Joe Wicks
Encyclopedia
Joe Wicks is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Paul Nicholls. He appeared on screen between 25 March 1996 and 14 November 1997. EastEnders was praised for the character's portrayal of schizophrenia
.
from Bolton
in 1996, looking for his father, David Wicks
, following the death of his sister Karen. At first, David rejects his son, not wanting him back in his life, and sends him back. However, after Joe runs away again and turns up at David's, he becomes more receptive to having Joe in his life. Eventually Joe and his mother Lorraine
move to London and Joe moves in with David. Things are OK for a while but Karen's death has seriously affected Joe. He blames himself because the day Karen died, they had had an argument over who would sit in the front seat of the car. Joe won and Karen was in the back when a lorry crashed into the car. Karen was horrifically injured and died whilst Joe was barely injured at all. This leads to Joe developing schizophrenia
and exhibiting increasingly strange behaviour. Whilst suffering from schizophrenia, Joe attempts suicide
, at one point hides Nellie Ellis
's dead cat Mandoo in a box in his bedroom and shocks his father David when he covers his room with old newspaper articles relating to aliens
.
While in Walford
, Joe gets engaged to Sarah Hills
, but has a one night stand with his second cousin Mary Flaherty
and realises he is too young to get married, so calls off the engagement. He and his mother, Lorraine, leave in 1997, returning to Bolton and he reportedly reconciles with Sarah many years later.
, which featured violent and dramatic incidents involving people with the illness, but only focussed on the medical side. Aldwinkle researched the illness and says he was shocked to discover that it affects one in 100 people, but it was rarely spoken about. He said: "Because it has a continuing storyline, EastEnders was able to look at the effect that schizophrenia has on a family and on individual relationships. I wanted to humanise it and look at the emotional impact it has on people." He said he hoped that the storyline would be helpful, saying "It seems to me that mental illness is one of the last subjects that you can still make jokes about without being labelled politically incorrect, and that seems wrong. If I get just one letter from one person saying that the character of Joe Wicks has helped to change their life for the better, then I will be pleased."
EastEnders worked closely with experts from the National Schizophrenia Fellowship to make the plot as accurate as possible. Gary Hogman of the fellowship said "It was the largest ever schizophrenia awareness initiative, reaching an audience of 10 million people three times a week. People could watch Joe going through the motions. We showed things were not so bad and how you could get help. There is so much misinformation about schizophrenia with the media focusing on extreme cases. And Joe was a handsome young man, not a spotty loner. He showed that schizophrenia can happen to anyone and made it easier for people to talk about it."
The National Schizophrenia Fellowship contacted mental health organisations in other countries to brief them on how they could use the storyline to raise awareness.
, criticised TV and films for portraying schizophrenia patients as a stereotype of a person who is in a hopeless situation, but said EastEnders "broke the mould", saying "It was an excellent storyline, and, importantly for us, was very well-handled."
The storyline prompted thousands of calls from sufferers and their families to the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, who said that the story broke society's taboo on talking about the illness and praised the sensitive way in which the illness was portrayed. The fellowship said the story did more to break the stigma attached to schizophrenia than any number of worthy media appeals. The fellowship's chief executive Bharat Mehta, said that EastEnders helped to destroy the myths that schizophrenia meant that a person had a split personality and that the illness was likely to make them violent.
Matthew Bayliss of The Guardian
said that Joe's schizophrenia earnt EastEnders much acclaim because he was David's son and Pat's grandson: "His illness affected people we knew and cared about, so its key scenes were charged with emotion." Nicholls' role as Joe saw him nominated 'Most Popular Newcomer' in the 1996 National Television Awards
, and 'Most Popular Actor' the following year.
The character's exit from the soap was viewed by 22 million people.
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 Paul Nicholls. He appeared on screen between 25 March 1996 and 14 November 1997. EastEnders was praised for the character's portrayal of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
.
Storylines
Joe arrives 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...
from Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
in 1996, looking for his father, David Wicks
David Wicks
David Wicks is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michael French. He originally appeared between 1993 to 1996...
