Louise Raymond
Encyclopedia
Louise Raymond is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Carol Harrison
from May 1998 to April 1999. Louise was the estranged mother of the characters Tiffany
and Simon Raymond
. She was featured most prominently in a high-profile storyline about adultery, when she slept with her daughter's husband Grant
. The plot was the catalyst for the eventual death of Tiffany, who died in the aftermath upon discovering the affair. Harison left the role in 1999; scriptwriters allegedly felt that the character had nowhere left to go following Tiffany's departure.
in May 1998, just in time to halt the proceedings of her husband Terry's
marriage to Irene Hills
. Although their marriage had ended in separation many years ago, Terry was still legally married to Louise and had refused to grant her a divorce
in order to get out of paying the settlement.
Louise had left both her children, in their teens, in the custody of their drunken and abusive father; she had subsequently had no contact with either. Both Tiffany and Simon found it difficult to cope with their mother's sudden reemergence, but Louise had managed to win them round. After reuniting with her children, Louise decided to move to Walford
, mainly to support Tiffany, who was going through a traumatic time after the break-up of her marriage to Grant Mitchell
.
Louise seemed to dislike Grant initially; she tried to convince Tiffany not to go back to him. Grant was desperate to save his marriage in order to remain close to his daughter, Courtney, and realising the influence Louise had, he made a deliberate effort to woo Louise. Over subsequent meetings, it became evident that Grant and Louise were attracted to each other and Grant would regularly make advances on Louise. Louise initially denied her feelings, embarking on a fling with Gianni di Marco
to put Grant off. However, on the night of her 40th birthday, the inevitable happened and Grant and Louise had sex. The next day, Louise was wracked with guilt, which was compounded by the fact that Tiffany had decided that she wanted to reunite with Grant. In order to spare her daughter's feelings, Louise kept the affair secret.
Louise was attacked in November of that year and it was Grant who came to her rescue, which nearly led to them ending sleeping together a second time, stopped only by Simon's unexpected appearance. Panicking, Grant declined to tell Tiffany about Louise's attack, fearing that Louise would be more likely to confess their affair in her emotional state. When Louise found out that Grant had attempted to keep her daughter away from her, she went round to The Queen Victoria
to confront him, accusing him of using her for sex. However, a distraught Tiffany heard their entire conversation over the baby monitor.
Upon realising that her mother had betrayed her with her husband, Tiffany decided to flee Walford. Moments before she was about to depart, Grant accosted her and an argument culminated in Tiffany falling down the stairs and hospitalised. After Tiffany recovered, she refused to have anything more to do with Louise. After setting Grant up as the perpetrator of her accidental fall, she tried to leave Walford again but was run-over and killed by Frank Butcher
on New Year's Eve 1998 before she could leave. On the day of her funeral, Tiffany's best friend, Bianca Jackson
, discovered a letter from Tiffany explaining Louise's betrayal, upon which Bianca furiously threatened to tell Simon what Louise had been up to unless she left Walford. Louise fled in January 1999, leaving her son distraught.
Later that year, Louise returned following Simon's mental breakdown. Frightened that Bianca would get there first, Louise divulged her affair with Grant to Simon. This news only worsened Simon's mental state; he set fire to his flat, causing himself burns. Simon decided to leave Walford soon after his recovery, and despite initial hostility, he and Louise left on good terms. After another trivial dalliance with Gianni and more squabbling with Terry, Louise decided to leave Walford too in April 1999.
(Gavin Richards
) and mother of Tiffany Mitchell
(Martine McCutcheon
) and Simon Raymond
(Andrew Lynford
). Her first scene was a shock climax during the wedding of Terry and Irene Hills
(Roberta Taylor
), when Louise stopped the ceremony announcing that she and Terry were still married. Actress Carol Harrison
was given the role and was told by producers that they planned to put her character "through the wringer storyline-wise". Harison has described Louise as "a very strong and resilient but deep down she has a very vulnerable streak [...] there are two sides to her. She is a lot of fun but she carries a lot of pain. Louise is a woman of the world who has had very high highs and very low lows. She is also a woman who sees people's flaws and accepts them without judgment."
Louise entered the serial with an extensive backstory, having abandoned her children with their abusive, alcoholic father. Discussing the character, Harison commented:"[Louise's] made some horrendous mistakes. She walked out on them when they were very young, for a start. But she was trapped in an extremely bad marriage-completely, totally trapped. She was desperately unhappy, she was being physically abused by Terry and ultimately lost all confidence in herself and her ability to look after the kids so she scarpered. She's got enormous guilt because of that, of course, even though she re-entered their lives and has become quite close to them again, especially 'Tiff'. That feeling of guilt hasn't gone away. Not really. How could it? When I took the role on I was very concerned that the viewers would just loathe "Louise" for what she'd done and find it hard to accept her much less like her when she finally appeared in the flesh. Thank God I was wrong."
