Tanya Turner
Encyclopedia
Tanya Louise Turner Federico (previously Laslett) is a fictional television character
. She is the lead character on the ITV
drama Footballers' Wives
, and also briefly appeared on the drama Bad Girls
. Tanya is portrayed by English actress Zöe Lucker
and is the only character credited for the entire series from the pilot - apart from Jackie Pascoe - until its cancellation. Her role within the series changed frequently; throughout some storylines she is considered to be an antagonist
whereas in others she is the main protagonist
.
The character is well known for her ruthless, cold and calculating behaviour. She is intelligent and independent and has been married three times, with each marriage resulting in her husband's death. American magazine TV Guide
said "You'd have to go all the way back to Dynasty
s Alexis Colby
to find a saucier British TV import than Tanya Turner".
Tanya was voted tenth in Virgin Media
's Top 10 TV criminals poll, for her involvement in the death of her second husband, Frank Laslett
and for her frequent use of cocaine
.
. Their relationship was stormy yet very strong even though Tanya knew of Jason's extramarital flings. He slept with his team-mate Ian Walmsley's young sister-in-law, Marie Minshall, who was Jason's biggest fan. He considered leaving Tanya for her after several bust-ups, but came to his senses and dumped the girl he used for sex.
In episode one, Jason and Tanya discovered that the club's chairman, Frank Laslett, had lied to them and secretly signed Italian striker Salvatore Biagi, whom he planned to replace Jason as captain. Tanya lost her temper and attacked Frank after the event, causing him to tumble and hit his head on the side of his car, putting him in a coma. Tanya and Jason fled the scene, leaving Frank for dead, though he was found unconscious the next morning.
Months followed with a terrified guilty Tanya in bits and spending every day and night in constant fear of Frank waking up. Visiting Frank religiously in hospital in fear of her guilt being made public, Tanya discovered nurse Jeanette Dunkley having sex with a comatose Frank. In exchange for her silence, Janette agreed to convince Frank's ex-wife and son that Frank would never recover and it would be best to turn off the life-support machine. As everyone gathered to say goodbye to him, Tanya was stunned when Frank's hand twitched and he opened his eyes. Luckily for her, he remembered nothing about the incident that nearly cost his life and she hinted that they were having an affair so as to throw him off guard. She then paid Jeanette Dunkley to disappear. This also gave her the chance to get Frank to reinstate Jason as team captain, although he lost it to Ian Walmsley after some bad performances.
After begging for Tanya's forgiveness for being a useless husband, Jason got back up to his old tricks and seduced Jackie Pascoe, mother of his team-mate Kyle, who was about twice his age. She fell pregnant
but an uninterested Jason told her to abort
the baby, however she couldn't bring herself to do so (unknown to Jason), and when her daughter-in-law, Chardonnay
, discovered that she wasn't pregnant as previously believed, she decided to take on Jackie's child as her own to avoid humiliation.
Whilst Tanya led Frank to believe he was in a secret relationship with her, Jason stormed in and started shouting, which brought back Frank's chilling memories of the night of his 'accident'.
Furthermore, the Pascoes came home after Jackie secretly gave birth to Jason Turner's son, Patrick (Paddy), in Florida
, USA.
Jason noticed Jackie's down-in-the-dumps attitude at a party, celebrating baby Paddy's birth (he was delighted when Kyle and Chardonnay made him and Tanya godparents) and followed Jackie into the house to confront her. After her breast milk leaked, he realised that Paddy was the child he thought she had terminated several months before. He became broody and decided he wanted children after all, and offered to ditch his troublesome marriage to set up home with Paddy and Jackie (who had started to get doubts about giving up the baby after noticing how Chardonnay used the child as a fashion accessory). When Jackie made it clear that she and Jason had no future, he decided to try and persuade Tanya to have children, even though he knew that she would refuse.
As the Turner marriage disintegrated further, Tanya and club shareholder, Hazel Bailey
, came home from a party drunk, and after snorting cocaine, engaged in lesbian sex. Tanya was horrified and deeply regretted it the next morning as Jason walked through the front door.
Realising that this could be the last chance to save her marriage, Tanya pretended to agree to try for a baby, taking birth control pills
in secret. Jason made a grand gesture as godfather by putting a large sum of money in a bank account for Paddy but destroyed the account bank when he found out that the Pascoes had thrown Jackie out after they caught her breastfeeding the baby. The police gatecrashed the christening party (after Frank tipped them off about Tanya carrying drugs) and Tanya's handbag was emptied, revealing drugs and some pills. Jason decided to end their marriage once and for all, disgusted, and began divorce proceedings. She was interviewed by Chardonnay on her chat show and branded Jason as impotent, but he hit back by saying that he had fathered a baby.
