Mo Butcher
Encyclopedia
Maureen "Mo" Butcher is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Edna Doré
between 1988 and 1990. She was introduced as the matriarch figure of the Butcher family, Frank Butcher
's elderly mother. She was portrayed as a battle-axe, tough and interfering. Her most notable storyline aired in 1990, when the character was used to portray descent into Alzheimer's disease
. Doré opted to leave the serial that same year; Mo was written out of the soap making her last appearance in November. Mo was killed-off in 1992, but her death was not screened.
. During her teenage years she marries Chike Butcher who works for London Transport
. Chike gets promoted to transport inspector at the age of forty-five, and Mo feels she has achieved status. They have two children, Frank and Joan. Following Chike's death, Mo never remarries; she busies herself with caring for Frank's children, particularly when their mother June dies in 1987.
Mo moves to Albert Square
in September 1988 to be near Frank and his family. She disapproves of the way Frank is raising his teenage children Ricky
and Diane
and immediately clashes with his fiancée Pat Wicks
, bringing up her past reputation as a prostitute and threatening to put a halt to their impending marriage. During her time in Walford
Mo has an array of jobs; she first works in the kitchens of The Queen Victoria
, then on Arthur Fowler
's fruit and veg stall and then in Ali Osman
's café. However all her jobs come to an end due to her interference, causing her employers no end of grief.
Fiercely loyal to her family, Mo sticks by her son through his financial woes and tries her best to help him out by offering Frank her late husband Chike's life insurance money. She is shown to be extremely fond of her favourite grandchild Janine and takes a hand in persuading Frank to bring her to Walford to live with him in 1989 (Janine had previously been living with Frank's eldest daughter Clare outside Walford). Despite being protective and doting on her family, Mo is not blinkered to their faults, even in a rare moment supporting Pat in her decision to put Janine in therapy when her behaviour becomes out of control. Mo eventually warms to Pat, seeing that Frank does love her, and arranges for them to be married in great East End style, complete with a horse and carriage, Pearly Kings, a street party and jellied eels
.
Her busybody attitude results in few friendships in Walford for Mo, but she becomes close to Marge Green
, despite belittling her. Together they participate in the Walford Brownies
, but Mo (a Brown Owl) is sacked for lying about her age. She also takes on the local council over the proposed closure of the community centre
.
In 1990, she became increasingly forgetful, and was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
after flooding the B&B and setting fire to the house. Frank felt unable to look after her, and sent her to live with his sister Joan, who looked after Mo in Colchester
until she died on New Year's Eve 1992.
After Frank died in 2008, his solicitor read the will in the Vic and presented Janine
with Mo's diary from 1990, which was left to her as per Frank's instructions.
(The Vic) public house
, had been inhabited by the Watts family; however, actors Leslie Grantham
and Anita Dobson
who played landlords Den
and Angie Watts
resigned in 1988, meaning the soap's bosses had to find a new family to inhabit the Vic. Pat Wicks
(Pam St Clement) and her boyfriend Frank Butcher
(Mike Reid
) were instilled as the new landlords, and along with Frank came his family, including his mother Mo (Edna Doré), who moved to Walford
in September.
Mo was portrayed as a battle-axe. Author Hilary Kingsley has described Mo as a "tough, interfering busybody with a will of iron and a face of stone [...] To her grandchildren she was always indulgent, but to Frank she was always the boss, a woman with a whim or iron." Kingsley surmised that "only slowly did Walford begin to see a softer side to hard bitten old Mo". Kingsley described Mo as a woman who sought status, suggesting that she wished to be "Queen Bee" when she moved to Walford and regarded Frank's new wife Pat as "nothing more than a pushy interloper". Initial storylines centred upon clashes between Pat and Mo, with Frank trying to find a compromise between the bickering women in his life. Kingsley has commented that "gradually some sort of compromise was worked out and slowly Mo became more human."