, following the death of his sister Karen. At first, David rejects his son, not wanting him back in his life, and sends him back. However, after Joe runs away again and turns up at David's, he becomes more receptive to having Joe in his life. Eventually Joe and his mother Lorraine
Lorraine Wicks
Lorraine Wicks is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jacqueline Leonard between 1996 and 1997.-Storylines:...
move to London and Joe moves in with David. Things are OK for a while but Karen's death has seriously affected Joe. He blames himself because the day Karen died, they had had an argument over who would sit in the front seat of the car. Joe won and Karen was in the back when a lorry crashed into the car. Karen was horrifically injured and died whilst Joe was barely injured at all. This leads to Joe developing schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
and exhibiting increasingly strange behaviour. Whilst suffering from schizophrenia, Joe attempts suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, at one point hides Nellie Ellis
Nellie Ellis
Nellie Ellis is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Elizabeth Kelly. Nellie was introduced as the interfering relative of Pauline Fowler in 1993 and appeared regularly until 1998...
's dead cat Mandoo in a box in his bedroom and shocks his father David when he covers his room with old newspaper articles relating to aliens
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
.
While in 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...
, Joe gets engaged to Sarah Hills
Sarah Hills
Sarah Hills is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Daniela Denby-Ashe.-Storylines:Sarah was rather troublesome when she arrived on Albert Square, shoplifting from various market stalls. This was noticed by Alistair Matthews, a shop manager and religious cult leader...
, but has a one night stand with his second cousin Mary Flaherty
Mary Flaherty (EastEnders)
Mary Flaherty is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Melanie Clark Pullen.Mary is the granddaughter of Maggie Flaherty, Pauline Fowler's long-lost sister. Her parents are Conor and Geraldine Flaherty...
and realises he is too young to get married, so calls off the engagement. He and his mother, Lorraine, leave in 1997, returning to Bolton and he reportedly reconciles with Sarah many years later.
Creation and development
EastEnders story editor, Ian Aldwinkle, decided to introduce a character with schizophrenia after working on the drama series CasualtyCasualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
, which featured violent and dramatic incidents involving people with the illness, but only focussed on the medical side. Aldwinkle researched the illness and says he was shocked to discover that it affects one in 100 people, but it was rarely spoken about. He said: "Because it has a continuing storyline, EastEnders was able to look at the effect that schizophrenia has on a family and on individual relationships. I wanted to humanise it and look at the emotional impact it has on people." He said he hoped that the storyline would be helpful, saying "It seems to me that mental illness is one of the last subjects that you can still make jokes about without being labelled politically incorrect, and that seems wrong. If I get just one letter from one person saying that the character of Joe Wicks has helped to change their life for the better, then I will be pleased."
EastEnders worked closely with experts from the National Schizophrenia Fellowship to make the plot as accurate as possible. Gary Hogman of the fellowship said "It was the largest ever schizophrenia awareness initiative, reaching an audience of 10 million people three times a week. People could watch Joe going through the motions. We showed things were not so bad and how you could get help. There is so much misinformation about schizophrenia with the media focusing on extreme cases. And Joe was a handsome young man, not a spotty loner. He showed that schizophrenia can happen to anyone and made it easier for people to talk about it."
The National Schizophrenia Fellowship contacted mental health organisations in other countries to brief them on how they could use the storyline to raise awareness.
Reception
Andy Bell, of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental HealthSainsbury Centre for Mental Health
The Centre for Mental Health is a UK charity that aims to help to create a society in which people with mental health problems enjoy equal chances in life to those without...
, criticised TV and films for portraying schizophrenia patients as a stereotype of a person who is in a hopeless situation, but said EastEnders "broke the mould", saying "It was an excellent storyline, and, importantly for us, was very well-handled."
The storyline prompted thousands of calls from sufferers and their families to the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, who said that the story broke society's taboo on talking about the illness and praised the sensitive way in which the illness was portrayed. The fellowship said the story did more to break the stigma attached to schizophrenia than any number of worthy media appeals. The fellowship's chief executive Bharat Mehta, said that EastEnders helped to destroy the myths that schizophrenia meant that a person had a split personality and that the illness was likely to make them violent.
Matthew Bayliss of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
said that Joe's schizophrenia earnt EastEnders much acclaim because he was David's son and Pat's grandson: "His illness affected people we knew and cared about, so its key scenes were charged with emotion." Nicholls' role as Joe saw him nominated 'Most Popular Newcomer' in the 1996 National Television Awards
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...
, and 'Most Popular Actor' the following year.
The character's exit from the soap was viewed by 22 million people.