Jessica Harris
Encyclopedia
Jessica Florida Harris is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 from the British Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...

, played by Jennifer Biddall
Jennifer Biddall
Jennifer Biddall is an English actress who played the part of Jessica Harris in Hollyoaks from 2005 to 2008.She was born in Bath, Somerset and grew up in Corsham, Wiltshire. Before studying at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, she travelled around the Greek islands...

. She debuted on-screen during episodes airing in October 2005. Biddal decided to leave the serial in 2007, Jessica last appeared in 2008 and Biddall has since admitted she doesn't want to return to the serial. Jessica's notable storylines include affairs, being unlucky in love, gambling and a carbon monoxide plot.

Casting

In 2005 Jessica was created by executive producer David Hanson and actress Jennifer Biddall was cast into the role.
In 2007 it was revealed that Biddall had quit the serial in order to pursue other projects. Executive producer Bryan Kirkwood
Bryan Kirkwood (producer)
Bryan Kirkwood is a Scottish-born British television producer. He was the producer of teen Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 2006 until 2009 and has been the executive producer of the BBC soap EastEnders since 2010.- Personal life :...

 stated: "Jenny Biddall is in the pipeline to be leaving at the end of the year. She steps rather too readily into Zoe's shoes when Darren starts on his winning streak and they form a Bonnie and Clyde partnership which is very funny but she leaves in a dramatic twist in the New Year episode." Biddall later said she wouldn't consider a return to Hollyoaks.

Character development

During an interview with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, Biddall spoke about Jessica, she described her as: "She's a new university student studying Marketing and Advertising. She's confident, outgoing, she wants to be the life and soul and she's had a long term boyfriend since she was 15. She's part of the perfect couple and she's hoping to stay with him, so we'll see how that one pans out."

Jessica only sees status as an attractive quality in males, commenting on this Biddall adds: "My character tends to go for the ones who have a bit of a status. So I think she quite likes Lee, who's the student president, there's a bit of an interest there. But she might have a few surprises up her sleeve and she might not necessarily go for the guy you'd expect her to."

BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...

 describe her as "The spoiled little rich girl always has Daddy on the line if she breaks a nail." They also say it isn't wise to "call her a snob" because she "just used to the finer things in life." They also state that "she's not beyond working for her keep, or fraternizing with the plebes. Quite the contrary, she quite fancies people who are different from her. For instance, she's had a romance with the quite-offbeat, usually penniless Gilly Roach. However, she does have a boyfriend from home named Mark." E4 publicity describe her as having an extremely turbulent love life.

In 2007 Jessica was involved in a high profile storyline in which she held a house party in which she has a boiler illegally fixed. It resulted in a carbon monoxide leak, which it was then revealed had helped save a viewers life who was going through exactly the same ordeal at the time of viewing. Cordinly stated: "The only respite I had in the middle of all my pain was Hollyoaks. I can’t believe I owe my life to it."

Storylines

When Jessica first arrived she couldn't be parted from her mobile phone and her link to ex-boyfriend Mark Jury
Mark Jury
Mark Jury is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Ash Newman. Mark debuted on-screen in 2005 and remained up until his depature the following year.-Casting:...

 (Ash Newman) but over time it seems she was drifting apart from her long-term boyfriend. When Mark turned up at the college Jess had to retrieve a letter she sent dumping him for Gilly Roach
Gilly Roach
Gilbert "Gilly" Roach is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Anthony Quinlan. The character debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 4 October 2005. Gilly was created in 2005 by executive producer David Hanson. Gilly has often been portrayed as a...

 (Anthony Quinlan
Anthony Quinlan
Anthony Quinlan is an English actor, known for his role as Gilly Roach in the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.-References:Quinlan was nominated for sexiest male at the 2010 Inside Soap Awards.[29] He was also nominated in the category of "Best Serial Drama Performance" at the 2011 National...

). The two stayed together until the letter finally showed up revealing all. Mark and Gilly battled for her affections when she was in hospital for meningitis but she couldn't decide between them, so she wanted to date both of them. She later dumped Mark and Gilly saying that it was unfair on both of them. She and Olivia Johnson
Olivia Johnson
Olivia Johnson is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Rochelle Gadd. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 22 December 2005...

 (Rochelle Gadd
Rochelle Gadd
Rochelle Gadd is a British actress. She played Olivia Johnson in Hollyoaks until the character of Olivia was killed off, and played Delia "Dill" Lodge in Grange Hill between 1994 and 2000...

) protested about the fact that they were unfairly sacked at Il Gnosh, going to lengths such as a naked sit-in.

Her best friend, Olivia, died in The Dog in the Pond fire which left her heart broken even though she didn't want to show it. New flatmate Kris Fisher
Kris Fisher
Francis "Kris" Fisher is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Gerard McCarthy. The character first appeared on-screen in September 2006 and left in August 2010 after McCarthy quit the show...

