Jack Osborne

Jack Osborne
Hollyoaks character
Portrayed by Jimmy McKenna
Ben Ewing (flashback)
Duration 1996–
First appearance 18 November 1996
Introduced by Phil Redmond
Classification Present; regular
Profile
Occupation Pub landlord
Pub manager
Home 17 Basswood Road

Jack William Osborne is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Jimmy McKenna. He first appeared on 18 November 1996 and is the second longest serving character in the serial. He was introduced as part of the Osborne family along with son Darren (Adam Booth) and wife Celia (Carol Noakes) who joined daughter Ruth (Terri Dwyer) to live at Hollyoaks. His storylines have included the affair with Dawn Cunningham, the three marriages and an insurance scam which saw him fake his own death. In his later years, Jack was more commonly known as the landlord of the show's pub, The Dog in the Pond.

Storylines

Backstory

Jack's mother, Aggie, walked out on him and his brothers, Billy (Clive Russell) and Kenneth, when they were young. Growing up, Jack's father died on Christmas Eve. Jack became a police officer. In the 1980s, Jack arrested Martin Brownlow, who later died in prison. Martin was the former love interest of Myra McQueen (Nicole Barber-Lane) and father to Niall Rafferty (Barry Sloane). Before Hollyoaks began in 1995, Jack had an affair with Sandy Roscoe (Gillian Taylforth) which resulted in the birth of his son Darren (Ashley Taylor Dawson), and also cheated with Dawn Cunningham (Lisa Williamson), who then gave birth to his daughter, Bethany (Danielle Calvert).

1996–

Jack arrives in Hollyoaks with his wife Celia and son Darren (Adam Booth), where they join Jack's daughter Ruth (Terri Dwyer). Jack becomes the landlord of The Dog in the Pond, after Celia's brother Greg (Alvin Stardust) decides to sell up following the death of his daughter Natasha (Shebah Ronay). Jack immediately causes a stir when it is revealed that he is the father of teenager Dawn Cunningham's (Lisa Williamson) child Bethany, who needs a kidney transplant. Jack donates one of his kidneys to the daughter he has never known. Dawn's sister Jude (Davinia Taylor) tries to blackmail Jack about Bethany. However, she ends up telling everyone in The Dog. Jack tries to explain to Celia, but she ends their marriage and leaves for America with Darren.

Jack's love life takes another twist when new barmaid Jill Patrick (Lynda Rooke) arrives with her children Kate (Natasha Symms), Gina (Dannielle Brent) and Sol (Paul Danan). Jack and Jill embark on a relationship, eventually getting married. The marriage goes well, despite a feud between the Patrick children and the Osborne children. Jack is then devastated when Jill reveals she has a fatal brain tumour. He then agrees to look after her children when she dies. When Jill does die, Jack keeps his promise and cares for her children, helping Sol flee from the police abroad. Jack embarks on several other relationships after Jill, including Geri Hudson's (Joanna Taylor) mother Jacqui and Izzy Cornwell's (Elize du Toit) mother Patty. Natalie Osborne (Tiffany Mulheron), Jack's troubled niece, arrives from Scotland for the half-term after her parents have marital problems. Natalie starts at Hollyoaks High School. However, her older sister Rachel arrives and tells Jack that Natalie is hiding that she has not got good grades at school in Scotland. For her own good, Jack sends her back home.

Jack provides a home for the Dean family after their eviction from their home. After first being sceptical, he soon warms to the family. Jack then begins a relationship with Frankie Dean (Helen Pearson) after the collpase of her marriage to her husband Johnno (Colin Wells), and the couple later marry, after five years being a widowed follow by the death of his wife Jill. Frankie's three children Jake, Debbie and Craig accepted him as a new father, however Steph will never accepted him as her new father and refused to be close with him, causing Frankie and Steph's siblings angry at her, but, they understand that she remain close to her father Johnno. The nadir was when the Dog was destroyed in an explosion Jack and Frankie were out for a meal when the Dog exploded and Jack and Frankie nearly lost Darren, Steph, Craig, and Jake as they were trapped inside the pub when it exploded and caught fire. While they used insurance money to rebuild the pub, they stayed at a grimy bed and breakfast where the owner constantly treated them poorly. They were kicked out, and briefly lived with the McQueen family until finally Frankie could take no more and forced Jack to use the insurance money he had been pocketing to pay for a nice hotel until they could go back to their apartment. Jack and Frankie decide to start fostering disadvantaged adolescents. They first foster Barry Newton (Nico Mirallegro). Darren (now Ashley Taylor Dawson) nsells Frankie's jewellery to a pawn shop, and blames it on Newt. After Jack threatens to send him back into care, Darren is finally caught out. Darren develops a gambling addiction. During a game of poker with Mike Barnes (Tony Hirst), Tony Hutchinson (Nick Pickard) and Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas), he bets his half of The Dog, which Warren wins. After finding this out, Jack suffers a heart attack and Darren is told to leave the house. Warren then signs his half of The Dog over to Jack again for a low price. Despite this low price, Jack goes through money worries, and begins to water down drinks. An inspector finds this out and declares he is to take him to court. Seeing no other way, Jack decides to commit suicide so his family can claim his life insurance money. However, Darren stops him. They then discover the body of Eamon Fisher (Derek Halligan). Darren tells Jack that they could fake his death, claiming Jack is the deceased body. Jack goes along with this and his family are horrified at his apparent death. Frankie discovers Jack is alive and the pair agree to flee to Spain. Niall Rafferty, the secret son of Myra McQueen, finds out Jack is still alive and hiding in the attic of The Dog. Niall's father Martin was arrested and sent to prison by Jack. He later died. Niall attacks Jack, holding him responsible for it. He then confesses he is Myra's son and that he is going to kill his family. Jack then alerts Darren as the pair rush to find them. Tony and Dom Reilly (John Pickard), who are also trying to find the McQueens, are shocked, and angry, to see Jack. The four head to an abandoned church. Jack bursts in and tells Niall it is over, however Niall detonates explosives, which eventually kills Tina Reilly (Leah Hackett). Jack is then arrested and Darren admits he knew of the fake death. They are both imprisoned. During his time in prison, the Osbornes are forced to sell The Dog to the Ashworth family.