He decided to sort out the mess once and for all and kidnapped Paddy from the Pascoe home, beating up Kyle when he tried to intervene after he announced he was the child's father. With no legal adoption papers, their case was hopeless and the press, wondering why Paddy hadn't been seen for such a while, questioned their parenting abilities.
However, things changed when Jason cut all ties with baby Paddy after a doctor revealed that he was intersexual after a womb and ovaries were found. Jason called his child a freak, and blew a fuse after a magazine was published with him, Chardonnay, Kyle, and Tanya dressed as with the bodies of the opposite sex stuck under their heads to try and show the world that they did not care about Paddy being a hermaphrodite. At this point, new, shy, teenage football player Darius Fry was besotted by Tanya, who seduced him on a number of occasions, before making him strip in the sauna and throwing him out of her house naked.
Jason then begged Tanya, who was revolted by her fine and community service at an old people's home cleaning false teeth and toilets due to her drug addiction, to reconcile after admitting to fathering Paddy Pascoe. She agreed, and was stunned when blast from the past Jeanette Dunkley turned up at the home. Janette blackmailed more cash out of Tanya and joined forces with Frank to prove that she put him in a coma and tried to get Nurse Dunkley to finish him off for good.
During a meeting with Tanya, Jeanette who secretly wore a microphone underneath her top linked to Frank's headphones, started talking about how Tanya put Frank in a coma. Tanya, twigging that Jeanette had a plan with Frank, purposely diverted the conversation to the nurse raping Frank in hospital, while the chairman listened in horror. Jeanette knocked a glass of wine down her top and Tanya took this as her chance to finally move on from the incident that almost killed Frank by agreeing to put Janette into hiding by dying her hair grey and disguising her as a resident of the old people's home she worked at. Frank, now finally knowing for sure that Tanya almost murdered him, tracked Jeanette down by using her mobile phone signal and told her that she must help him make Tanya pay.
Jason and Tanya were arranging the renewing of their vows, when the philanderer bragged to his team-mates about having slept with the manager's deranged daughter, Freddie. Darius, who was still besotted with Tanya and genuinely believed that he was the right man for her, had a go at Jason in the changing rooms, provoking the angry captain to threaten him. Chardonnay told Tanya that Jason had cheated yet again, and she went through with their renewing of vows right until the moment she was to say "I do", but she threw the ring across the room and told him that their marriage was over for good. Jason responded by punching her, however she told everyone to enjoy the reception. By now Jason was despised, particularly by Tanya, Salvatore, Kyle, Chardonnay, Darius, and Jackie. He was soon informed of his wife's indiscretion with Darius during their separation, and got drunk on the roof of the building. He began to shout at an unseen character (later revealed to be Chardonnay), and fell off the edge of the roof, hanging on by one hand. He begged Chardonnay to help him, but she picked up an empty bottle and whacked it hard on Jason's fingers, causing him to let go of the roof and fall to his death.
due to the pressure of her guilt, which eventually led to her death. Jason, however, was ruled in court to have committed suicide.
Events in Tanya's life also took a surprising turn. Despite previously having hated Frank Laslett, who had agreed to drop all charges in favour of their new business arrangement, Tanya, having been left a string of debts by her late husband, Jason, married him in a business settlement. Of course Frank demanded more than just an arrangement, and Tanya began to cringe during sexual encounters with her new husband, and it seemed that Frank's revenge was coming in a different form.
Tanya, meanwhile, began an affair with new signing, Conrad Gates
, a bisexual
who had always shared an open relationship with Bollywood
star wife, Amber. It became clear to an extremely jealous Amber, who loathed Tanya, that the fling she urged her husband to end was becoming more serious. Tanya discovered that Conrad was also playing away with closet gay team-mate, Noah, and after Conrad dumped him, she set him up with a rent boy and had the whole scene filmed and shown to the world to make sure he didn't get involved with Conrad again.
Amber was then abducted and Conrad decided to cool his affair with Tanya, but she exposed Amber as a liar and that the kidnapping incident was set up to make Conrad finish with Tanya. The disgusted team captain decided to leave Amber and move in with Tanya after she watched Frank die of a heart attack
after realising that rampant sex wasn't good for his dodgy heart.
Life became tough for Conrad and Tanya when Amber began stalking them, going as far as pretending to have hanged herself outside their front door. She found out that she was pregnant
, and Conrad asked her to move in with him and Tanya so he could keep a watchful eye on her. Not long after, Tanya was revealed to be in the family way
, and was devastated when a video was sent to her of Frank saying that she would get the tape when she was pregnant and said that his condoms were very weak. Tanya got one of the remaining condoms from Frank's old drawer and filled it with water, only for the liquid to come shooting out of mini holes. She realised that Frank had been doing this all along and the unborn child could be his. After a row about Tanya having a baby and moving in with Conrad, Amber planted cocaine in Tanya's handbag.