In 1990, a topical storyline was aired in which Mo was given Alzheimer's disease
. During the year, Mo was shown to grow increasingly more forgetful, and after tests, Frank was informed that Mo was suffering with dementia. The storyline was scripted to show the effects on a family when a parent/loved one suffers from Alzheimer's. By November that year, Mo was in advanced stages of mental deterioration. It was at this stage that the character was written out of EastEnders, Edna Doré having decided to end her contract. On-screen, Mo was sent to live with her daughter in Colchester, having convinced herself that Frank wanted to kill her. Writer Colin Brake
has suggested that the storyline had to be curtailed earlier than they would have liked due to Doré's desire to leave.
Commenting on her time in the soap and the reasons for her departure in 1999, Doré said, "I shall always be grateful to EastEnders. It gave me recognition. It was a marvellous opportunity to be known everywhere, although it totally changes your life. For a while I couldn't even go shopping without being stopped. But compared with the theatre or film it was lacking in job satisfaction because it was so quick. I did it for a couple of years. I didn't want to stay so long that I wouldn't be considered for other parts."
Mo was killed off-screen in 1992, succumbing to Alzheimer's; her death was confirmed on-screen in the New Year's Eve episode of 1992. Doré was at a New Year's Eve party when she discovered her character's fate. She commented in 2001, "I was at a New Year's Eve party when someone came up to me and said, 'Have you seen, you've been killed off?' And I heaved a sigh of relief and had another drink. Still I can't complain. I had a good time at EastEnders and the one advantage of having been in a soap is that I get far better paid for my roles now."
. Former executive producer of EastEnders, Michael Ferguson
, has suggested that Mo suffering from Alzheimer's in 1990 gave people permission to talk about an illness "that had been almost too distressing to discuss in public before." He alleged that viewers informed him that EastEnders had given them a shorthand "like Mo" to discuss Alzheimer's.
According to writer Colin Brake, the storyline involving Mo and the unruly Brownies was intended to be fun, but references to Brownies behaving badly caused great offence to the Brownie movement, and an official complaint was made and upheld. The broadcasting commission said the EastEnders Brownie episodes "came near to parody," were unfair to the Brownies and harmed the Girl Guides
' image. The BBC had to make a public apology for the misinterpretation of the movement. Brake has suggested that the mishap was a "salutary lesson to those [...] in the script department to be very vigilant in ensuring, as far as possible, that no group or individual was offended by an unintentional slight in a script."
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 Edna Doré
Edna Doré
Edna Doré is a British actress. Doré is one of Britain's best known senior citizen actresses. She is known for her bit-part roles in situation comedies and for playing the character of Mo Butcher in the BBC soap opera EastEnders .- Career :She began her career as a chorus girl in ENSA, then spent...
between 1988 and 1990. She was introduced as the matriarch figure of the Butcher family, Frank Butcher
Frank Butcher
Francis Aloysius "Frank" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Mike Reid. Frank made his first appearance on-screen as a guest character in 1987 but, due to a positive viewer reception, he was reintroduced in 1988 as a regular. Reid took a long...
's elderly mother. She was portrayed as a battle-axe, tough and interfering. Her most notable storyline aired in 1990, when the character was used to portray descent into Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. Doré opted to leave the serial that same year; Mo was written out of the soap making her last appearance in November. Mo was killed-off in 1992, but her death was not screened.
Storylines
Mo is born in WalthamstowWalthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
. During her teenage years she marries Chike Butcher who works for London Transport
London Transport
London Transport could refer to:*London Transport Transport authorities that operated services under the brand:*London Passenger Transport Board *London Transport Executive *London Transport Board...
. Chike gets promoted to transport inspector at the age of forty-five, and Mo feels she has achieved status. They have two children, Frank and Joan. Following Chike's death, Mo never remarries; she busies herself with caring for Frank's children, particularly when their mother June dies in 1987.
Mo moves to 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 September 1988 to be near Frank and his family. She disapproves of the way Frank is raising his teenage children Ricky
Ricky Butcher
Richard Francis "Ricky" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sid Owen. Introduced as a school boy in 1988, Ricky is one of the longest-running, male protagonists to feature in EastEnders. Owen originally left the role in 2000 to pursue a music career...
and Diane
Diane Butcher
Diane Maureen Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sophie Lawrence. Diane appeared as a regular character between 1988 and 1991, when Lawrence decided to leave. The character made several brief returns in 1993, 1994, and 1997...
and immediately clashes with his fiancée Pat Wicks
Pat Evans
Patricia Louise "Pat" Evans is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She has been played by Pam St. Clement since 12 June 1986, just over a year after the show first aired...
