Top Ten Worst UK Soap Characters

[Toby]

Following on the "best characters/storylines/exits" threads, who would you choose as your least favourite characters from a British soap and why?

[Droitwich Lloyd]

Benny Hawkins-Crossroads
Mary the punk-EastEnders
Jimmy Corkhill-Brookside
Roy Croper-Coronation St
Curly Watts-Coronation St
Raquel Watts-Coronation St
Zack Dingle-Emmerdale
Lisa Dingle-Emmerdale
Big Mo Slater-EastEnders
Bobby Grant-Brookside

[Toby]

The opening post asks for reasons, not just a list.



Mary the punk-EastEnders

I loved Mary Smith, the angry, alienated (and alienating) "wild child" and all her storylines concerning her attempts to care for baby Annie, turning to stripping and prostitution to make ends meet, her inability to see Andy's attempts to help her such as teaching her to read as anything other than sexual attraction, and finally her exit from the show: sticking two fingers up at the world and getting on a bus, taking Annie with her into an uncertain future.

She was EASTENDERS' answer to CATHY COME HOME - her story was all too real, bleak and tragic. Perhaps her character was almost too real, too depressingly unchanging for a soap opera.

[Droitwich Lloyd]

I'll list the reasons, after i've picked the kids up from school, I haven't got time now.

[Droitwich Lloyd]

Benny Hawkins, because anyone that stupid, should be institutionalised.
Mary the punk, because not only was she, ungrateful, self obsessed and bitter, she was also unattractive to look at.
Jimmy Corkhill, awful, stupid, waste of time.
Roy Croper, although viewers think people are laughing at him, he actually, sneers at most people he comes into contact with, a truly, unlikeable character.
Curly Watts, because of his slouch, glasses and turkey neck
Raquel Watts, what a scheming character, dressed as an ageing Barbie.
Zack Dingle, a totally stupid, unlikeable man.
Lisa Dingle, attempts at pathos with this character, make me puke.
Big Mo Slater, because of her accent.
Bobby Grant, this man refused, out of stupidity, to see anyone's point of view, but his own, blinkered one.

[WalfordMafia]

Mandy Salter was much more unlikeable than Punk Mary (in a Stacey Slater type way), plus she was partly responsible for Roly's death, but I wouldn't put either of them anywhere the top of a list of 'worst' characters. The Feirrera Family, target of so much mud slinging [and rightly so] would carry the rosette and trophy for Worst Characters Ever, if they had any 'character' in the first place! I don't get why you don't like Big Mo "because of her accent", either.

[James from London]

I loved Mary Smith, the angry, alienated (and alienating) "wild child" and all her storylines concerning her attempts to care for baby Annie, turning to stripping and prostitution to make ends meet, her inability to see Andy's attempts to help her such as teaching her to read as anything other than sexual attraction, and finally her exit from the show: sticking two fingers up at the world and getting on a bus, taking Annie with her into an uncertain future.

She was EASTENDERS' answer to CATHY COME HOME - her story was all too real, bleak and tragic. Perhaps her character was almost too real, too depressingly unchanging for a soap opera.

I think I prefer your description, Toby, to the character I remember on screen! Actually, it would be interesting to see some of Mary's scenes again after all these years. When EASTENDERS started, I watched it through a dismissive "Well, it's not was real as BROOKSIDE" filter, which in retrospect was unfair to how ground breaking ENDERS was - or, at least, how ground breaking it was attemting to be. I think my difficulty with it in the early days was that it tried to depict a realistic situation like Mary's, but in a fundamentally unrealistic context: a Square where everybody knew each other and each other's business. So whereas in reality, a girl like Mary stranded with a kid in anonymous city would have no choice but to be totally isolated, in EASTENDERS, her isolation is more or less self inflicted: she is surrounded by a community that wants to help her, and she must keep rejecting them in order to remain an isolated character - a bit like Carrie Bradshaw refusing to settle down with John Corbett's character in SEX AND THE CITY because it would ruin the premise of her TV show! So there was something inherently contradictory about EASTENDERS' early attempts at social realism, but at least there were attempts, however crude or cack handed.


Benny Hawkins, because anyone that stupid, should be institutionalised.

I quite liked Benny. He was funny.


Jimmy Corkhill, awful, stupid, waste of time.

Jimmy was fine as light relief to his brother Billy, but when BROOKSIDE turned him into a main character, and some sort of symbolic everyman to boot, he became ridiculous and awful and completely unwatchable. He symbolised the worst of BROOKSIDE in the 90s: bombastic, self piteous, patronising and totally unconvincing. Possibly the most over rated soap character ever.