One of the most high-profile storylines featuring Louise was her affair with her daughter's husband Grant
(Ross Kemp
). Louise was shown to give in to temptation and sleep with Grant in an hour long special, airing in September on a Sunday evening, deviating from the typical weekly broadcasting time and schedule of EastEnders. Discussing the storyline, a BBC source claimed "Louise has come back to the Square to make it up to Tiffany and Simon, whom she walked out on when they were kids. But she knows that a relationship with Grant is hardly the behaviour of a mother who is seeking forgiveness from her children." The storyline was part of executive producer Matthew Robinson's attempt to win ratings amidst competition from rival soap Coronation Street
. The hour-long special aired at the same time as the ITV
network aired Coronation Street; at that time, in EastEnders 13-year run, it was only the second time the two soaps had gone head-to-head. Executive producer Matthew Robinson said: "If most of the nation isn't talking about what's happening in EastEnders on Monday, I will be surprised. Come December, if the whole nation isn't hooked, I will be amazed."
Harison has given her interpretation of why Louise and Grant were attracted to each other: "They're both damaged goods, she and Grant - and damaged souls. Him because of his childhood upbringing at the hands of an abusive dad as well as his Falklands
experience. And her because of [her abusive marriage]. Both of them are quite profoundly damaged. They find themselves in each other's orbits and are drawn to each other like moths to a flame - they're helplessly drawn to each other. It certainly wasn't a malicious alliance intended to hurt anyone. And yeah, it may have seemed on the surface to be a perfect soap melodrama triangle - woman sleeping with her daughter's husband - but I told the producers I wanted this storyline to be sensational, not sensationalistic, and I think by and large we succeeded [...] it was grounded in a psychological semblance to reality, really. It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy to Louise, I think, sleeping with Grant. She believed herself to be a bad person - a bad mother. He was all of a sudden there in front of her. And so she made that awful, awful mistake [and slept with him]."
The culmination of the storyline aired in December 1998, when after discovering her mother and Grant's affair, Tiffany was accidentally killed in a car accident during a fight with Grant. Simon also suffered a mental breakdown upon discovering his mother's betrayal and Carol was shunned by the community. Carol Harison announced she was leaving EastEnders in November 1998. A source told the Sunday Mirror
, "After Tiffany's death the scriptwriters don't feel they can do much more with Louise. She'd rather leave than end up on the sidelines talking about the weather in Walford." Louise's exit scene aired in April 1999. However, Harison said that she would be open to a return, stating "never say never".
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 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...
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,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, played by Carol Harrison
Carol Harrison
Carol Harrison is a British actress and writer. She is known mostly for her work on British television, in particular her role as Louise Raymond in BBC's EastEnders.-Career:...
from May 1998 to April 1999. Louise was the estranged mother of the characters Tiffany
Tiffany Mitchell
Tiffany Dawn Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Martine McCutcheon from 1995 until 1998. The character was created by the writer, Tony Jordan...
and Simon Raymond
Simon Raymond
Simon Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Andrew Lynford. Simon was introduced in 1996 as the homosexual brother of Tiffany Mitchell. His relationship with the bisexual character Tony Hills featured a gay kiss that caused controversy in the UK; numerous...
. She was featured most prominently in a high-profile storyline about adultery, when she slept with her daughter's husband Grant
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
. The plot was the catalyst for the eventual death of Tiffany, who died in the aftermath upon discovering the affair. Harison left the role in 1999; scriptwriters allegedly felt that the character had nowhere left to go following Tiffany's departure.
Storylines
Louise arrived in Albert SquareAlbert Square
Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is ostensibly located in the equally fictional London borough of Walford in London's East End. The square's design was based on the real life Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after the real...
in May 1998, just in time to halt the proceedings of her husband Terry's
Terry Raymond
Terrence Gordon "Terry" Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gavin Richards. Terry was initially introduced briefly in 1996 as the drunken father of Tiffany and Simon Raymond...
marriage to Irene Hills
Irene Raymond
Irene Constance Ethel Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Roberta Taylor. Introduced in 1997 as the matriarch of the Hills family, Irene remained in the serial until 2000, when the actress opted to leave...
. Although their marriage had ended in separation many years ago, Terry was still legally married to Louise and had refused to grant her a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
in order to get out of paying the settlement.
