Jules Tavernier (EastEnders)
Encyclopedia
Jules Tavernier is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Tommy Eytle
between 1990 and 1997. Jules was depicted as a flirtatious older gentleman. He was introduced in 1990 and remained in the show after the departures of all of his on-screen family. He was largely semi-regular during the latter part of his stint, and was not featured again after December 1997. Jules Tavernier appeared in more than eighty episodes over his seven year tenure.
, but before his arrival in England he had been living in Jamaica
. He came to England on holiday in 1968 and he stayed on to help look after his son's newborn child, so that his daughter-in-law could do her teacher training and then work part-time. His wife had died young, he'd never settled in Jamaica and so when his other grandchildren came along, he had a full-time job helping the family and remained in England.
Jules arrived in Albert Square
in July 1990 with the rest of the Tavernier family. He was an instant hit with the older ladies of Walford, and he regularly flirted with Walford stalwarts Ethel Skinner
and Dot Cotton. Jules was also a gambling man, and could often be seen playing cards with John Royle when he was visiting from Ireland
.
Jules was an easy-going, jovial person and his main purpose in his early years was to give support to his family and offer advice. Jules was so at home in Walford that he decided to stay behind when his son and daughter-in-law moved to Norwich
in 1992; his grandchildren, Clyde and Hattie, remained with him. Jules was an independent person, despite his age, however this changed for a period in August 1992, after he became the victim of a mugging from a couple of girls (one of the muggers was played by the singer Emma Bunton
). After taking his money one of the girls beat him over the head with a plank of wood. Jules was left shaken and ashamed by the ordeal. He eventually regained his health and confidence with the help of his friend, Dot Cotton, who nursed him better.
In 1993 Jules received an unannounced visit from Gidea Thompson, who was his granddaughter from an affair he'd had in his 20s. Although Jules hadn't known of Gidea's existence he soon bonded with his granddaughter, but was horrified when he found out that she and his grandson Clyde had embarked on a relationship (despite the fact that they were first cousins). Clyde ignored his grandfather's protests, however, and eventually moved back to Trinidad to be with Gidea.
Both Nellie Ellis
and Blossom Jackson
lived with him at different stages, but although they flirted with him their relationships remained strictly platonic. In latter years he sparked up a friendship with local barber
Felix Kawalski and the two would often be seen playing chess
in The Vic.
Although he never had an on-screen exit it is believed that Jules is residing in sheltered accommodation away from the square. His last appearance was in December 1997.
, who took over from Mike Gibbon
. Ferguson had previously been a producer on ITV
's The Bill
– a hard-hitting, gritty and successful police drama, which seemed to be challenging EastEnders in providing a realistic vision of modern life in London
. Due to his success on The Bill, Peter Cregeen
, the Head of Series at the BBC, poached Ferguson to become executive producer of EastEnders.
Following a relatively unsuccessful inclination towards comic storylines throughout 1989, Ferguson decided to take the soap in a new direction in 1990. Big changes were implemented both off-screen and on-screen. Ferguson altered the way the episodes were produced, changed the way the storylines were conceptualised and introduced a far greater amount of location work than had previously been seen. EastEnders scriptwriter Colin Brake
said that it was a challenging period, but "the results on-screen were a programme with a new sense of vitality, and a programme more in touch with the real world than it had been for a while".
As a consequence of these changes, a large number of characters were axed in early 1990 as the new production machine cleared way for a new direction and new characters. Among the new characters were the Jamaican Tavernier family, who collectively arrived on-screen in July 1990, composed of grandfather Jules (Tommy Eytle
), his son and daughter-in-law Celestine (Leroy Golding
) and Etta (Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence
), their eldest son Clyde
(Steven Woodcock
), and their twins Lloyd (Garey Bridges
) and Hattie
, played by Michelle Gayle
. Colin Brake described the Taverniers as the major new additions that year, and it heralded the first time that an entire family had joined the serial all at once. Their introduction was also described as a well-intentioned attempt to portray a wider range of black characters than had previously been achieved on the soap.
