Linda La Hughes
Encyclopedia
Linda Lolita Lulu La Hughes (previously Linda Hughes, was John for two weeks) nicknamed "Olive" is a fictional character
who appeared in the 1999-2001 British
sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. She was played by comedian
and director
Kathy Burke
.
perm
, white glasses
and bright lycra clothes, appears to love herself and is oblivious to the fact that she is hideously ugly. This was explained in series 3, when Linda was diagnosed with "reversed body dismorphic disorder."
. Linda is excessively vain and conceited, and feebly attempts to pass her age off as something unbelievable, such as eighteen or twenty eight. She is also violent, mentally unstable
and will sleep with anything on legs. Linda is convinced any man who rejects her, due to her ugliness and vile personality, is gay
.
Despite the fact that few positive things can be said about Linda, it can be said that she was close to her mother. Her father, on the other hand, detests her, as does her sister Sharon Hughes (AKA Sugar Walls.) Her father has delivered the somewhat ridiculous story he cannot see her as he lives in an iron lung
, which is really a sideboard.
with her flatmate Tom Farrell
. Her neighbours are elderly ex-prostitute Beryl Merit and the gormless middle class
family Jez, Suze and baby Leigh Littlewood.
Linda was born in 1960 on a crate of John Player Specials in Romford
Market, thus her birth name, John. Her parents only realised she was a girl after the first two weeks. She had her first kiss at the age of eight, but with a horse named Samson - she said "I yawned; he licked!".
Raised on a run-down council estate (common stereotyping of lower class), Linda often indulges in bizarre stories of her childhood, which she believes was blissful, but actually suggest abuse
or criminal neglect
, such as how she lived in a kennel, slept on a doormat as a baby and how her aunt left her in a car boot for two weeks to go on holiday. Linda always thinks of these as positive experiences, however. Her mother (named Queenie in series two and renamed Dolly in series three), was close to Linda and often took her on "lovely" mother/daughter outings, such as taking a six year old Linda to see the film The Bitch
(a continuity error, since that film was released in 1979, when Linda would have been 18 or 19). Apparently, Mrs La Hughes was electrocuted by her own slender tone pads. Although in series two, Linda said she had collapsed in a paddling pool. Mr La Hughes did not think much of his daughter, who in return loves him deeply. Linda admitted that every time she returned home at night, her father would remark, "Oh, look, the cow's come home." He fakes being confined to an iron lung as an excuse to avoid Linda
Linda was educated at the Convent of Our Lady by the Zebra Crossing in East Ham
, but was expelled for importuning a priest. She later attended the Eva Braun
Borstal for Young Fallen Women in Bromley-by-Bow
. Linda loved her time at borstal apart from the toughest bailiff, Shirley Twitch who reappeared in Linda's life in series three.
; Billy was arrested shortly afterward. One of her old boyfriends apparently worked late nights at the slaughterhouse
, and preferred it when Linda didn't move during sex
, implying her boyfriend was a fan of necrophilic beastiality. Another old boyfriend was an arsonist
. She also dated the most dangerous man in Britain, Freddie Windrush (played by Phil Daniels
) and planned to flee to Spain with him, until he fell in love with Tom.
Linda shocked and appalled herself and Tom when, after a wild night's drinking, she dragged a female taxi
driver, named Maddy (played by Moya Brady
) into her bed and had wild lesbian sex with her, which Maddy thought was fantastic. Linda was horrified and went on a quest to prove she was not gay. After doing so and celebrating with another night's drinking, Linda awoke to find Maddy in her bed once more, having once again had sex with her.
Several other family members are referred to in the series but are never seen. Linda has various aunts and uncles, all of whom seem to be ether mentally disabled
or physically deformed
in one way or another; Auntie Ivy was a cyclops
, and Uncle Billy was a flasher
(though Linda denies that he was a flasher and claims he was just "absent-minded").
Linda's parents divorced when her and her sister were quite young as their mother had an affair with a spanish man and had a son named Carlos.
after she tried to seduce her husband Liam Gallagher
. Originally Linda despises her, however she becomes fond of her after she agrees to introduce Linda to Liam (whom she fancies). Linda then becomes too close after wanting to be her P.A. Linda then dreams that she becomes far more popular than her sister ever was, and even manages to seduce Dale Winton
. Linda awaken to find that Sugar has left. Her second appearance in series two shows her returning, stating that she has landed a starring role in a play called 'Toothache'. She hires Tom as her acting coach. Linda later kicks her out after Sugar disowned her and branded her an 'ugly pig person' to the media. She is never seen or mentioned again.