, bringing up her past reputation as a prostitute and threatening to put a halt to their impending marriage. During her time 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...
Mo has an array of jobs; she first works in the kitchens of The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria is a fictional Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.-Appearance and development:...
, then on Arthur Fowler
Arthur Fowler
Arthur George Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Bill Treacher.The father of the Fowler family, Arthur was essentially a good man, but he made some foolish choices and he always ended up paying dearly for them, also being bossed to the brink of insanity by...
's fruit and veg stall and then in Ali Osman
Ali Osman
Ali Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nejdet Salih. He was a member of the original EastEnders cast, appearing in the first episode on 19 February 1985. He remained with the show for nearly five years afterwards, making his final appearance on 10 October...
's café. However all her jobs come to an end due to her interference, causing her employers no end of grief.
Fiercely loyal to her family, Mo sticks by her son through his financial woes and tries her best to help him out by offering Frank her late husband Chike's life insurance money. She is shown to be extremely fond of her favourite grandchild Janine and takes a hand in persuading Frank to bring her to Walford to live with him in 1989 (Janine had previously been living with Frank's eldest daughter Clare outside Walford). Despite being protective and doting on her family, Mo is not blinkered to their faults, even in a rare moment supporting Pat in her decision to put Janine in therapy when her behaviour becomes out of control. Mo eventually warms to Pat, seeing that Frank does love her, and arranges for them to be married in great East End style, complete with a horse and carriage, Pearly Kings, a street party and jellied eels
Jellied eels
Jellied eels is a traditional English dish that originated in the 18th century, primarily in London's East End. The dish consists of chopped eels boiled in a spiced stock that is allowed to cool and set, forming a jelly...
.
Her busybody attitude results in few friendships in Walford for Mo, but she becomes close to Marge Green
Marge Green
Marjorie "Marge" Green is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Pat Coombs. Introduced in 1989, elderly Marge was scripted as comical and timid. The character was one of many to be axed in 1990 when the show changed Executive Producer.-Storylines:Marge first...
, despite belittling her. Together they participate in the Walford Brownies
Brownies (Girl Guides)
A Brownie is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations for girls from their seventh birthday to their tenth birthday. Exact age limits are slightly different in each organisation.-History:...
, but Mo (a Brown Owl) is sacked for lying about her age. She also takes on the local council over the proposed closure of the community centre
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
.
In 1990, she became increasingly forgetful, and was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
after flooding the B&B and setting fire to the house. Frank felt unable to look after her, and sent her to live with his sister Joan, who looked after Mo in Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
until she died on New Year's Eve 1992.
After Frank died in 2008, his solicitor read the will in the Vic and presented Janine
Janine Evans
Janine Butcher is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, currently portrayed by Charlie Brooks. Rebecca Michael originally portrayed the character from 1989 until 1993, when the role was given to Alexia Demetriou for three years. Brooks took on the role in 1999...
with Mo's diary from 1990, which was left to her as per Frank's instructions.
Creation and development
1988 was a year of change on-screen in EastEnders. Since the show's inception in 1985 and up until 1988, one of the soap's main focal points, The Queen VictoriaThe Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria is a fictional Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.-Appearance and development:...
(The Vic) public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, had been inhabited by the Watts family; however, actors Leslie Grantham
Leslie Grantham
Leslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders. He is also a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a German taxi driver, and he generated significant press coverage as the result of an online sex scandal...
and Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson is an English television actress and singer. She gained her highest profile while playing Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
who played landlords Den
Den Watts
Dennis Alan "Den" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actor Leslie Grantham. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den"....
and Angie Watts
Angie Watts
Angela "Angie" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anita Dobson from the first episode of the show until 1988 when the actress decided to quit and the character was written out....
resigned in 1988, meaning the soap's bosses had to find a new family to inhabit the Vic. Pat Wicks
Pat Evans
Patricia Louise "Pat" Evans is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She has been played by Pam St. Clement since 12 June 1986, just over a year after the show first aired...