Roy Croper, although viewers think people are laughing at him, he actually, sneers at most people he comes into contact with, a truly, unlikeable character.

I love Roy. He's so funny and absolutely breaks my heart.


Curly Watts, because of his slouch, glasses and turkey neck

Boring character, useless actor. It's a testament to the great writing on CORRIE over the last few years that, in his last story line - his moral dilemma over Les Battersby's arrest - Curly finally became interesting, completely in spite of Kevin Kennedy's performance.


Raquel Watts, what a scheming character, dressed as an ageing Barbie.

Along with the MacDonalds, Raquel was about the only character who made 90s CORRIE bearable. She was lovely and funny - certainly lovelier and funnier than any of the po faced martyrs Sarah Lancashire has played since leaving THE STREET - and perhaps the last of a certain kind of STREET character. After she left, in came the snarling, pint-drinking Janice Battersby and Karen MacDonald - much harder female characters.


Bobby Grant, this man refused, out of stupidity, to see anyone's point of view, but his own, blinkered one.

God, Bobby would be in my Top 10 Favourite Soap Characters! In fact, he is probably my favourite male character of all. He was so real, so human - a flawed but lovely man, brilliantly, fearlessly portrayed by Ricky Tomlinson. In fact, I'll be glad when Tomlinson gets tired of playing loveable comedic roles, and gets back to playing gutsy, courageous parts like this.

My least favourites would include Jimmy Corkhill, the ridiculous Jackie Corkhill - a completely unworthy successor to Sheila Grant - and Claire Sweeney, the worst kind of soap/pop star/presenter/reality TV celebrity hybrid. Natalie Horrocks symbolised everything I disliked about the 90s CORRIE. A more unworthy Rovers land lady there never was. She had no sense of history or reality, no personality; she was just a hairdo in search of character. Plus almost all the old EASTENDERS characters still on the show who now seem watered down, bloated, empty versions of their former selves, such as Alfie, Little Mo and Sonia. For some reason, every time I see Sonia's sanctimonious little face, I want to head butt the TV.

[Droitwich Lloyd]

Raquel was awful, showing her true, shallow colours, toward the end of her time in Coronation St.
Bobby Grant was not loveable. He was Arthur Scargill, with even less personality.

[Droitwich Lloyd]

Infact, Bobby Grant was the most horrible character ever. He bullied his family, then starved them, because of HIS principles, he never supported any member of his family, except himself.

[James from London]

http://www.crackertv.co.uk/photogallery/SinceCracker/rickytomlinson.jpg

[Toby]

I think I prefer your description, Toby, to the character I remember on screen! Actually, it would be interesting to see some of Mary's scenes again after all these years. When EASTENDERS started, I watched it through a dismissive "Well, it's not was real as BROOKSIDE" filter, which in retrospect was unfair to how ground breaking ENDERS was - or, at least, how ground breaking it was attemting to be. I think my difficulty with it in the early days was that it tried to depict a realistic situation like Mary's, but in a fundamentally unrealistic context: a Square where everybody knew each other and each other's business. So whereas in reality, a girl like Mary stranded with a kid in anonymous city would have no choice but to be totally isolated, in EASTENDERS, her isolation is more or less self inflicted: she is surrounded by a community that wants to help her, and she must keep rejecting them in order to remain an isolated character - a bit like Carrie Bradshaw refusing to settle down with John Corbett's character in SEX AND THE CITY because it would ruin the premise of her TV show! So there was something inherently contradictory about EASTENDERS' early attempts at social realism, but at least there were attempts, however crude or cack handed.

The point to EASTENDERS in its early days, I think, was that it was a hybrid, simultaneously appropriating the sense of history and community spirit of CORONATION STREET and the social/political realism/awareness of BROOKSIDE. As "Walford Mafia" has argued previously, EASTENDERS was a dramatically rich mix. There was a definite aesthetic of urban neglect, personified by characters like Mary, but also a sense of "the mythological East End" that left room for more stylised, "Dickensian" comedic caricatures (Dot and Ethel?). Thus there would inevitably be some contrivances and contradictions in the series' attempt to integrate the two approaches into the storylines and characterisation.

Personally, I found Mary's constant rejection of all efforts to help her, the sense of self-destructiveness that pervaded her character and the fact that she was basically unlikeable as well as hopelessly inarticulate to be partly the point. It is *years* since I've seen Mary, so I'm probably not remembering her as clearly as I'd like to. But I do recall being impressed by the storylines where Andy teaches her to read and she is unable to comprehend that he actually wants to be her friend and not just use her for sex, and Sue Osman's concern for Annie, after the cot death of her own child.

