 March 1954 | ||||
| Occupation | B&B owner, shopkeeper | ||||
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Yolande Trueman (previously Duke) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Angela Wynter. The character made her final appearance on 3 October 2008.[1]
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Yolande arrived in Albert Square on 16 September 2003, as Patrick Trueman's holiday romance. They had met during Patrick's visit to his homeland of Trinidad, where the middle-aged couple enjoyed a steamy affair, much the contrary to Yolande's boring marriage to a strict, uptight, and religious Victor, whose traditional customs included viewing women as objects to bear and raise children.
Before long, Yolande realised that all Patrick wanted was a fling, and prepared to leave the United Kingdom, but Patrick persuaded her to stay after admitting he had fallen for her. Her husband arrived to take Yolande home, and gave a tempted Patrick £10,000 to allow him to do so. After refusing, Yolande caught Patrick with the money in his hand (he was about to return it), and she got the wrong end of the stick, believing that he had accepted this payment, and left, taking the money with her. After Victor returned to Trinidad, Yolande returned to Walford, sharing the money with Patrick.
They eventually settled down and married in 2004, ran the bed and breakfast and fostered a little girl. Yolande co-ran Albert Square's shop, the Minute Mart, with Patrick, which he bought as an expansion to their little empire.
The Truemans met grief when Patrick's stepson Paul went missing at Christmas 2004 after being involved in drug dealing as part of Andy Hunter's scheme. After several weeks of searching, Paul's body was discovered, although the causes and circumstances of his murder were uncertain. Patrick realised that Andy was involved in this, and set about attempting to avenge the dodgy businessman/gangster. His prayers were answered when Andy was thrown off a bridge (to his death) by Johnny Allen, whom he'd tried to rip off.
Yolande was involved in a very minor storyline when she thought her husband Patrick was cheating on her, which resulted in Honey Edwards' arrival in late November 2005 as a honey trapper to try to fool Patrick. However, Honey mistook Billy Mitchell for Patrick, so the plan didn't work. The same night, Yolande drenched Patrick with his pint of beer, and then forgave him.
Yolande then struck up a feud with Pat Evans when she nosed in at Trueman's Motors. Their rivalry took the next step when Pat began an affair with Patrick, but Stacey Slater, who they had employed at the Minute Mart, caught Pat and Patrick kissing and chose the wedding reception of Joe Macer and Pauline Fowler to tell Yolande. This resulted in a brawl in The Queen Vic. Yolande then had a supposed drunken one-night-stand with Aubrey Valentine, one of Patrick's old friends, in October 2006. This resulted in Patrick throwing her out, but when they called Aubrey's bluff, the couple reconciled.
On 4 December, she and Patrick went on holiday to Dorset, along with the Wicks and Fox families. She then helped Bert Atkinson look after his grandson Jay after they moved in with the Truemans. Eventually Bert's lazy ways and Jay's trouble making caused her to announce, in fury, that she was kicking the pair out. She forgave them but still insisted they move out and when they did, she helped them settle into their new home.
In September 2008, Patrick accidentally turned off the chiller cabinet at the Minute Mart and then sold unchilled food to customers which gave Dot Branning (amongst others) food poisoning. The resulting complaints meant a visit from an inspector from the Minute Mart head office. He was so impressed with Yolande's efforts to clean up the shop that she was subsequently offered a job at the Minute Mart HQ in Birmingham. Yolande accepted with delight and busily prepared for the move, however Patrick was less keen, and when confronted, Patrick indicated that he wanted to stay in Walford.
On 3 October 2008, Yolande left Albert Square for a new life in Birmingham. She surprised everyone at her leaving party by announcing that she was leaving alone. But as Denise and Patrick waved Yolande off at the tube station, Patrick told Yolande that once he sold their house, he would follow her to Birmingham. It was later revealed by Denise on 27 October that Patrick had gone to visit Yolande for the week and see how she was settling in.
Since then, it was revealed that Patrick and Yolande had broken up. On 19 May 2009 Yolande and Patrick received their divorce papers.
Yolande was introduced in 2003 as a love interest for Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) with Angela Wynter being given the role. Yolande was apparently based on Wynter's deceased sister Merlene.[1] Yolande has been described as assertive with a sassy attitude.[1] Wynter has described the original character outline given to Yolande as "bubbly and positive". Discussing Yolande and Patrick's relationship, Wynter has said that Yolande tamed Patrick "with her charm and her toughness. Yolande's vulnerable, but she's principled. He has the same principles. To please her, he'll try not to stray too far away from those principles".[2]
Following their screen marriage in 2004, the Truemans were invloved in the BBC's "Taking Care" season, which covered issues "surrounding a different kind of childhood". As part of this, scriptwriters decided that the Truemans would foster a 14 year old boy, JJ, following an encounter with him at their Bed and Breakfast.[3] In 2007, executive producer Diederick Santer used Patrick and Yolande to cover a storyline about racism, that according to the producer, was inspired by the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother race row, sparked by supposed racist bullying of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty by UK celebrity Jade Goody. In the storyline, the characters Jay Brown and Sean Slater used racist phrases to the Truemans, and their reaction to the insults. Santer commented, "The Celebrity Big Brother race row kicked off as I took charge of my first scripts. I thought it was fascinating because it showed there was a real need for a debate about race in Britain. [Big Brother] didn’t do it particularly well, so I thought it could be something EastEnders should do. Our stuff won’t be overly moralistic or preachy but it will tackle this serious issue head on."[4]
On 29 June 2008, it was announced that Wynter would leave EastEnders later in the year, after the show's producers claimed to have "run out of storyline ideas"[1] for her character. Wynter said of the decision: "I’m not unhappy to leave EastEnders because life is about changes and new beginnings, but I am unhappy about the producers reasoning in how they came to their decision because you can always write stories for people to act"[1] She stated that her character would not be killed off, and her hope that Rudolph Walker as her husband Patrick Trueman would not reignite his romance with Pat Evans after her departure, as; "Patrick and Yolande’s marriage is the only representation of a black union on British TV, which I am very proud to have played."[1] Wynter also suggested that the decision to write out her character may have come because the soap was currently exceeding its 'quota' for black and Asian characters, surmising: "If this is true, I am not hurt because I accept that fact that I live in England and it is not ‘our’ TV station where we can be over-weighted with black or Asian actors and have guest appearances from Caucasian actors – because ‘we’ are the guest".[1]
The Voice claimed that Yolande "was an instant hit with viewers, especially within the African-Caribbean community" and hailed Yolande and Patrick as "most loved black TV couple."[1]
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