(Pam St Clement) and her boyfriend Frank Butcher
Frank Butcher
Francis Aloysius "Frank" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Mike Reid. Frank made his first appearance on-screen as a guest character in 1987 but, due to a positive viewer reception, he was reintroduced in 1988 as a regular. Reid took a long...
(Mike Reid
Mike Reid (entertainer)
Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter from Hackney in east London, who is best remembered for playing the role of Frank Butcher in EastEnders and hosting the popular children's TV show Runaround...
) were instilled as the new landlords, and along with Frank came his family, including his mother Mo (Edna Doré), who moved to 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...
in September.
Mo was portrayed as a battle-axe. Author Hilary Kingsley has described Mo as a "tough, interfering busybody with a will of iron and a face of stone [...] To her grandchildren she was always indulgent, but to Frank she was always the boss, a woman with a whim or iron." Kingsley surmised that "only slowly did Walford begin to see a softer side to hard bitten old Mo". Kingsley described Mo as a woman who sought status, suggesting that she wished to be "Queen Bee" when she moved to Walford and regarded Frank's new wife Pat as "nothing more than a pushy interloper". Initial storylines centred upon clashes between Pat and Mo, with Frank trying to find a compromise between the bickering women in his life. Kingsley has commented that "gradually some sort of compromise was worked out and slowly Mo became more human."
In 1990, a topical storyline was aired in which Mo was given Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. During the year, Mo was shown to grow increasingly more forgetful, and after tests, Frank was informed that Mo was suffering with dementia. The storyline was scripted to show the effects on a family when a parent/loved one suffers from Alzheimer's. By November that year, Mo was in advanced stages of mental deterioration. It was at this stage that the character was written out of EastEnders, Edna Doré having decided to end her contract. On-screen, Mo was sent to live with her daughter in Colchester, having convinced herself that Frank wanted to kill her. Writer 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...
has suggested that the storyline had to be curtailed earlier than they would have liked due to Doré's desire to leave.
Commenting on her time in the soap and the reasons for her departure in 1999, Doré said, "I shall always be grateful to EastEnders. It gave me recognition. It was a marvellous opportunity to be known everywhere, although it totally changes your life. For a while I couldn't even go shopping without being stopped. But compared with the theatre or film it was lacking in job satisfaction because it was so quick. I did it for a couple of years. I didn't want to stay so long that I wouldn't be considered for other parts."
Mo was killed off-screen in 1992, succumbing to Alzheimer's; her death was confirmed on-screen in the New Year's Eve episode of 1992. Doré was at a New Year's Eve party when she discovered her character's fate. She commented in 2001, "I was at a New Year's Eve party when someone came up to me and said, 'Have you seen, you've been killed off?' And I heaved a sigh of relief and had another drink. Still I can't complain. I had a good time at EastEnders and the one advantage of having been in a soap is that I get far better paid for my roles now."
Reception
Edna Doré's portrayal of Mo's descent into Alzheimer's has been described as "deeply moving" by John Millar of the Daily RecordDaily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
. Former executive producer of EastEnders, Michael Ferguson
Michael 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...
, has suggested that Mo suffering from Alzheimer's in 1990 gave people permission to talk about an illness "that had been almost too distressing to discuss in public before." He alleged that viewers informed him that EastEnders had given them a shorthand "like Mo" to discuss Alzheimer's.
According to writer Colin Brake, the storyline involving Mo and the unruly Brownies was intended to be fun, but references to Brownies behaving badly caused great offence to the Brownie movement, and an official complaint was made and upheld. The broadcasting commission said the EastEnders Brownie episodes "came near to parody," were unfair to the Brownies and harmed the Girl Guides
Girl Guides
A Guide, Girl Guide or Girl Scout is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations who is between the ages of 10 and 14. Age limits are different in each organisation. It is the female-centred equivalent of the Scouts. The term Girl Scout is used in the United States and several East Asian...
' image. The BBC had to make a public apology for the misinterpretation of the movement. Brake has suggested that the mishap was a "salutary lesson to those [...] in the script department to be very vigilant in ensuring, as far as possible, that no group or individual was offended by an unintentional slight in a script."