Kelvin Carpenter
Encyclopedia
Kelvin Carpenter is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Paul J. Medford
.
Kelvin was a bright spark and full of initiative. He opened several businesses in Albert Square
and even formed a band
. He was a bit of a heartbreaker in EastEnders early years, but he ended up having his heart broken in return, when his middle-aged girlfriend jilted him. Always a bit too intelligent for Walford
, Kelvin eventually left for university
and has since married a model wife and has become a song writer.
ian father, Tony
. Kelvin's parents' marriage had ended in separation, and he had opted to stay living with his father, whilst his sister Cassie lived away from Walford
with his mother Hannah. His family were reunited later that year when Hannah turned up on their doorstep with the news that her current boyfriend had been beating both her and Cassie. Hannah had always looked down on Tony's way of life and although they tried to make a go of things for a second time, they still ended up bickering regularly, so Kelvin was often forced to take on the role of mediator.
Kelvin spent most of his time hanging out with the other youngsters of Albert Square: Ian Beale
, Sharon Watts and Michelle Fowler
. Sharon and Michelle were both attracted to Kelvin and they spent most of 1985 fighting for his affections. Kelvin had flings with both of them, which led to more fighting between the pair, but in the end Kelvin decided to jilt them both in order to concentrate on his exams. Later on Kelvin and Ian competed with each other for the attentions of Mary Smith, who had briefly dropped her punk
image. However, she was interested in neither.
Later that year, Kelvin started a knitting
business with Ian and Lofty Holloway
, which was named 'Loftelian' (a portmanteau of the three owners' names). Despite a huge effort from all involved, the business was doomed from the start and didn't last long.
During the latter part of 1986, Kelvin attended college
and made some new friends, including Harry Reynolds and Tessa Parker - who he also dated. Both had radical political beliefs and their influence seemed to have an effect on the way Kelvin viewed life too. He began to move away from his old friends and none viewed the changes in him favourably. It took a telling off from his ex-girlfriend Michelle, to make him see the error of his ways. Soon after Kelvin was instrumental in starting a band with the other Walford youths, including Ian, Sharon, Simon Wicks
, Harry Reynolds and Eddie Hunter. Tessa wanted to join the band too, but was refused membership on the grounds that she was an awful musician - Kelvin's relationship with her ended soon after. The group named themselves The Banned and wrote a song entitled "Something Outta Nothing", but after a disastrous few gigs, they realised they were terrible and split up.
In 1987, Kelvin faced more family problems when his parents' ill-fated reunion finally resulted in divorce. In order to escape the continual rows at home, Kelvin began spending a lot of time with Carmel Roberts
and eventually the two began seeing each other, much to his parent's dismay. Carmel was a health visitor
who was considerably older than Kelvin (who had just turned 17). Kelvin later moved in with Carmel, however, their age difference soon began to take its toll on Carmel. She quickly grew tired of Kelvin's immature behaviour and ended up throwing her toyboy out, right after she'd publicly dumped him in The Vic. Kelvin then made a play for Ian's girlfriend, Tina Hopkins, but he didn't get very far.
With nothing left in Walford to hold him back, Kelvin decided to leave for Norwich
university
in September 1987, to take a course in computer studies. His friends threw a leaving party for him, but Kelvin decided to shun the party 'as he hated goodbyes'. He departed Walford without a farewell from anyone.
Kelvin has since been mentioned a few times on-screen. The first was when he and his father Tony had sent some flowers for Pete Beale
's funeral in 1993. The second was on 29 March 2007, when Ian Beale mentioned Kelvin in a conversation with half brother Ben. In 2010, Ian finds him on a social networking website and Kelvin tells Ian that he is now a songwriter with a model girlfriend, living in Shoreditch
. However, after failing to meet up with Ian, Kelvin admits that this is a lie.
and Julia Smith
. Kelvin was originally intended to be named Kevin, and his father Tony Carpenter
was originally named Alan. They were the first black characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before EastEnders aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at the forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their contacts to relay information about their origins and lifestyles and were then able to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically.
Kelvin's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story
(In this passage, Kelvin will be referred to as Kevin and his father as Alan).
The actor Paul Medford had been recommended for the role by four separate agencies. He was London born, and they deemed him good-looking, fashionable and street-credible, making him ideal for their vision of Kelvin. After a subsequent and successful reading with the actor Oscar James
(who played his father), Medford was cast in the role. James was physically much bigger than Medford, and Holland and Smith thought it was a good idea for Tony and Kelvin to be not only different in ages, but different physical types as well. Storywise it was felt it would be possible to build on this and also give them different attitudes and beliefs.