[WalfordMafia]

Hang on a sec: The point of this thread is to name the 'worst characters' in terms of, well, them being truly bad[ly conceptual] soap characters, isn't it? If you want me to name unlikeable soap characters, then hold on two ticks and i'll just go fetch an entire character cast-list of Hollyoaks.

The Feirerra family, one and all, were just dire, because of the way they were (or weren't) written, not because they actually did anything all that bad. There was just no point to them, and especially for a soap like EastEnders, that's the very worst case scenario. At least purposefully unlikeable soap characters (Punk Mary, Mandy Salter, Stacey Slater) have just that, a purpose.

[Toby]

Hang on a sec: The point of this thread is to name the 'worst characters' in terms of, well, them being truly bad[ly conceptual] soap characters, isn't it? If you want me to name unlikeable soap characters, then hold on two ticks and i'll just go fetch an entire character cast-list of Hollyoaks.

The Feirerra family, one and all, were just dire, because of the way they were (or weren't) written, not because they actually did anything all that bad. There was just no point to them, and especially for a soap like EastEnders, that's the very worst case scenario. At least purposefully unlikeable soap characters (Punk Mary, Mandy Salter, Stacey Slater) have just that, a purpose.

Excellent points, W.M. I suppose we should clarify the criteria for disliking a given character, since there can be a number of different factors at work:

1. Reacting negatively to the "personality" of a character, as if the character was a real person e.g. Bobby Grant is a selfish, inflexible, blinkered bully or Mary Smith is a bitter, self-obsessed, ungrateful loser.

2. Reacting negatively to the character as a fictional construct e.g. behaviour and motivations that are unclear and inconsistent.

3. Reacting negatively to the character as an element within the context of the series e.g. the character does not fit in with the tone of the series and therefore violates its internal consistency/integrity.

1 is internal - the viewer believes in the character and reacts accordingly.
2 and 3 have more to do with criticisms of external factors such as acting, writing and direction.

Personally, I discount no. 1 as a genuinely valid reason. So long as a character has sufficient depth and their behaviour is consistent within the series, I can take them on their own terms, no matter how they conduct themselves.

I think it's one of the strengths of Mary in EASTENDERS that she wasn't meant to be likeable, and Bobby Grant's "bullying" (if that's what it really was) only serves to deepen the characterisation. I tend to like characters because of their shortcomings rather than liking them in spite of their less pleasant aspects.

[Droitwich Lloyd]

Following on the "best characters/storylines/exits" threads, who would you choose as your least favourite characters from a British soap and why?

That's what you asked Toby, "your least favourite characters, and why?"
That's what you got.

We are talking television shows here, aren't we? These 'characters' are just that, characters in a play, for you to "personally discount" my reasons for disliking 'characters', is the ONLY reason people watch TV serials!

[Droitwich Lloyd]

Ahh, I see now, this Thread, Toby, should have been called, now, let me get this right, 'Top ten worst(but i'll discount certain people's answers) "dramatic creations"'
That makes it much clearer, D'uh.

[WalfordMafia]

Ahh, I see now, this Thread, Toby, should have been called, now, let me get this right, 'Top ten worst(but i'll discount certain people's answers) "dramatic creations"'
That makes it much clearer, D'uh.

Dont throw out your toys, Lloyd. The point of the thread is to list the 'worst' soap characters. If you were going to name the 'best', you'd list the ones who worked the best as soap characters, wouldn't you. You wouldn't list the most likeable or most attractive, unless you were rather on the shallow side.

Had you gave an answer like James did for, say, Curly Watts, as to why he wasn't a good character, then fine. But you said he wore glasses and had a turkey neck. Does that make Dierdre Barlow worst soap character of all time?? And Big Mo "because of her accent" I still dont get. EastEnders is set in the East End. Mo speaks like the old EastEnd-ers do (incidentally, she sounds just like my old Aunt Lil, who lived, lives and will probably haunt the Borough for ever and a day). She isn't the greatest soap character, but she serves her purpose to be EastEnders resident "Lou Beale Award for Battleaxing" trustee quite well.

[Droitwich Lloyd]

I've lost the will to live, with this thread, so will concede defeat, my views on television aren't as high-brow as yours and Toby's and James, I unfortunately, don't have the ability to dissect characters, as you all do, i am humble in your presence (i've also got the worst hangover in living memory).