.
Tanya did a deal with gangster
Rik Revoir – if she discovered the whereabouts of a stolen bag from its thief, fellow inmate Darlene Cake, he would arrange for someone to confess to planting the drugs on her. However, when Rik kidnapped Darlene's younger brother Terence and sent one of his severed toes into Larkhall, Tanya quickly realised that she was in over her head. But Rik was the least of her worries, because of the luxury hamper that was delivered shortly after her arrival on the wing, Tanya was considered by the police to be the prime suspect in the mass oxalic poisonings that resulted in Al McKenzie's death. But then luckily, the discovery of a stash of rhubarb hooch in the servery put her in the clear. Tanya conspired with Wing Governor Frances Myers to double-cross Rik. In exchange for leniency, Rik confessed to planting the cocaine in Tanya's handbag and she was released on bail pending an appeal.
immediately while Conrad was in Spain
. Certain she was carrying Frank's baby, she ordered the nurse, none other than former acquaintance Jeanette Dunkley, to swap the babies at birth, so if Amber's accusations of Tanya cheating and having a child with someone else went as far as paternity tests, the story wouldn't match since 'her' child would have Conrad's DNA
.
The truth eventually came out when, Pundarik, (Tanya's biological son) was smothered to death by Amber's pet dog, Krishna. Results revealed that the baby had been wearing fake tan at the time of his death. Amber eventually realised what Tanya had done and ambushed the christening of Tanya's (biologically her) baby, Troy. Conrad attacked Tanya and broke off their engagement, and Tanya left the show in episode four of series four in a helicopter. At the end of that episode, she was seen on a beach in Rio de Janeiro
chatting up a fat, old, Brazil
ian millionaire, which obviously hinted to the viewers what Tanya would've been getting up to in Brazil
.
Later in the series, Conrad and Amber claimed custody of their son, Troy, now renamed Phoenix, but their joy was cut short when Conrad was accidentally shot dead by teammate Bruno Milligan when he mistook him for Giles Arrowsmith, the man who kidnapped Lucy and Angelica.
In the next episode, Tanya is getting on a plane when she sees new Earl's Park signing, Paulo Bardosa. She bribes the air hostess to let her sit next to him and he mistakes her for a giddy fan and is surprised when Tanya reveals she is a shareholder in Earl's Park. The plane runs into turbulence and Paulo comforts her during it. It becomes clear there is a very strong attraction between them. After landing in England
, she is horrified to find that Eva de Wolffe
, an old magazine
publisher, is actually Paulo's lover, (she thought she was his mother).
They meet again later that night at a restaurant and Eva gets Tanya's best seat and Eva makes bitchy remarks to Tanya, who overhears her bragging about her contract costing £1.5 million to take photos for her magazine at Tremaine Gidigbi and Liberty Baker's wedding so Tanya asks Lucy for an invitation in order to get close to Paulo. After more bitchy remarks from Eva, she sneakily steals her shoes while Paulo massages her feet and pulls off the heels before placing them back where she took them and then edges on Eva for a fight, only for her to approach Tanya and go crashing into the waiter and his tray of drinks and falling to the floor.
The next day, Eva publishes an article showing Tanya eating away and smoking. They continue to feud at Trisha Watson's cancer appeal and they have an auction competition for a dinner with Paulo, but Eva wins (after Tanya continued to raise her bid to sums of cash that became obvious to the people surrounding that it was all just part of a bitter feud between the pair) and gives it to Trisha. At the opera, Tanya follows Paulo and Eva in the opposite box, Eva finds Tanya and Paulo together having sex and demands he comes home. When he refuses to move, Eva says something to him in Portuguese
, calling him Marchello, and he just goes with her as though being mesmerised.
At her mansion, Eva goes crazy at Paulo and makes him say sorry. After doing so, an unsatisfied Eva shouts "Sorry what?!", to which Paulo responds "Sorry mama". Tanya realises that something isn't right and searches Eva de Wolffe on the Internet
and sees pictures of her in poor countries helping abandoned and orphaned children, and realised that the boy in a picture underneath which read 'Marchello', was actually Paulo, and discovered that Eva had adopted him.