Author Hilary Kingsley described Jules as a character who "enjoys turning on the charm [...] and raising his hat to all the ladies with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. He's not a moaner and his old-world flirting makes a pleasant change." Stephen Bourne of The Independent
stated that Jules "found himself recognised everywhere as the wise senior citizen, always ready to offer sensible advice and often recalling his involvement in the 1937 oilfield strikes back home in Trinidad." Author Kate Lock suggested that Jules "revelled in his mildly eccentric reputation. He loved to talk about the old days in Trinidad and had always been a bit of a ladykiller [...] Even in his 70s, Jules was still chasing women." Tommy Eytle who played Jules was musician and his part in EastEnders occasionally gave him an opportunity to sing, usually in the soap's public house the Queen Vic.
Jules appeared less frequently during the latter part of his time in EastEnders because of Eytle's ill health. He was never officially written out of the serial, but was not featured again after December 1997. A decade later in 2007, Eytle died.
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 Tommy Eytle
Tommy Eytle
Tommy Daniel Hicks Eytle was a Guyanese musician and actor. Although born in Guyana, Eylte's career was based in the United Kingdom, where he lived after emigrating in 1951....
between 1990 and 1997. Jules was depicted as a flirtatious older gentleman. He was introduced in 1990 and remained in the show after the departures of all of his on-screen family. He was largely semi-regular during the latter part of his stint, and was not featured again after December 1997. Jules Tavernier appeared in more than eighty episodes over his seven year tenure.
Storylines
Jules was originally from TrinidadTrinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, but before his arrival in England he had been living in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. He came to England on holiday in 1968 and he stayed on to help look after his son's newborn child, so that his daughter-in-law could do her teacher training and then work part-time. His wife had died young, he'd never settled in Jamaica and so when his other grandchildren came along, he had a full-time job helping the family and remained in England.
Jules arrived in Albert Square
Albert 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 July 1990 with the rest of the Tavernier family. He was an instant hit with the older ladies of Walford, and he regularly flirted with Walford stalwarts Ethel Skinner
Ethel Skinner
Ethel May Skinner is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Gretchen Franklin. Ethel Skinner also features in a 1988 EastEnders special, entitled Civvy Street, set on Albert Square during the Second World War, where the character is played by Alison...
and Dot Cotton. Jules was also a gambling man, and could often be seen playing cards with John Royle when he was visiting from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Jules was an easy-going, jovial person and his main purpose in his early years was to give support to his family and offer advice. Jules was so at home in Walford that he decided to stay behind when his son and daughter-in-law moved to Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
in 1992; his grandchildren, Clyde and Hattie, remained with him. Jules was an independent person, despite his age, however this changed for a period in August 1992, after he became the victim of a mugging from a couple of girls (one of the muggers was played by the singer Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton
Emma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...
). After taking his money one of the girls beat him over the head with a plank of wood. Jules was left shaken and ashamed by the ordeal. He eventually regained his health and confidence with the help of his friend, Dot Cotton, who nursed him better.
In 1993 Jules received an unannounced visit from Gidea Thompson, who was his granddaughter from an affair he'd had in his 20s. Although Jules hadn't known of Gidea's existence he soon bonded with his granddaughter, but was horrified when he found out that she and his grandson Clyde had embarked on a relationship (despite the fact that they were first cousins). Clyde ignored his grandfather's protests, however, and eventually moved back to Trinidad to be with Gidea.
Both 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...
and Blossom Jackson
Blossom Jackson
Blossom Jackson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Mona Hammond. The character originally appeared from 1994 to 1997. Hammond was installed as a matriarchal figure of the Jackson clan but quit the role in 1997, reportedly because she was suffering from nervous...
lived with him at different stages, but although they flirted with him their relationships remained strictly platonic. In latter years he sparked up a friendship with local barber
Barber
A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
Felix Kawalski and the two would often be seen playing chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
in The Vic.
Although he never had an on-screen exit it is believed that Jules is residing in sheltered accommodation away from the square. His last appearance was in December 1997.
Creation and development
In the latter part of 1989 EastEnders acquired a new executive producer named Michael FergusonMichael Ferguson (director)
Michael Ferguson is a British script writer, television director and television producer. Ferguson has been described as a “long term champion of realistic popular drama”. Ferguson was executive producer of the BBC soap opera, EastEnders between 1989 and 1991...
, who took over from Mike Gibbon
Mike Gibbon
John Michael "Mike" Gibbon is an English television producer and director. Gibbon married Moya McCarthy in July 1976 and they have a daughter, Sophie....
