Kelvin Carpenter
Kelvin Carpenter | |
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EastEnders character | |
Cassie Carpenter |
Kelvin Carpenter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Paul J. Medford from 12 March 1985 to 3 September 1987.
Kelvin is a bright spark and full of initiative. He opens several businesses in
Storylines
Kelvin lives on the Square with his
Kelvin spends most of his spare time with the other youngsters of Albert Square:
During the latter part of 1986, Kelvin attends
In 1987, Kelvin faces more family problems when his parents' ill-fated reunion finally results in divorce. In order to escape the constant rows at home, Kelvin spends a lot of time with
In 2010, Ian finds Kelvin 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. In 2017, Michelle (now played by Jenna Russell) mentions Kelvin to her brother Martin Fowler (James Bye), so he contacts him on social media on Michelle's behalf and later arranges a reunion. Michelle waits to meet him, but he does not turn up.
Character creation and development
Kelvin Carpenter was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders,
Kelvin's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book,
- "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).[1]
The actor
Kelvin became one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years.[2] Several of his early storylines were actually intended for the character Mark Fowler, but following the impromptu departure of actor David Scarboro (the original Mark, who left after refusing to play a scene where the character delivered racist abuse to Kelvin), his storylines were subsequently given to Kelvin, Michelle Fowler and Ian Beale.[1] 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.[3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/63/Youngkelvin.jpg/200px-Youngkelvin.jpg)
Reception
Kelvin Carpenter has been described by author Hilary Kingsley as one of the most popular young characters in the show's early years.[2] 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."[4]
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 being 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."[5]
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."[6]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-563-20601-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-563-36292-0.
- ISBN 0-563-37057-2
- ISBN 978-0-415-11007-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8264-5539-0.
- ISBN 978-0-948080-09-8.