Meanwhile viewers have seen that when Paulo is 'naughty', Eva handcuffs him and puts him in a cage to bring back the bad memories of the state he was in when Eva first rescued him. Tanya, by now, goes round to Eva's residence and confront her with the fact she was sleeping with her own son. Eva's indifferent words show how ruthless and sick-minded she is, especially since she expected Paulo to love her in more than just a motherly way for the rest of their lives. Tanya lures Paulo towards her, but Eva hits him with a rake
and tries to strangle Tanya. She fails and Paulo resists her calls and goes off with Tanya. They move into a new home and have a housewarming party, in which drunken footballer Callum Watson makes a pass at her causing Paulo (who was coming up the stairs and saw this happening) to get a vase and smash up the house and Tanya's expensive sports car
, before begging her to punish him in front of all the guests. The next episode revealed that he'd been carted off to a psychiatric unit.
In the final episode of the series, club boss Garry Ryan makes several attempts to sleep with Tanya, although he is gunning for revenge when she makes it clear that she doesn't do old fat sleazeballs anymore. The next morning, she discovers that her dead Brazilian husband's properties and businesses (from which she gets her income) had been frozen as he was suspected to have been involved with fraud, leaving her penniless and unable to afford the rent on the new house. On the advice of her solicitor, she decides to sell her shares in Earl's Park. However, the stock in the company has fallen and she has to persuade Garry to buy them off her (although she had to sleep with him at his request). Because she previously rejected his sexual advances, he gets revenge on her by tricking her into buying some dodgy shares and she now loses all this money.
Tanya then discovers that Garry was linked to club manager Roger Webb's fatal fall down a lift shaft as the dictaphone that was, unknown to Garry, in Roger's pocket at the time of his death recorded their whole conversation (including details of Garry's attempt to rape Roger's wife, Jackie) and indicated that Garry had directed his blind former employee to the broken lift that caused his death, and tries to blackmail him with the dictaphone recording. They then arranged to meet in a Soho nightclub in a back room to sort out a pay off for Tanya to keep quiet, and as Garry offered Tanya a line of cocaine
, the camera slid slowly to underneath the table they were sitting at, and a shot of deadly poison came into view, leaving viewers with an end-of-series cliffhanger, and Tanya in a life or death situation.
aired what some people have considered to be the very last episode of Footballers Wives, however the episode is not considered and was merely an episode aired to make money for charity. The episode ends with Tanya waking from a bed, claiming the last five series were all a dream. Tanya then blows up her flat in a freak accident when she lights her cigarette
, leaving Turner dead. This special was a six minute, non-canonical
spoof, therefore none of its content is considered a tie-up to end the series.
Frank Laslett (2nd husband/ deceased)
Juan Federico (3rd husband/ deceased)
Conrad Gates (ex-affair and broken engagement/deceased)
Paulo Bardosa (ex-lovers)
Hazel Bailey (one-night-stand)
Darius Fry (ex-affair)
Troy Turner (adoptive son with Conrad Gates)
Pundarik Gates (son with Frank Laslett) [deceased]
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...
. She is the lead character on 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...
drama Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League Association football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It was broadcast on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 14 April 2006...
, and also briefly appeared on the drama Bad Girls
Bad Girls (TV series)
Bad Girls is an award-winning British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1999 to 2006. It is produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road...
. Tanya is portrayed by English actress Zöe Lucker
Zöe Lucker
Zöe Elizabeth Lucker is an English actress best known for playing the roles of Tanya Turner on ITV's Footballers' Wives and Vanessa Gold in EastEnders.-Career:...
and is the only character credited for the entire series from the pilot - apart from Jackie Pascoe - until its cancellation. Her role within the series changed frequently; throughout some storylines she is considered to be an antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
whereas in others she is the main protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
.
The character is well known for her ruthless, cold and calculating behaviour. She is intelligent and independent and has been married three times, with each marriage resulting in her husband's death. American magazine TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
said "You'd have to go all the way back to Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
s Alexis Colby
Alexis Colby
Alexis Colby is a fictional character and the primary antagonist on the American TV series Dynasty....
to find a saucier British TV import than Tanya Turner".
Tanya was voted tenth in Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
's Top 10 TV criminals poll, for her involvement in the death of her second husband, Frank Laslett
Frank Laslett
Francis Michael "Frank" Laslett was a fictional character on the ITV1 television show Footballers' Wives, portrayed by the British actor John Forgeham. He was The Chairman and CEO of Earls Park Football Club.-Background:...
and for her frequent use of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
.
Series One
Tanya was originally married to the womanising captain of Earls Park Football Club, Jason TurnerJason Turner (Footballers' Wives)
Jason Turner was a fictional character on ITV British drama Footballers' Wives, played by English actor Cristian Solimeno.-Character history:...
. Their relationship was stormy yet very strong even though Tanya knew of Jason's extramarital flings. He slept with his team-mate Ian Walmsley's young sister-in-law, Marie Minshall, who was Jason's biggest fan. He considered leaving Tanya for her after several bust-ups, but came to his senses and dumped the girl he used for sex.