Kelvin became one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years. Several of his early storylines were actually intended for the character Mark Fowler
, but following the impromptu departure of David Scarboro
(the original Mark) his storylines were subsequently given to Kelvin, Michelle Fowler
and Ian Beale
. The character of Kelvin remained in the show for over two years, and was eventually written out when Paul Medford decided to follow his ambition of becoming a singer/dancer on stage in 1987.
In his final scene, Kelvin left the square without attending his leaving party. The real reason for this is because 'lot recordings' (scenes recorded on site in Albert Square) for each week's episodes normally occur two weeks before the studio recordings for the same episodes. When the leaving party was recorded in the studio, Paul Medford was already out of contract and had left the show.
Before he was written out of the serial in May 1987, actor Oscar James, who played Kelvin's father Tony, controversially criticised EastEnders and the BBC for not promoting their black characters. He commented, "The powers that be do not think I am interesting enough. Is it because I am a member of an ethnic minority? How often do you see [Kelvin's actor] Paul J. Medford publicised?...It's as though the BBC are playing us down. I can't believe the white majority of the public are against blacks being stars. They don't give a damn."
Conversely, in The Black and White Media Show Book, edited by John Twitchin of BBC TV's Continuing Education Department (published in 1988), the author praises EastEnders for portraying black people on mainstream television, and for giving them "respectable, fleshed-out parts which allow them to be the most difficult of things — 'normal people'." In a school-based study (1986) examining black representation on television from 1985 to 1986, a storyline featuring Kelvin Carpenter was used to assess how the character was perceived. The aim was to measure whether Kelvin was being portrayed as "normal" as opposed to a "trouble-maker", a category black people on television were typically labelled as prior to the 1980s. For the study, a storyline was used in which Kelvin began behaving like a "newly-converted revolutionary". Both groups, white students and black/Asian students, felt that Kelvin was not a trouble-maker, or menace, but was being portrayed as an eccentric, and both groups agreed that the Carpenter family were seen as having troubles as opposed to causing trouble, akin to the white families in the serial. However, the black/Asian group felt that the Carpenter family's problems were "less subtlety explored than those of their white counterparts, giving rise to possible racist misinterpretations."
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 J. Medford
Paul J. Medford
Paul J. Medford is a British actor and performer of Barbadian descent. He is best known for playing the role of Kelvin Carpenter in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from the show's inception in 1985 to 1987...
.
Kelvin was a bright spark and full of initiative. He opened several businesses 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...
and even formed a band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
. He was a bit of a heartbreaker in EastEnders early years, but he ended up having his heart broken in return, when his middle-aged girlfriend jilted him. Always a bit too intelligent for 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...
, Kelvin eventually left for university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
and has since married a model wife and has become a song writer.
Storylines
Kelvin lived on the Square with his 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...
ian father, Tony
Tony Carpenter
Tony Carpenter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Oscar James.Happy go lucky Tony tried to carve himself a successful business and steady home for his family, but nothing he did was ever good enough for his nagging wife.-Storylines:Trinidadian born Tony, married...
. Kelvin's parents' marriage had ended in separation, and he had opted to stay living with his father, whilst his sister Cassie lived away from 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...
with his mother Hannah. His family were reunited later that year when Hannah turned up on their doorstep with the news that her current boyfriend had been beating both her and Cassie. Hannah had always looked down on Tony's way of life and although they tried to make a go of things for a second time, they still ended up bickering regularly, so Kelvin was often forced to take on the role of mediator.
Kelvin spent most of his time hanging out with the other youngsters of Albert Square: Ian Beale
Ian Beale
Ian Albert Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985...
, Sharon Watts and Michelle Fowler
Michelle Fowler
Michelle Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actress Susan Tully.Although she was one of the brighter people in Walford, that didn't stop Michelle making some huge mistakes during her time in Albert Square...
. Sharon and Michelle were both attracted to Kelvin and they spent most of 1985 fighting for his affections. Kelvin had flings with both of them, which led to more fighting between the pair, but in the end Kelvin decided to jilt them both in order to concentrate on his exams. Later on Kelvin and Ian competed with each other for the attentions of Mary Smith, who had briefly dropped her punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
image. However, she was interested in neither.