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...
who appeared in the 1999-2001 British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. She was played by comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
Kathy Burke
Kathy Burke
Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress, comedienne, playwright and theatre director. She is best known for her portrayals of Perry in the Harry Enfield film Kevin and Perry Go Large, and of Linda La Hughes in the British sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme...
.
Appearance
Linda, identifiable by her bright redRed hair
Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...
perm
Permanent wave
A permanent wave, commonly called a perm, involves the use of chemicals to break and reform the bonds of the hair. The hair is washed and wrapped on a perm rod and waving lotion is applied with a base. This solution creates a chemical reaction that softens the inner structure of the hair by...
, white glasses
Glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
and bright lycra clothes, appears to love herself and is oblivious to the fact that she is hideously ugly. This was explained in series 3, when Linda was diagnosed with "reversed body dismorphic disorder."
Personality
Linda is loudmouthed, lecherous and also bears a form of stupidity which borders upon mental retardationMental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
. Linda is excessively vain and conceited, and feebly attempts to pass her age off as something unbelievable, such as eighteen or twenty eight. She is also violent, mentally unstable
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
and will sleep with anything on legs. Linda is convinced any man who rejects her, due to her ugliness and vile personality, is gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
.
Despite the fact that few positive things can be said about Linda, it can be said that she was close to her mother. Her father, on the other hand, detests her, as does her sister Sharon Hughes (AKA Sugar Walls.) Her father has delivered the somewhat ridiculous story he cannot see her as he lives in an iron lung
Iron lung
A negative pressure ventilator is a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability....
, which is really a sideboard.
Background
Linda lives at 69a Paradise Passage, Kentish TownKentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
with her flatmate Tom Farrell
Tom Farrell (Gimme Gimme Gimme)
Thomas Thessolonius "Tom" Farrell, played by James Dreyfus, is the gay flat mate of Linda La Hughes in Gimme Gimme Gimme. Unemployed actor Tom Farrell has a vague ambition to become the British Tom Cruise, but his career is going nowhere, and his love life isn't too hot either.Tom is a constantly...
. Her neighbours are elderly ex-prostitute Beryl Merit and the gormless middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
family Jez, Suze and baby Leigh Littlewood.
Linda was born in 1960 on a crate of John Player Specials in Romford
Romford
Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
Market, thus her birth name, John. Her parents only realised she was a girl after the first two weeks. She had her first kiss at the age of eight, but with a horse named Samson - she said "I yawned; he licked!".
Raised on a run-down council estate (common stereotyping of lower class), Linda often indulges in bizarre stories of her childhood, which she believes was blissful, but actually suggest abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
or criminal neglect
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
, such as how she lived in a kennel, slept on a doormat as a baby and how her aunt left her in a car boot for two weeks to go on holiday. Linda always thinks of these as positive experiences, however. Her mother (named Queenie in series two and renamed Dolly in series three), was close to Linda and often took her on "lovely" mother/daughter outings, such as taking a six year old Linda to see the film The Bitch
The Bitch (film)
The Bitch is a British film released in 1979. It is a sequel to The Stud , and both films were based on novels by British author Jackie Collins. Like its predecessor, the film starred her sister, Joan Collins, as Fontaine Khaled.-Plot:...
(a continuity error, since that film was released in 1979, when Linda would have been 18 or 19). Apparently, Mrs La Hughes was electrocuted by her own slender tone pads. Although in series two, Linda said she had collapsed in a paddling pool. Mr La Hughes did not think much of his daughter, who in return loves him deeply. Linda admitted that every time she returned home at night, her father would remark, "Oh, look, the cow's come home." He fakes being confined to an iron lung as an excuse to avoid Linda
Linda was educated at the Convent of Our Lady by the Zebra Crossing in East Ham
East Ham
East Ham is a suburban district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Newham. It is a built-up district located 8 miles east-northeast of Charing Cross...
, but was expelled for importuning a priest. She later attended the Eva Braun
Eva Braun
Eva Anna Paula Hitler was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for less than 40 hours, his wife. Braun met Hitler in Munich, when she was 17 years old, while working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer and began seeing him often about two years later...
Borstal for Young Fallen Women in Bromley-by-Bow
Bromley-by-Bow
Bromley-by-Bow, historically and officially Bromley, is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is an inner-city district situated east north-east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
. Linda loved her time at borstal apart from the toughest bailiff, Shirley Twitch who reappeared in Linda's life in series three.
Relationships
Despite her hideous appearance, Linda has had several grotesque relationships during her life. Her first "date" was with Billy the caretaker at her borstalBorstal
A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court...