In episode one, Jason and Tanya discovered that the club's chairman, Frank Laslett, had lied to them and secretly signed Italian striker Salvatore Biagi, whom he planned to replace Jason as captain. Tanya lost her temper and attacked Frank after the event, causing him to tumble and hit his head on the side of his car, putting him in a coma. Tanya and Jason fled the scene, leaving Frank for dead, though he was found unconscious the next morning.
Months followed with a terrified guilty Tanya in bits and spending every day and night in constant fear of Frank waking up. Visiting Frank religiously in hospital in fear of her guilt being made public, Tanya discovered nurse Jeanette Dunkley having sex with a comatose Frank. In exchange for her silence, Janette agreed to convince Frank's ex-wife and son that Frank would never recover and it would be best to turn off the life-support machine. As everyone gathered to say goodbye to him, Tanya was stunned when Frank's hand twitched and he opened his eyes. Luckily for her, he remembered nothing about the incident that nearly cost his life and she hinted that they were having an affair so as to throw him off guard. She then paid Jeanette Dunkley to disappear. This also gave her the chance to get Frank to reinstate Jason as team captain, although he lost it to Ian Walmsley after some bad performances.
After begging for Tanya's forgiveness for being a useless husband, Jason got back up to his old tricks and seduced Jackie Pascoe, mother of his team-mate Kyle, who was about twice his age. She fell pregnant
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
but an uninterested Jason told her to abort
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
the baby, however she couldn't bring herself to do so (unknown to Jason), and when her daughter-in-law, Chardonnay
Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe
Carol Susan 'Chardonnay' Pascoe was a fictional character on the ITV1 television series Footballers' Wives, loosely based on glamour model Jordan and played by Susie Amy...
, discovered that she wasn't pregnant as previously believed, she decided to take on Jackie's child as her own to avoid humiliation.
Whilst Tanya led Frank to believe he was in a secret relationship with her, Jason stormed in and started shouting, which brought back Frank's chilling memories of the night of his 'accident'.
Series Two
Series two began with Tanya and her husband in court, accused of Frank's attempted murder, but she lied her way out of it and there was no evidence as the nurse, Jeanette, has 'vanished' into thin air. In the end, it was her word against Frank's and the case collapsed but Frank was determined to get his revenge.Furthermore, the Pascoes came home after Jackie secretly gave birth to Jason Turner's son, Patrick (Paddy), in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, USA.
Jason noticed Jackie's down-in-the-dumps attitude at a party, celebrating baby Paddy's birth (he was delighted when Kyle and Chardonnay made him and Tanya godparents) and followed Jackie into the house to confront her. After her breast milk leaked, he realised that Paddy was the child he thought she had terminated several months before. He became broody and decided he wanted children after all, and offered to ditch his troublesome marriage to set up home with Paddy and Jackie (who had started to get doubts about giving up the baby after noticing how Chardonnay used the child as a fashion accessory). When Jackie made it clear that she and Jason had no future, he decided to try and persuade Tanya to have children, even though he knew that she would refuse.
As the Turner marriage disintegrated further, Tanya and club shareholder, Hazel Bailey
Hazel Bailey
Hazel Bailey is a fictional character on ITV British drama Footballers' Wives, played by English actress Alison Newman. Hazel is a lesbian, and slept with Tanya Turner during the second season.-Season 1:...
, came home from a party drunk, and after snorting cocaine, engaged in lesbian sex. Tanya was horrified and deeply regretted it the next morning as Jason walked through the front door.
Realising that this could be the last chance to save her marriage, Tanya pretended to agree to try for a baby, taking birth control pills
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
in secret. Jason made a grand gesture as godfather by putting a large sum of money in a bank account for Paddy but destroyed the account bank when he found out that the Pascoes had thrown Jackie out after they caught her breastfeeding the baby. The police gatecrashed the christening party (after Frank tipped them off about Tanya carrying drugs) and Tanya's handbag was emptied, revealing drugs and some pills. Jason decided to end their marriage once and for all, disgusted, and began divorce proceedings. She was interviewed by Chardonnay on her chat show and branded Jason as impotent, but he hit back by saying that he had fathered a baby.
He decided to sort out the mess once and for all and kidnapped Paddy from the Pascoe home, beating up Kyle when he tried to intervene after he announced he was the child's father. With no legal adoption papers, their case was hopeless and the press, wondering why Paddy hadn't been seen for such a while, questioned their parenting abilities.