 (Gerard McCarthy
Gerard McCarthy
Gerard McCarthy is an actor, best known to television viewers for his award-winning performance as Kris Fisher on the British soap opera Hollyoaks from 2006 to 2010, to theatres-goers for his performances on the West End and at Shakespeare's Globe, and to film geeks for his role in Belonging to...

), who had convinced Olivia to stand up for herself, taunted and insulted Jess for not being a true friend to Olivia, going so far as to read to Jessica unflattering comments Olivia had made in her diary. In autumn 2006, she battled with Will Hackett
Will Hackett
William "Will" Hackett is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Oliver Farnworth. The character first appeared on-screen on 01 September 2006...

 (Oliver Farnworth
Oliver Farnworth
Oliver Farnworth is an English actor, best known for playing the role of Will Hackett in the long-running teenage soap opera Hollyoaks.-Biography:...

) for the position of Editor of HCC's school newspaper. She got the position by using Russ Owen
Russ Owen
Russell Charles "Russ" Owen is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Stuart Manning. He first appeared in August 2004 with his on-screen family and has been involved in storylines including being diagnosed with testicular cancer and kidnapping his son. It...

's (Stuart Manning
Stuart Manning
Stuart Bernard Manning is an English actor and model.He is best known for the role of Russ Owen in the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, which he played from 2004 until 2009....

) social anthropology research on the class differences between the Owens and the McQueens as her article, which caused Russ and Mercedes to break up for a while.

Jess and Kris have had a somewhat turbulent relationship. Kris kissed a man in front of Jessica to make her jealous. In return, to make Kris jealous, she kissed Elliot Bevan
Elliot Bevan
Elliot Bevan is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Garnon Davies. He first appeared on 9 January 2007 as a new student. In July 2010, it was announced that Davies would be leaving the show. He made his final appearance on 15 November 2010...

 (Garnon Davies), who had a crush on her. In early 2007 they were locked in the flat bathroom together, and finally admitted their attraction for one another. They were leaning in to kiss when flatmate Will opened the door. Kris stood up for Jess against Will, Kris tried to throw her out of his room by saying "It looks as if we're done here" Jessica then continues to slam Kris' door with them both inside, saying "We are far from being done," before kissing him passionately. The two are seen continuing to kiss and falling back onto Kris' bed. They end up making love and in the morning they seemed to be happy with what had happened until they began to argue again. In an emotional twist in the storyline, Jess feared for her health after Kris is tricked into believing that he is HIV positive after Will changed Kris's negative drug test results. Jess had an HIV test which comes back negative. A few days later, Kris found out he was also HIV negative, but had a difficult time forgiving Jess for her reaction.

In March 2007, Jess discovered that her father had been declared bankrupt, thus putting an end to her glamorous lifestyle and plunging her into the harsh realities of being a strapped-for-cash student. She slept with Kris's brother Malachy Fisher
Malachy Fisher
Malachy "Mal" Fisher is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Glen Wallace. Malachy first appeared in 2007 on a recurring basis and became a permanent character in 2008. The character has been noted for being at the centre of a HIV plot...

 (Glen Wallace
Glen Wallace
Glen Wallace is an Northern Irish actor, born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.He is most notable for playing Malachy Fisher on popular Channel 4 teen soap opera, Hollyoaks from 2007 onwards. He also played Mr Michaels in Wire in the Blood in 2006. He appeared in Casualty, playing Bill...

), to make Kris jealous and get back at him for sleeping with Nathan. Jess also helped Kris tell Malachy about his cross-dressing, bisexual nature. Malachy at first was disgusted but after speaking to Kris, ended up thinking that it was just a phase he was going through, although Kris knows differently. Jess and Kris also slept together again, but Kris admitted to Jess that he's only good for sex at the minute, Jess seemed to be able to understand that and continued to support Kris. Kris then left town for several months. Jess was told about Freeganism
Freeganism
Freeganism is the practice of reclaiming and eating food that has been discarded. One third of the world's food is wasted —in shops, restaurants, farms, factories and homes—and freegans aim to expose and protest against this, arguing that it contributes to environmental degradation, resource...

 by Elliot when she was unable to afford food, however rather than taking wasted food from the Ashworth's store she took food off the storeroom shelves.

Due to Jess's shortage of money, bailiffs visited her room and took some of her belongings. Jess tried desperately to find money. After Tony refused to give her her job back, OB offered her a job as MOBS, dressing as a Strawberry. A passerby offered her a job surveying property for resale at a high mark-up. Jess soon began to feel guilty about conning people, however desperate for money, she scammed items for Jack and Frankie and then spend the money on new clothes. When Frankie found out she was angry and kicked Jess out of The Dog in The Pond.

On 30 August her father returned and offered to repay her debts for her, claiming he had gotten his money back. However her father was still bankrupt and wanted to use Jess to seduce a potential business partner. However he was arrested before he could close the deal. Jess was upset at this and refused to visit her father in prison, until Zak Ramsey
Zak Ramsey
Zak Timothy Ramsey is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Kent Riley. Zak first appeared in 2004, when he was credited as 'Zak Barnes'. After only four months, Riley was dropped from the programme. The character received a revival 18 months later...