; Billy was arrested shortly afterward. One of her old boyfriends apparently worked late nights at the slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
, and preferred it when Linda didn't move during sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
, implying her boyfriend was a fan of necrophilic beastiality. Another old boyfriend was an arsonist
Pyromania
Pyromania in more extreme circumstances can be an impulse control disorder to deliberately start fires to relieve tension or for gratification or relief. The term pyromania comes from the Greek word πῦρ . Pyromania and pyromaniacs are distinct from arson, the pursuit of personal, monetary or...
. She also dated the most dangerous man in Britain, Freddie Windrush (played by Phil Daniels
Phil Daniels
Philip W. "Phil" Daniels is an English actor, most noted for film and television roles as "cockneys" such as Jimmy in Quadrophenia, Richards in Scum, Stewart in The Class of Miss MacMichael, Mark in Meantime, Kevin Wicks in EastEnders, DCS Frank Patterson in New Tricks and Edward Kitchener "Ted"...
) and planned to flee to Spain with him, until he fell in love with Tom.
Linda shocked and appalled herself and Tom when, after a wild night's drinking, she dragged a female taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
driver, named Maddy (played by Moya Brady
Moya Brady
Moya Brady is a British actress. Born in Manchester, Brady grew up in the seaside town of Blackpool with other actor classmates such as David Thewlis of Harry Potter fame. She has appeared in a wide variety of roles in film, television and the theatre, including a role as F.D.O. Roberta Cryer in...
) into her bed and had wild lesbian sex with her, which Maddy thought was fantastic. Linda was horrified and went on a quest to prove she was not gay. After doing so and celebrating with another night's drinking, Linda awoke to find Maddy in her bed once more, having once again had sex with her.
Family
She had a baby, Zippy, who was given up for adoption. She claims that she gave birth to Zippy at 15 However, this is a continuity error. Zippy says he is 28, and the show's episode was made in 2001, making Linda 40-41 at the time. This means that she actually had Zippy at age 12-13, which can't also be possible because in the episode "Millenium" she admits to Tom that she lost her virginity at the aged of 17. Zippy later found his birth mother in series 3. Linda may however have been confused during these revelations. While often beginning with an outrageous falsehood, she would usually clarify very quickly revealing the truth.Several other family members are referred to in the series but are never seen. Linda has various aunts and uncles, all of whom seem to be ether mentally disabled
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
or physically deformed
Deformity
A deformity, dysmorphism, or dysmorphic feature is a major difference in the shape of body part or organ compared to the average shape of that part.Deformity may arise from numerous causes:*A Genetic mutation*Damage to the fetus or uterus...
in one way or another; Auntie Ivy was a cyclops
Cyclops
A cyclops , in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead...
, and Uncle Billy was a flasher
Indecent exposure
Indecent exposure is the deliberate exposure in public or in view of the general public by a person of a portion or portions of his or her body, in circumstances where the exposure is contrary to local moral or other standards of appropriate behavior. Indecent exposure laws vary in different...
(though Linda denies that he was a flasher and claims he was just "absent-minded").
Linda's parents divorced when her and her sister were quite young as their mother had an affair with a spanish man and had a son named Carlos.
Sugar Walls
Sugar Walls (born Sharon Hughes), Linda's younger (and far more beautiful) sister, was not close to her family and left home at 17. She later became a page 3 model. This later led to her becoming a national celebrity. She first appeared in series one, when she arrives at Tom and Linda's flat, initially saying she is on the run from the press. She had really come because she had fallen out with her friend Patsy KensitPatsy Kensit
Patricia Jude Francis "Patsy" Kensit is an English actress, singer, model and former child star, known for her television and film appearances. Her films include Lethal Weapon 2 and she has been married to rock stars Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher, as well as herself fronting the band Eighth Wonder...
after she tried to seduce her husband Liam Gallagher
Liam Gallagher
William John Paul "Liam" Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, the former frontman of the English rock band Oasis and currently of the band Beady Eye. Gallagher's erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style, and abrasive attitude have been the subject of commentary in the press...
. Originally Linda despises her, however she becomes fond of her after she agrees to introduce Linda to Liam (whom she fancies). Linda then becomes too close after wanting to be her P.A. Linda then dreams that she becomes far more popular than her sister ever was, and even manages to seduce Dale Winton
Dale Winton
Dale Winton is an English radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life:Winton's father, Gary, was "domineering" and died when Winton was 13. Winton was brought up by his mother, actress Sheree Winton...
. Linda awaken to find that Sugar has left. Her second appearance in series two shows her returning, stating that she has landed a starring role in a play called 'Toothache'. She hires Tom as her acting coach. Linda later kicks her out after Sugar disowned her and branded her an 'ugly pig person' to the media. She is never seen or mentioned again.