However, things changed when Jason cut all ties with baby Paddy after a doctor revealed that he was intersexual after a womb and ovaries were found. Jason called his child a freak, and blew a fuse after a magazine was published with him, Chardonnay, Kyle, and Tanya dressed as with the bodies of the opposite sex stuck under their heads to try and show the world that they did not care about Paddy being a hermaphrodite. At this point, new, shy, teenage football player Darius Fry was besotted by Tanya, who seduced him on a number of occasions, before making him strip in the sauna and throwing him out of her house naked.
Jason then begged Tanya, who was revolted by her fine and community service at an old people's home cleaning false teeth and toilets due to her drug addiction, to reconcile after admitting to fathering Paddy Pascoe. She agreed, and was stunned when blast from the past Jeanette Dunkley turned up at the home. Janette blackmailed more cash out of Tanya and joined forces with Frank to prove that she put him in a coma and tried to get Nurse Dunkley to finish him off for good.
During a meeting with Tanya, Jeanette who secretly wore a microphone underneath her top linked to Frank's headphones, started talking about how Tanya put Frank in a coma. Tanya, twigging that Jeanette had a plan with Frank, purposely diverted the conversation to the nurse raping Frank in hospital, while the chairman listened in horror. Jeanette knocked a glass of wine down her top and Tanya took this as her chance to finally move on from the incident that almost killed Frank by agreeing to put Janette into hiding by dying her hair grey and disguising her as a resident of the old people's home she worked at. Frank, now finally knowing for sure that Tanya almost murdered him, tracked Jeanette down by using her mobile phone signal and told her that she must help him make Tanya pay.
Jason and Tanya were arranging the renewing of their vows, when the philanderer bragged to his team-mates about having slept with the manager's deranged daughter, Freddie. Darius, who was still besotted with Tanya and genuinely believed that he was the right man for her, had a go at Jason in the changing rooms, provoking the angry captain to threaten him. Chardonnay told Tanya that Jason had cheated yet again, and she went through with their renewing of vows right until the moment she was to say "I do", but she threw the ring across the room and told him that their marriage was over for good. Jason responded by punching her, however she told everyone to enjoy the reception. By now Jason was despised, particularly by Tanya, Salvatore, Kyle, Chardonnay, Darius, and Jackie. He was soon informed of his wife's indiscretion with Darius during their separation, and got drunk on the roof of the building. He began to shout at an unseen character (later revealed to be Chardonnay), and fell off the edge of the roof, hanging on by one hand. He begged Chardonnay to help him, but she picked up an empty bottle and whacked it hard on Jason's fingers, causing him to let go of the roof and fall to his death.
Series Three
The series opened with a funeral, assumed to be Jason's, although it turned out to be Chardonnay's when a glass coffin with her name on in large crystal letters appeared from the back of a funeral car. Her widower, Kyle, bore her secret — she had killed Jason, and then battled with anorexiaAnorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
due to the pressure of her guilt, which eventually led to her death. Jason, however, was ruled in court to have committed suicide.
Events in Tanya's life also took a surprising turn. Despite previously having hated Frank Laslett, who had agreed to drop all charges in favour of their new business arrangement, Tanya, having been left a string of debts by her late husband, Jason, married him in a business settlement. Of course Frank demanded more than just an arrangement, and Tanya began to cringe during sexual encounters with her new husband, and it seemed that Frank's revenge was coming in a different form.
Tanya, meanwhile, began an affair with new signing, Conrad Gates
Conrad Gates
Conrad Gates is a fictional character from the British TV show Footballers' Wives, played by Ben Price; he is a parody of real-life football player David Beckham.-Series 3:...
, a bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
who had always shared an open relationship with Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
star wife, Amber. It became clear to an extremely jealous Amber, who loathed Tanya, that the fling she urged her husband to end was becoming more serious. Tanya discovered that Conrad was also playing away with closet gay team-mate, Noah, and after Conrad dumped him, she set him up with a rent boy and had the whole scene filmed and shown to the world to make sure he didn't get involved with Conrad again.
Amber was then abducted and Conrad decided to cool his affair with Tanya, but she exposed Amber as a liar and that the kidnapping incident was set up to make Conrad finish with Tanya. The disgusted team captain decided to leave Amber and move in with Tanya after she watched Frank die of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
after realising that rampant sex wasn't good for his dodgy heart.
Life became tough for Conrad and Tanya when Amber began stalking them, going as far as pretending to have hanged herself outside their front door. She found out that she was pregnant
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
, and Conrad asked her to move in with him and Tanya so he could keep a watchful eye on her. Not long after, Tanya was revealed to be in the family way
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
, and was devastated when a video was sent to her of Frank saying that she would get the tape when she was pregnant and said that his condoms were very weak. Tanya got one of the remaining condoms from Frank's old drawer and filled it with water, only for the liquid to come shooting out of mini holes. She realised that Frank had been doing this all along and the unborn child could be his. After a row about Tanya having a baby and moving in with Conrad, Amber planted cocaine in Tanya's handbag.