Later that year, Kelvin started a knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
business with Ian and Lofty Holloway
Lofty Holloway
George "Lofty" Holloway is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tom Watt. Lofty is one of the serial's original characters, making his first appearance in the third episode, 26 February 1985....
, which was named 'Loftelian' (a portmanteau of the three owners' names). Despite a huge effort from all involved, the business was doomed from the start and didn't last long.
During the latter part of 1986, Kelvin attended college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
and made some new friends, including Harry Reynolds and Tessa Parker - who he also dated. Both had radical political beliefs and their influence seemed to have an effect on the way Kelvin viewed life too. He began to move away from his old friends and none viewed the changes in him favourably. It took a telling off from his ex-girlfriend Michelle, to make him see the error of his ways. Soon after Kelvin was instrumental in starting a band with the other Walford youths, including Ian, Sharon, Simon Wicks
Simon Wicks
Simon "Wicksy" Wicks is a fictional character from the British BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nick Berry between 1985 and 1990. Wicksy was introduced to take on some of the more adult storylines that had been scripted for another character, Mark Fowler; Mark's actor David Scarboro had left...
, Harry Reynolds and Eddie Hunter. Tessa wanted to join the band too, but was refused membership on the grounds that she was an awful musician - Kelvin's relationship with her ended soon after. The group named themselves The Banned and wrote a song entitled "Something Outta Nothing", but after a disastrous few gigs, they realised they were terrible and split up.
In 1987, Kelvin faced more family problems when his parents' ill-fated reunion finally resulted in divorce. In order to escape the continual rows at home, Kelvin began spending a lot of time with Carmel Roberts
Carmel Jackson
Carmel Jackson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Judith Jacob. Carmel, a Health Visitor, was introduced in a recurring, minor role in 1986. Producers saw potential in the character. Script writers were asked to develop more promienent storylines, and Carmel...
and eventually the two began seeing each other, much to his parent's dismay. Carmel was a health visitor
Health visitor
Health visitors are UK community health nurses who have undertaken further training to work as part of a primary health care team. As their name suggests, their role is to promote mental, physical and social well-being in the community by giving advice and support to families in all age groups...
who was considerably older than Kelvin (who had just turned 17). Kelvin later moved in with Carmel, however, their age difference soon began to take its toll on Carmel. She quickly grew tired of Kelvin's immature behaviour and ended up throwing her toyboy out, right after she'd publicly dumped him in The Vic. Kelvin then made a play for Ian's girlfriend, Tina Hopkins, but he didn't get very far.
With nothing left in Walford to hold him back, Kelvin decided to leave for 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...
university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in September 1987, to take a course in computer studies. His friends threw a leaving party for him, but Kelvin decided to shun the party 'as he hated goodbyes'. He departed Walford without a farewell from anyone.
Kelvin has since been mentioned a few times on-screen. The first was when he and his father Tony had sent some flowers for Pete Beale
Pete Beale
Peter "Pete" Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Peter Dean. He made his first appearance in the programme's first episode, on 19 February 1985. The character was created by Tony Holland, one of the creators of EasEnders; he was based on a member of...
's funeral in 1993. The second was on 29 March 2007, when Ian Beale mentioned Kelvin in a conversation with half brother Ben. In 2010, Ian finds him on a social networking website and Kelvin tells Ian that he is now a songwriter with a model girlfriend, living in Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
. However, after failing to meet up with Ian, Kelvin admits that this is a lie.
Character creation and development
Kelvin Carpenter was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony HollandTony Holland
Anthony John "Tony" Holland was an English television screenwriter best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Early career:...
and Julia Smith
Julia Smith
Julia Smith was an English television director and producer.- Early career :London-born Smith became involved in television production when she directed the series Suspense in 1962...
. Kelvin was originally intended to be named Kevin, and his father Tony Carpenter
Tony Carpenter
Tony Carpenter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Oscar James.Happy go lucky Tony tried to carve himself a successful business and steady home for his family, but nothing he did was ever good enough for his nagging wife.-Storylines:Trinidadian born Tony, married...
was originally named Alan. They were the first black characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before EastEnders aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at the forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their contacts to relay information about their origins and lifestyles and were then able to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically.
Kelvin's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story
EastEnders books
This is a list of books about or relating to the British soap opera EastEnders.-Non-fiction books:* EastEnders: The Inside Story* Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience* EastEnders Special...
(In this passage, Kelvin will be referred to as Kevin and his father as Alan).