Louise had left both her children, in their teens, in the custody of their drunken and abusive father; she had subsequently had no contact with either. Both Tiffany and Simon found it difficult to cope with their mother's sudden reemergence, but Louise had managed to win them round. After reuniting with her children, Louise decided to move to Walford
Walford
Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The name Walford is both a street in Dalston where one of the series' creators, Tony Holland, lived and a blend of Walthamstow, where Holland was born, and Stratford. The suffix 'ford' is also found throughout East...
, mainly to support Tiffany, who was going through a traumatic time after the break-up of her marriage to Grant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
.
Louise seemed to dislike Grant initially; she tried to convince Tiffany not to go back to him. Grant was desperate to save his marriage in order to remain close to his daughter, Courtney, and realising the influence Louise had, he made a deliberate effort to woo Louise. Over subsequent meetings, it became evident that Grant and Louise were attracted to each other and Grant would regularly make advances on Louise. Louise initially denied her feelings, embarking on a fling with Gianni di Marco
Gianni di Marco
Gianni di Marco is a fictional character from the BBC serial drama EastEnders, played by Marc Bannerman from 1998 to 2000.-Storylines:Gianni arrived in Walford along with the rest of the di Marco family in 1998. Gianni was the younger of the two brothers in the family, the other being Beppe di Marco...
to put Grant off. However, on the night of her 40th birthday, the inevitable happened and Grant and Louise had sex. The next day, Louise was wracked with guilt, which was compounded by the fact that Tiffany had decided that she wanted to reunite with Grant. In order to spare her daughter's feelings, Louise kept the affair secret.
Louise was attacked in November of that year and it was Grant who came to her rescue, which nearly led to them ending sleeping together a second time, stopped only by Simon's unexpected appearance. Panicking, Grant declined to tell Tiffany about Louise's attack, fearing that Louise would be more likely to confess their affair in her emotional state. When Louise found out that Grant had attempted to keep her daughter away from her, she went round to The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria is a fictional Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.-Appearance and development:...
to confront him, accusing him of using her for sex. However, a distraught Tiffany heard their entire conversation over the baby monitor.
Upon realising that her mother had betrayed her with her husband, Tiffany decided to flee Walford. Moments before she was about to depart, Grant accosted her and an argument culminated in Tiffany falling down the stairs and hospitalised. After Tiffany recovered, she refused to have anything more to do with Louise. After setting Grant up as the perpetrator of her accidental fall, she tried to leave Walford again but was run-over and killed by Frank Butcher
Frank Butcher
Francis Aloysius "Frank" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Mike Reid. Frank made his first appearance on-screen as a guest character in 1987 but, due to a positive viewer reception, he was reintroduced in 1988 as a regular. Reid took a long...
on New Year's Eve 1998 before she could leave. On the day of her funeral, Tiffany's best friend, Bianca Jackson
Bianca Jackson
Bianca Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Patsy Palmer. The character was introduced by executive producer Leonard Lewis and appeared initially from 1993 to 1999, when Palmer opted to leave. In 2002 executive producer John Yorke brought the character...
, discovered a letter from Tiffany explaining Louise's betrayal, upon which Bianca furiously threatened to tell Simon what Louise had been up to unless she left Walford. Louise fled in January 1999, leaving her son distraught.
Later that year, Louise returned following Simon's mental breakdown. Frightened that Bianca would get there first, Louise divulged her affair with Grant to Simon. This news only worsened Simon's mental state; he set fire to his flat, causing himself burns. Simon decided to leave Walford soon after his recovery, and despite initial hostility, he and Louise left on good terms. After another trivial dalliance with Gianni and more squabbling with Terry, Louise decided to leave Walford too in April 1999.
Creation and development
Louise was introduced in May 1998 as the estranged wife of Terry RaymondTerry Raymond
Terrence Gordon "Terry" Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gavin Richards. Terry was initially introduced briefly in 1996 as the drunken father of Tiffany and Simon Raymond...
(Gavin Richards
Gavin Richards
Gavin Richards is a British actor, writer and director. His father is music critic Denby Richards, emeritus editor of Britain's oldest classical music magazine, Musical Opinion....
) and mother of Tiffany Mitchell
Tiffany Mitchell
Tiffany Dawn Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Martine McCutcheon from 1995 until 1998. The character was created by the writer, Tony Jordan...
(Martine McCutcheon
Martine McCutcheon
Martine McCutcheon is an English singer, television personality and Laurence Olivier Award-winning actress. McCutcheon had minor success as one third of the pop group Milan in the early 1990s; however, it was her role as Tiffany Mitchell in BBC's EastEnders that made her a household name in the UK...
) and Simon Raymond
Simon Raymond
Simon Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Andrew Lynford. Simon was introduced in 1996 as the homosexual brother of Tiffany Mitchell. His relationship with the bisexual character Tony Hills featured a gay kiss that caused controversy in the UK; numerous...