Bad Girls: Series Six
Tanya was sentenced to Larkhall prison for 5 years for possession of cocaine. This was her second offence, she was previously arrested for being in possession and sentenced to community service. However, this time, Tanya is innocent, the cocaine was planted in her handbag by her arch nemesis, Amber GatesAmber Gates
Amber Gates is a fictional character on ITV British drama Footballers' Wives, loosely based on Victoria Beckham and played by English actress Laila Rouass.-Biography:...
.
Tanya did a deal with gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
Rik Revoir – if she discovered the whereabouts of a stolen bag from its thief, fellow inmate Darlene Cake, he would arrange for someone to confess to planting the drugs on her. However, when Rik kidnapped Darlene's younger brother Terence and sent one of his severed toes into Larkhall, Tanya quickly realised that she was in over her head. But Rik was the least of her worries, because of the luxury hamper that was delivered shortly after her arrival on the wing, Tanya was considered by the police to be the prime suspect in the mass oxalic poisonings that resulted in Al McKenzie's death. But then luckily, the discovery of a stash of rhubarb hooch in the servery put her in the clear. Tanya conspired with Wing Governor Frances Myers to double-cross Rik. In exchange for leniency, Rik confessed to planting the cocaine in Tanya's handbag and she was released on bail pending an appeal.
Series Four
Amber's waters broke, and Tanya demanded a Caesarean sectionCaesarean section
A Caesarean section, is a surgical procedure in which one or more incisions are made through a mother's abdomen and uterus to deliver one or more babies, or, rarely, to remove a dead fetus...
immediately while Conrad was in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Certain she was carrying Frank's baby, she ordered the nurse, none other than former acquaintance Jeanette Dunkley, to swap the babies at birth, so if Amber's accusations of Tanya cheating and having a child with someone else went as far as paternity tests, the story wouldn't match since 'her' child would have Conrad's DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
.
The truth eventually came out when, Pundarik, (Tanya's biological son) was smothered to death by Amber's pet dog, Krishna. Results revealed that the baby had been wearing fake tan at the time of his death. Amber eventually realised what Tanya had done and ambushed the christening of Tanya's (biologically her) baby, Troy. Conrad attacked Tanya and broke off their engagement, and Tanya left the show in episode four of series four in a helicopter. At the end of that episode, she was seen on a beach in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
chatting up a fat, old, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian millionaire, which obviously hinted to the viewers what Tanya would've been getting up to in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
Later in the series, Conrad and Amber claimed custody of their son, Troy, now renamed Phoenix, but their joy was cut short when Conrad was accidentally shot dead by teammate Bruno Milligan when he mistook him for Giles Arrowsmith, the man who kidnapped Lucy and Angelica.
Series Five
Tanya returned to the show in episode four. In typical Tanya fashion. In an airport talking to the ticket lady.- Lady: Are you travelling alone Mrs. Frederico?
- Tanya: Correcto, one widow, one dead husband (shows the urn)
- Lady: Window seat?
- Tanya: I don't care where I'm sat as long as the champagne's on ice.
- Lady: The flight departs in just under an hour. Departing from gate 3.
- Tanya: Thank you (walks off)
- Lady: Excuse me, madam, haven't you forgotten something? (points to the urn).
- Tanya: Tell you what, darling. You keep it. I won't be needing that where I'm heading.
In the next episode, Tanya is getting on a plane when she sees new Earl's Park signing, Paulo Bardosa. She bribes the air hostess to let her sit next to him and he mistakes her for a giddy fan and is surprised when Tanya reveals she is a shareholder in Earl's Park. The plane runs into turbulence and Paulo comforts her during it. It becomes clear there is a very strong attraction between them. After landing in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, she is horrified to find that Eva de Wolffe
Eva de Wolffe
Eva de Wolffe is a recurring fictional character on ITV drama, Footballers' Wives. She is played by English actress Joan Collins.-Character history:Eva de Wolffe is a 70 year old publisher, introduced at Heathrow Airport in the middle of the fifth series...
, an old magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
publisher, is actually Paulo's lover, (she thought she was his mother).
They meet again later that night at a restaurant and Eva gets Tanya's best seat and Eva makes bitchy remarks to Tanya, who overhears her bragging about her contract costing £1.5 million to take photos for her magazine at Tremaine Gidigbi and Liberty Baker's wedding so Tanya asks Lucy for an invitation in order to get close to Paulo. After more bitchy remarks from Eva, she sneakily steals her shoes while Paulo massages her feet and pulls off the heels before placing them back where she took them and then edges on Eva for a fight, only for her to approach Tanya and go crashing into the waiter and his tray of drinks and falling to the floor.