 (Kent Riley
Kent Riley
Kentigan Peter "Kent" Riley is an English actor, born in Fazakerley, Liverpool, & brought up in Lydiate, where he attended St Gregory's Junior School, where he caught the bug for acting, starring in many of the schools performing arts projects...

) convinced her. Her father told her she was just like him, telling her he had stashed £1000 in the flat. He said she would more likely spend the money on herself then paying her debts. After some consideration, Jess gave the money to Darren as repayment for conning him earlier.

When the hot water goes Jess asks Danny Valentine
Danny Valentine
Daniel "Danny" Valentine is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by David Judge. He first appeared in 2007 and made his final appearance in 2008.-Background:...

 (David Judge
David Judge (actor)
David Judge is a British actor. He is best known for playing Danny Valentine in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.Judge has had minor roles in Doctors , Casualty , Silent Witness, The Bill...

) to fix it cheaply for the housewarming party for John Paul McQueen
John Paul McQueen
John Paul McQueen is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by James Sutton. The character debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 6 September 2006; his storylines have significantly revolved around his sexuality, evolving from the initial denial of his...

 (James Sutton
James Sutton (actor)
James Sutton is an English television actor, best known for playing the parts of John Paul McQueen in the British Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and Ryan Lamb in the ITV soap Emmerdale.-Personal life:...

) plus to welcome Kris back. Problem is that the boiler goes wrong and carbon monoxide fills the room. The smoke alarm goes off as a warning but Zak takes it out. The carbon monoxide makes everybody at the party feel ill. During this party Kris and Jess danced together and shared a brief moment before it had being ruined by Darren, Jess said that she has missed him and they had been emailing each other over summer. Jess was terrified she would be sued, but the school sent her a letter claiming all responsibility. When John Paul moved into the halls, Jessica gave him Elliot's room and lied to him that he had to pay her money she would then give to the school. This went on for some weeks until Elliot returned to find his belongings clumsily thrown into another room, some of them broken. He locked himself in her room for hours and hours as a protest, only to leave when he had to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, John Paul moved back home.

When Zoe asked Jess to place some money on a horse Jess decided after much debating to treat herself with the money and lie to Zoe and say the horse lost, Zoe already found out the horse won and came to collect her money from an empty-handed Jess. The tension between them ended in a fist fight when Jess got drunk at the Fresher's ball, spilt a drink on Zoe's new dress and ripped it.

On Friday 23 November, Jess slept with Zoe's boyfriend Darren Osborne
Darren Osborne
Darren Osborne is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. Darren was introduced by executive producer Phil Redmond as part of the Osborne family. Darren made his first on-screen appearance on 18 November 1996 and was initially played by Adam Booth, before the Booth...

, after the pair had some luck at a casino, which led to them sleeping together on the pool table in The Dog in The Pond with money scattered around them. Two days after there steamy encounter on the pool table Jess and darren slept together again but both regretted it. Kris then found out and Jess and Kris had a confrontation where Kris worked about Jess and darren's affair and darren and Jess going to the casino behind Zoe's back and the whole conversation was recorded on the radio. Zoe and the whole of Hollyoaks heard it and this led to Zoe moving out of the student flats. Zoe then got revenge by writing crude insults on Jess' door and throwing her clothes all around the village. Jess got her own back by editing Zoe's instructional video for Evissa salon to make it seem as if Carmel McQueen was prostituting herself.

When Darren arranged a poker game with Warren Fox
Warren Fox
Warren Fox is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Jamie Lomas. He first arrived in 2006 as an old acquaintance of Sean Kennedy and quickly became known as the show's main villain...

 (Jamie Lomas
Jamie Lomas
Jamie Lomas is an English actor best known for his role as bad boy Warren Fox on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks....

) in the loft, Jess came with him. The stakes got very high and Darren offered Warren his half of The Dog in The Pond - he promptly lost it to Warren. A couple of days later whilst walking through the village, Darren and Jess followed a drunk Louise Summers (Roxanne McKee
Roxanne McKee
-Biography:After completing a BA degree in 2001 in Social Policy & Political Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, McKee rose to fame by winning Hollyoaks On The Pull, a Channel 4 initiative to discover new talent for the popular British soap Hollyoaks...

) home, so Darren can confront Warren. They walk in to find Louise passed out on the bed. Jess and Darren see Evissa's takings on the bedside table and decide to steal the money. The following day, Jess and Darren went to the casino with Evissa's takings and won £200,000. Jess asked Darren what they would spend their money on, and Darren revealed that he was going use the money to buy The Dog in The Pond back from Warren. He also revealed that he planned to get back together with Zoe, much to the shock of Jess. On New Year's Eve, Darren and Warren had a showdown and when Warren asked for the money on the stroke of midnight, Darren was shocked to discover that all of his money was gone. As Darren frantically searched for the money, Jessica departed Hollyoaks village for good - £200,000 richer.

External links

  • Character profile on the Hollyoaks website
  • Character profile on the BBC America
    BBC America
    BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...

    website.
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