Jack is released from prison four months later. Upon his return, Frankie, Steph, Newt and Darren throw a party for him. He visits Eamon's sons, Kris (Gerard McCarthy) and Malachy Fisher (Glen Wallace), where he learns that Darren had only offered to buy them a drink as an apology for using their father's dead body in their scam. He then kicks Darren out of the flat. Jack grows depressed, and he does not want to leave the house. After learning that Darren took £100,000 from Warren to get his stepbrother Jake Dean (Kevin Sacre) to confess to Sean Kennedy's (Matthew Jay Lewis) murder, before gambling the money away, Jack disowns him.

Jack gets a manager job in the Dog thanks to Darren. When Jack sees that Darren has become close friends with teenager Duncan Button (Dean Aspen), he realises that he has changed, so decides to reconcile with him and offers him to move in with him, and wants to include Duncan. Darren is delighted and happily accepts.

Jack supports Frankie when her daughter Steph (Carley Stenson) reveals she is dying from cervical cancer. When Steph dies in a fire at Il Gnosh, he gets deeply concerned for Frankie when she sets a table for Steph for Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve 2010, while taking his dog for a walk with Duncan in a nearby woods, they both discover India Longford's (Beth Kingston) body, leading Jack to call the police. Jack becomes a grandfather when Suzanne Ashworth (Suzanne Hall) gives birth to Darren's twins Francine and Jack Osborne, named after Frankie and himself, and Frankie and Jack also take in Frankie's granddaughter Esther Bloom (Jazmine Franks) and Duncan's sister Ruby Button (Anna Shaffer). The Osborne house becomes even more crowded when Darren and his new fiancée Nancy Hayton (Jessica Fox) move in.

Following the departure of Carl Costello (Paul Opacic) from the village, his son Riley Costello (Rob Norbury) allows Jack, Frankie and their growing family to move back in The Dog. Jack helps Darren plan a surprise wedding to Nancy which doesn't go according to plan but ends well. Jack gains another grandson when Nancy gives birth to her and Darren's son Oscar (Ralph and Zach Norman). Jack, Frankie and Tom attend the joint wedding of Tony Hutchinson and Cindy Longford (Stephanie Waring), Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) and Doug Carter (PJ Brennan) but Maddie Morrison (Scarlett Bowman) crashes a minibus into the venue. Jack, Frankie and Tom survive and Jack is instrumental in helping other people escape alive. Jack helps Darren and Nancy come to terms with Oscar being deaf. He then helps Darren, Nancy, Frankie, Callum Kane (Laurie Duncan) and Seamus Brady (Fintan McKeown) search for Nancy's nephew Charlie (Charlie Behan) when he goes missing and elects to stay with Charlie in the hospital, sending Nancy and Frankie home when they both want to stay.

In September 2013, Sandy Roscoe (Gillian Taylforth) who Jack had had an affair with behind her husband Alan's back, reveals that she is Darren's biological mother and Darren is shocked at the revelation and furious with his father for lying to him for his entire life. He punches Jack during the row that follows. Darren, his girlfriend Sienna Blake (Anna Passey) and Oscar move out and Darren disowns his father, leaving Jack heartbroken. However, they make up when Darren is nearly killed in an explosion. When Frankie cheats on Jack with Ziggy Roscoe (Fabrizio Santino), he is initially furious although they make up. Jack begins to struggle with getting old and pays prostitute Sinead O'Connor (Stephanie Davis) for sex. However, he is caught by Sinead's boyfriend Freddie Roscoe (Charlie Clapham) who punches Jack. Jack worries that Freddie will tell Frankie but he decides to keep quiet.