The next day, Eva publishes an article showing Tanya eating away and smoking. They continue to feud at Trisha Watson's cancer appeal and they have an auction competition for a dinner with Paulo, but Eva wins (after Tanya continued to raise her bid to sums of cash that became obvious to the people surrounding that it was all just part of a bitter feud between the pair) and gives it to Trisha. At the opera, Tanya follows Paulo and Eva in the opposite box, Eva finds Tanya and Paulo together having sex and demands he comes home. When he refuses to move, Eva says something to him in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, calling him Marchello, and he just goes with her as though being mesmerised.
At her mansion, Eva goes crazy at Paulo and makes him say sorry. After doing so, an unsatisfied Eva shouts "Sorry what?!", to which Paulo responds "Sorry mama". Tanya realises that something isn't right and searches Eva de Wolffe on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and sees pictures of her in poor countries helping abandoned and orphaned children, and realised that the boy in a picture underneath which read 'Marchello', was actually Paulo, and discovered that Eva had adopted him.
Meanwhile viewers have seen that when Paulo is 'naughty', Eva handcuffs him and puts him in a cage to bring back the bad memories of the state he was in when Eva first rescued him. Tanya, by now, goes round to Eva's residence and confront her with the fact she was sleeping with her own son. Eva's indifferent words show how ruthless and sick-minded she is, especially since she expected Paulo to love her in more than just a motherly way for the rest of their lives. Tanya lures Paulo towards her, but Eva hits him with a rake
Rake (tool)
A rake is a broom for outside; an horticultural implement consisting of a toothed bar fixed transversely to a handle, and used to collect leaves, hay, grass, etc., and, in gardening, for loosening the soil, light weeding and levelling, removing dead grass from...
and tries to strangle Tanya. She fails and Paulo resists her calls and goes off with Tanya. They move into a new home and have a housewarming party, in which drunken footballer Callum Watson makes a pass at her causing Paulo (who was coming up the stairs and saw this happening) to get a vase and smash up the house and Tanya's expensive sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
, before begging her to punish him in front of all the guests. The next episode revealed that he'd been carted off to a psychiatric unit.
In the final episode of the series, club boss Garry Ryan makes several attempts to sleep with Tanya, although he is gunning for revenge when she makes it clear that she doesn't do old fat sleazeballs anymore. The next morning, she discovers that her dead Brazilian husband's properties and businesses (from which she gets her income) had been frozen as he was suspected to have been involved with fraud, leaving her penniless and unable to afford the rent on the new house. On the advice of her solicitor, she decides to sell her shares in Earl's Park. However, the stock in the company has fallen and she has to persuade Garry to buy them off her (although she had to sleep with him at his request). Because she previously rejected his sexual advances, he gets revenge on her by tricking her into buying some dodgy shares and she now loses all this money.
Tanya then discovers that Garry was linked to club manager Roger Webb's fatal fall down a lift shaft as the dictaphone that was, unknown to Garry, in Roger's pocket at the time of his death recorded their whole conversation (including details of Garry's attempt to rape Roger's wife, Jackie) and indicated that Garry had directed his blind former employee to the broken lift that caused his death, and tries to blackmail him with the dictaphone recording. They then arranged to meet in a Soho nightclub in a back room to sort out a pay off for Tanya to keep quiet, and as Garry offered Tanya a line of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, the camera slid slowly to underneath the table they were sitting at, and a shot of deadly poison came into view, leaving viewers with an end-of-series cliffhanger, and Tanya in a life or death situation.
Finale Spoof
On Saturday 15 July 2006 the BBCBBC
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...
aired what some people have considered to be the very last episode of Footballers Wives, however the episode is not considered and was merely an episode aired to make money for charity. The episode ends with Tanya waking from a bed, claiming the last five series were all a dream. Tanya then blows up her flat in a freak accident when she lights her cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
, leaving Turner dead. This special was a six minute, non-canonical
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
spoof, therefore none of its content is considered a tie-up to end the series.
Relationships
Jason Turner (1st husband/ deceased)Frank Laslett (2nd husband/ deceased)
Juan Federico (3rd husband/ deceased)
Conrad Gates (ex-affair and broken engagement/deceased)
Paulo Bardosa (ex-lovers)
Hazel Bailey (one-night-stand)
Darius Fry (ex-affair)
Troy Turner (adoptive son with Conrad Gates)
Pundarik Gates (son with Frank Laslett) [deceased]