. Ferguson had previously been a producer on 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...
's The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
– a hard-hitting, gritty and successful police drama, which seemed to be challenging EastEnders in providing a realistic vision of modern life in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Due to his success on The Bill, Peter Cregeen
Peter Cregeen
Peter Cregeen is a British television director, producer and executive. He is possibly best known for being the original director of ITV's successful police drama, The Bill, and his substantial contribution to the serial thereafter...
, the Head of Series at the BBC, poached Ferguson to become executive producer of EastEnders.
Following a relatively unsuccessful inclination towards comic storylines throughout 1989, Ferguson decided to take the soap in a new direction in 1990. Big changes were implemented both off-screen and on-screen. Ferguson altered the way the episodes were produced, changed the way the storylines were conceptualised and introduced a far greater amount of location work than had previously been seen. EastEnders scriptwriter Colin Brake
Colin Brake
Colin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who...
said that it was a challenging period, but "the results on-screen were a programme with a new sense of vitality, and a programme more in touch with the real world than it had been for a while".
As a consequence of these changes, a large number of characters were axed in early 1990 as the new production machine cleared way for a new direction and new characters. Among the new characters were the Jamaican Tavernier family, who collectively arrived on-screen in July 1990, composed of grandfather Jules (Tommy Eytle
Tommy Eytle
Tommy Daniel Hicks Eytle was a Guyanese musician and actor. Although born in Guyana, Eylte's career was based in the United Kingdom, where he lived after emigrating in 1951....
), his son and daughter-in-law Celestine (Leroy Golding
Leroy Golding
Leroy Golding is a British actor, most famous for playing Celestine Tavernier in the BBC soap opera EastEnders; a role that he played from 1990 to 1992, returning briefly in 1993....
) and Etta (Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence
Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence
Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence is a British former actress, most famous for playing the role of Etta Tavernier in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She no longer acts and as of 2008 works in criminal law.-Career:...
), their eldest son Clyde
Clyde Tavernier
Clyde Tavernier is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Steven Woodcock. Introduced in the summer of 1990, Clyde was featured in various prominent storylines including an inter-racial relationship with Michelle Fowler, and being framed for the murder of publican Eddie...
(Steven Woodcock
Steven Woodcock
Steven Woodcock is a British actor, most famous for his role as Clyde Tavernier in the BBC soap opera EastEnders; a role that he played from July 1990 to July 1993....
), and their twins Lloyd (Garey Bridges
Garey Bridges
Garey Bridges is a British actor, best known for playing the role of Lloyd Tavernier in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Career:...
) and Hattie
Hattie Tavernier
Hattie Tavernier is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michelle Gayle between 1990 and 1993. Hattie and her family were introduced in July 1990 by producer Michael Ferguson. The Taverniers were the first collective black family to join the soap at the same time...
, played by Michelle Gayle
Michelle Gayle
Michelle Patricia Gayle is a British recording artist, actress and author. Gayle had success as a Soul and R&B singer in the 1990s. She achieved seven Top 40 singles in the UK Singles Chart, her two biggest hits to date being "Sweetness" and "Do You Know"...
. Colin Brake described the Taverniers as the major new additions that year, and it heralded the first time that an entire family had joined the serial all at once. Their introduction was also described as a well-intentioned attempt to portray a wider range of black characters than had previously been achieved on the soap.
Author Hilary Kingsley described Jules as a character who "enjoys turning on the charm [...] and raising his hat to all the ladies with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. He's not a moaner and his old-world flirting makes a pleasant change." Stephen Bourne of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
stated that Jules "found himself recognised everywhere as the wise senior citizen, always ready to offer sensible advice and often recalling his involvement in the 1937 oilfield strikes back home in Trinidad." Author Kate Lock suggested that Jules "revelled in his mildly eccentric reputation. He loved to talk about the old days in Trinidad and had always been a bit of a ladykiller [...] Even in his 70s, Jules was still chasing women." Tommy Eytle who played Jules was musician and his part in EastEnders occasionally gave him an opportunity to sing, usually in the soap's public house the Queen Vic.
Jules appeared less frequently during the latter part of his time in EastEnders because of Eytle's ill health. He was never officially written out of the serial, but was not featured again after December 1997. A decade later in 2007, Eytle died.