(Andrew Lynford
Andrew Lynford
Andrew Lynford is a British television presenter and actor. He is widely remembered for playing the role of Simon Raymond in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders and presenting Playdays for Children's BBC....
). Her first scene was a shock climax during the wedding of Terry and Irene Hills
Irene Raymond
Irene Constance Ethel Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Roberta Taylor. Introduced in 1997 as the matriarch of the Hills family, Irene remained in the serial until 2000, when the actress opted to leave...
(Roberta Taylor
Roberta Taylor
Roberta Taylor is an English actress and author. She is probably best known for her roles of Irene Raymond in EastEnders , and Inspector Gina Gold in The Bill .-Career:...
), when Louise stopped the ceremony announcing that she and Terry were still married. Actress Carol Harrison
Carol Harrison
Carol Harrison is a British actress and writer. She is known mostly for her work on British television, in particular her role as Louise Raymond in BBC's EastEnders.-Career:...
was given the role and was told by producers that they planned to put her character "through the wringer storyline-wise". Harison has described Louise as "a very strong and resilient but deep down she has a very vulnerable streak [...] there are two sides to her. She is a lot of fun but she carries a lot of pain. Louise is a woman of the world who has had very high highs and very low lows. She is also a woman who sees people's flaws and accepts them without judgment."
Louise entered the serial with an extensive backstory, having abandoned her children with their abusive, alcoholic father. Discussing the character, Harison commented:"[Louise's] made some horrendous mistakes. She walked out on them when they were very young, for a start. But she was trapped in an extremely bad marriage-completely, totally trapped. She was desperately unhappy, she was being physically abused by Terry and ultimately lost all confidence in herself and her ability to look after the kids so she scarpered. She's got enormous guilt because of that, of course, even though she re-entered their lives and has become quite close to them again, especially 'Tiff'. That feeling of guilt hasn't gone away. Not really. How could it? When I took the role on I was very concerned that the viewers would just loathe "Louise" for what she'd done and find it hard to accept her much less like her when she finally appeared in the flesh. Thank God I was wrong."
One of the most high-profile storylines featuring Louise was her affair with her daughter's husband Grant
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
(Ross Kemp
Ross Kemp
Ross James Kemp is a BAFTA award-winning British actor, author and journalist, who rose to prominence in the role of Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
). Louise was shown to give in to temptation and sleep with Grant in an hour long special, airing in September on a Sunday evening, deviating from the typical weekly broadcasting time and schedule of EastEnders. Discussing the storyline, a BBC source claimed "Louise has come back to the Square to make it up to Tiffany and Simon, whom she walked out on when they were kids. But she knows that a relationship with Grant is hardly the behaviour of a mother who is seeking forgiveness from her children." The storyline was part of executive producer Matthew Robinson's attempt to win ratings amidst competition from rival soap Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. The hour-long special aired at the same time as the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network aired Coronation Street; at that time, in EastEnders 13-year run, it was only the second time the two soaps had gone head-to-head. Executive producer Matthew Robinson said: "If most of the nation isn't talking about what's happening in EastEnders on Monday, I will be surprised. Come December, if the whole nation isn't hooked, I will be amazed."
Harison has given her interpretation of why Louise and Grant were attracted to each other: "They're both damaged goods, she and Grant - and damaged souls. Him because of his childhood upbringing at the hands of an abusive dad as well as his Falklands
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
experience. And her because of [her abusive marriage]. Both of them are quite profoundly damaged. They find themselves in each other's orbits and are drawn to each other like moths to a flame - they're helplessly drawn to each other. It certainly wasn't a malicious alliance intended to hurt anyone. And yeah, it may have seemed on the surface to be a perfect soap melodrama triangle - woman sleeping with her daughter's husband - but I told the producers I wanted this storyline to be sensational, not sensationalistic, and I think by and large we succeeded [...] it was grounded in a psychological semblance to reality, really. It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy to Louise, I think, sleeping with Grant. She believed herself to be a bad person - a bad mother. He was all of a sudden there in front of her. And so she made that awful, awful mistake [and slept with him]."
The culmination of the storyline aired in December 1998, when after discovering her mother and Grant's affair, Tiffany was accidentally killed in a car accident during a fight with Grant. Simon also suffered a mental breakdown upon discovering his mother's betrayal and Carol was shunned by the community. Carol Harison announced she was leaving EastEnders in November 1998. A source told the Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
, "After Tiffany's death the scriptwriters don't feel they can do much more with Louise. She'd rather leave than end up on the sidelines talking about the weather in Walford." Louise's exit scene aired in April 1999. However, Harison said that she would be open to a return, stating "never say never".