- "Kevin wants to stay with his dad...How would Alan react to the discovery that Kevin's visiting his mother? How would Kevin react to his father trying to smuggle a woman for the night? And, how would dad react to son doing the same thing? What happens when they're competing for the same woman? As he wants to leave his mark - physically - on the walls of the building, so he wants to leave his mark on his son. Will Kevin take it, or leave it?" (page 58).
The actor Paul Medford had been recommended for the role by four separate agencies. He was London born, and they deemed him good-looking, fashionable and street-credible, making him ideal for their vision of Kelvin. After a subsequent and successful reading with the actor Oscar James
Oscar James
Oscar James is a Trinidadian actor, who is based in the United Kingdom. He has had a long and varied career, but is best known for appearing on British television, in particular the BBC soap opera EastEnders, where he played original character, Tony Carpenter, for over two years...
(who played his father), Medford was cast in the role. James was physically much bigger than Medford, and Holland and Smith thought it was a good idea for Tony and Kelvin to be not only different in ages, but different physical types as well. Storywise it was felt it would be possible to build on this and also give them different attitudes and beliefs.
Kelvin became one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years. Several of his early storylines were actually intended for the character Mark Fowler
Mark Fowler
Mark Albert Fowler is a fictional character from the popular British BBC soap opera EastEnders. Mark was an original regular character in the series starting February 1985 but became a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the role in April 1985. Scarboro made...
, but following the impromptu departure of David Scarboro
David Scarboro
David Timothy Scarboro was a British actor who was best known for portraying Mark Fowler in the popular British soap opera EastEnders.-Early career:...
(the original Mark) his storylines were subsequently given to Kelvin, Michelle Fowler
Michelle Fowler
Michelle Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actress Susan Tully.Although she was one of the brighter people in Walford, that didn't stop Michelle making some huge mistakes during her time in Albert Square...
and Ian Beale
Ian Beale
Ian Albert Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985...
. The character of Kelvin remained in the show for over two years, and was eventually written out when Paul Medford decided to follow his ambition of becoming a singer/dancer on stage in 1987.
In his final scene, Kelvin left the square without attending his leaving party. The real reason for this is because 'lot recordings' (scenes recorded on site in Albert Square) for each week's episodes normally occur two weeks before the studio recordings for the same episodes. When the leaving party was recorded in the studio, Paul Medford was already out of contract and had left the show.
Reception
Kelvin Carpenter has been described by author Hilary Kingsley as one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years. However, the way that EastEnders treated their black characters during the 1980s has been criticized by Robert Clyde Allen, author of the book To be Continued--: Soap Operas Around the World. He has commented that "none of the black families [in EastEnders] rivaled the Fowler/Beale [family's] position at the heart of the programme's structure, and black characters were pushed to the margins of the storylines." The author goes on to say that although the character of Kelvin Carpenter mixed with characters such as Ian, Sharon and Michelle, "his personal life got little attention and he disappeared from the programme while the other young characters [were] able to grow up in it."Before he was written out of the serial in May 1987, actor Oscar James, who played Kelvin's father Tony, controversially criticised EastEnders and the BBC for not promoting their black characters. He commented, "The powers that be do not think I am interesting enough. Is it because I am a member of an ethnic minority? How often do you see [Kelvin's actor] Paul J. Medford publicised?...It's as though the BBC are playing us down. I can't believe the white majority of the public are against blacks being stars. They don't give a damn."
Conversely, in The Black and White Media Show Book, edited by John Twitchin of BBC TV's Continuing Education Department (published in 1988), the author praises EastEnders for portraying black people on mainstream television, and for giving them "respectable, fleshed-out parts which allow them to be the most difficult of things — 'normal people'." In a school-based study (1986) examining black representation on television from 1985 to 1986, a storyline featuring Kelvin Carpenter was used to assess how the character was perceived. The aim was to measure whether Kelvin was being portrayed as "normal" as opposed to a "trouble-maker", a category black people on television were typically labelled as prior to the 1980s. For the study, a storyline was used in which Kelvin began behaving like a "newly-converted revolutionary". Both groups, white students and black/Asian students, felt that Kelvin was not a trouble-maker, or menace, but was being portrayed as an eccentric, and both groups agreed that the Carpenter family were seen as having troubles as opposed to causing trouble, akin to the white families in the serial. However, the black/Asian group felt that the Carpenter family's problems were "less subtlety explored than those of their white counterparts, giving rise to possible racist misinterpretations."