In 2016, Jack went to visit his half-brother Billy Brodie in prison, and told him he owed him nothing, but ends up devastated when he passes away, but there was more bad news, when he discovered that Jude Cunningham had arrived back in the village. He will never forgive her for what she had done for ruining his marriage with Celia. In December, he discovered that his niece Eva Falco, Billy's daughter, had been in the village since September, she held Jack, Frankie, Tom, Kim, Esther, Darren and Nancy hostage. Eva forced Jack to admit the truth, he did so, and it was revealed that Jack had framed Billy for murder of a boy called Callum, when in fact it was Jack that had killed him. Eva said she'd never forgive her uncle for framing her father when she was young because he was in prison for the rest of his life until he died. After the admission, Eva pulled a gun out on the Osborne's and she attempted to shoot Jack but ends up shooting his step-granddaughter, Esther. After realising the heartache he caused, he decided to call the police and turn himself in after 48 years. Eva becomes wanted by the police and Jack and Liam help her get away, and Eva thank him for confess the truth. Jack mentions this the reason why he framed his brother is so he could married Celia since she was pregnant with Eva's cousin Ruth.

Casting

McKenna is the serial's second longest serving cast member having appeared consecutively since 1996. The Daily Record initially said he'd been "drafted in to quicken the pace" of the soap.[1] McKenna started soon after Nick Pickard who said McKenna joined "about 20 or 30 episodes" later with Pickard starting "in October and he [McKenna] came in at Christmas".[2]

Development

Characterisation

Lucy Allan described him as "Jack the hero!"[3] The Daily Record described him as "an ex-copper who takes no nonsense from his regulars - although most of them seem to be underage".[4]

Financial issues

The Osbornes suffered financial crisis when Darren's gambling addiction grew out of control. It was announced that Jack would fake his own death to claim on the life insurance.[5] Darren found Jack about to commit suicide, before finding the body of Eamon Fisher. Darren and Jack decide to fake Jack's death, which Jack reluctantly agreed to. A Hollyoaks spokesperson spoke to Digital Spy saying "Jack's at an all-time low and the finding of a dead body is too good an opportunity for him and Darren to pass up. They swap the dead man's identity with Jack's, forcing Jack to slope off into the night. Darren's then left with the formidable task of telling step-mum Frankie of the 'death'. As Darren's tangled web of lies continues to grow, he's left in an extremely tricky position when he learns that Kris and brother Malachy are searching for their father. It's only then that Darren discovers the true identity of the corpse. Will Darren be able to keep his cool, or will he crack under the pressure? It's only when Jack turns up at his own funeral that Darren realises that the situation has truly spiralled out of control".[5]

Reception

Bryan Kirkwood said "I love Jack and Frankie – they're essentially the heart of the show".[6] Temporary workplace provider Regus carried out a survey in 2010 and found that Jack Osborne was the third most popular boss from Soaps.[7] The character was selected as one of the "top 100 British soap characters" by industry experts for a poll to be run by What's on TV, with readers able to vote for their favourite character to discover "Who is Soap's greatest Legend?"[8] In 2003, Jack was nominated as "Best TV Barman" in a poll run by Blackthorn Cider.[9]

On how she would write character's exits if she were to axe them Jaci Stephen of the Daily Mail said "Hollyoaks' Jack could just disappear in a puff of smoke, because who would notice anyway?".[10] On the announcement Jack would have more money problems Stephens added "Oh, not again. Maybe, this time, Jack could actually die for real? Please. real? Please".[11] Jack McKenna has been referred to as the "grandfather of Hollyoaks".[12]

References

  1. ↑ "SOAP BOX; James plays a whole new ball game". Daily Record. 8 March 1997. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Nick Pickard (Tony)". E4. E4. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  3. ↑ Green, Kris. "Producer's Perspective 2009: Lucy Allan". Digital Spy. Hachette Filipacchi. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  4. ↑ Morgan, Katheleen (15 May 1999). "Inside the bars of soap; Millions of viewers drink in the atmosphere of the TV pubs every week. From births, to deaths and marriages, all human life is here.". Daily Record. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  5. 1 2 Green, Kris (24 June 2008). "Body swap plot for Hollyoaks". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  6. ↑ Green, Kris (12 October 2007). "Bryan Kirkwood Hollyoaks producer". Digital Spy. Hachette Filipacchi. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  7. ↑ Kilkelly, Daniel (12 January 2010). "Queen Vic is soaps most popular business". Digital Spy. Hachette Filipacchi. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  8. ↑ "Who is Soaps' Greatest Legend?". What's on TV. IPC Media. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  9. ↑ Roberts, Joe (10 June 2003). "Queen Vic Voted The Best Pub On Telly.". Daily Mirror. (Trinity Mirror). Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  10. ↑ Stephen, Jaci (17 September 2010). "JACI STEPHEN: The ultimate insight into the week's soaps". Daily Mail. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  11. ↑ Stephen, Jaci (3 September 2011). "JACI STEPHEN: The ultimate insight into the week's soaps". Daily Mail. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  12. ↑ "Glittering soap stars out in force.". Liverpool Echo. Trinity Mirror. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
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