Paul Trueman
Paul Trueman | |
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EastEnders character | |
Eleanor Trueman |
Paul Trueman is a fictional character from the British BBC
During his time on the show, Paul instigates a feud with his brother
Storylines
Paul Trueman first appeared at
Audrey is struck by falling debris while walking past some building works. Several days later, after an argument with Paul during which he revealed Anthony was the one who was driving at the time of the accident, Audrey collapses and dies, caused by a delayed reaction to the blow she received earlier. Just before she dies, Audrey tells Paul that she knew about Anthony being the driver and tells Paul to tell Anthony that she loves him. Paul replies "What about me?". Just as Audrey is about to say something to him, she dies. However, everything is left to Paul in Audrey's will. Paul's supposed father
Angel returns with more orders for Paul. It turns out that Angel is being prepared to stand trial for murder and he is using his wife,
In 2002, Paul helps Phil's cousin Billy (Perry Fenwick) with helping the latter's love interest Little Mo Mitchell (Kacey Ainsworth) escape her domestic abuse ordeal for her tormenting estranged husband Trevor Morgan (Alex Ferns). They plan on forcing Trevor to sign divorce papers and getting him to leave Walford, but Trevor continues to hassle Little Mo until he is eventually killed in an explosion caused by himself on Halloween Night that year.
In 2003, Paul is shocked when an abandoned baby is left on his doorstep. The child is the result of a
That same year, Paul begins a sexual relationship with Billy's ex-girlfriend Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks); she concocts a plan to fleece her step-brother Barry Evans (Shaun Williamson) of all his money and invites Paul into her scheme, which he accepts. Janine professes to love Barry while all the time sleeping with Paul. However, on Janine's wedding day to Barry, Paul attempts to stop the plan by confessing that he loves her and they do not need Barry's money. However, Janine refuses and marries Barry anyway, as she has also been led to believe that he is terminally ill and could use the opportunity to inherit his wealth. However, when Janine learns from Barry that his illness is a false alarm, she becomes repulsed by him, and confesses that their marriage is a sham, also revealing her affair with Paul in the process. Barry attempts to get Janine to love him by forgiving her, but she ends up pushing him away, and Barry consequently falls down a ravine to his death.
In 2004, following Barry's death on New Year's Day and his wedding to Janine the day before, Paul suffers from immense guilt about his involvement; he makes a conscious effort to support Barry's grieving ex-wife Natalie (Lucy Speed). When Paul finds out that Janine killed Barry, he furiously breaks up with her upon seeing her lack of remorse. He then develops feelings for Natalie and they begin a relationship, but he has a hard time hiding his guilt from her. After Natalie grows suspicious of the nature of Paul's relationship with Janine, he finally reveals Janine's role in Barry's death and makes a statement to the police.
Janine is questioned, but released due to lack of evidence. She promptly tells Natalie that Paul had conspired with her to 'fleece' Barry from the start, and gloats about getting away with murder. Devastated, and unable to prove Janine's guilt to the police, Natalie leaves Paul and Albert Square. When Janine taunts Paul about it in
Paul eventually decides to leave Walford and join Anthony travelling over Europe, but returns to the square to see Patrick marry his next wife, Yolande (Angela Wynter), and is thus persuaded to stay in Walford. Paul has a spell working with troubled youth, but begins to get involved in crime again when he starts drug-dealing for the square's crime boss Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs). Towards Christmas 2004, Paul ends up getting arrested by the police who are investigating Andy's criminal empire; Paul is eventually forced to inform the police about Andy's gangland activities in order to avoid facing a prison sentence. Soon enough, Paul is authorised to help the police entrap Andy in a drug trade. However, this fails when Andy becomes suspicious and escapes the sting operation. When they cross paths with each other later on, Andy realises that Paul has grassed him up to the police and arranges to have him killed in retribution. Paul considers escaping, but realises his family would be in danger if he does, so he says a tearful goodbye to Patrick and the family. A taxi then arrives for Paul, whose driver is actually a hitman sent by Andy to kill Paul for his betrayal. Paul tells Patrick he is leaving and will not be seen again, which leaves his father unaware that Paul is actually leaving to be killed. As he leaves the square, Paul asks the driver to 'make it quick' as his family and Andy separately watch him depart the square; Paul was killed off-screen.
A month later, in January 2005, Patrick begins to grow suspicious about Paul's fate, and questions Andy upon realising that he was the last person to have spoken to Paul before his 'departure'. Andy frequently denies knowing what has happened to Paul, and attempts to get Patrick to drop the subject, to no avail.
Patrick continues to pester Andy for information, and attempts to do so again when the latter is having a meet-up with fellow mob boss Johnny Allen (Billy Murray), who thereupon realises that Andy has had Paul killed. In order to build-up his plans to usurp Andy's status as the square's reigning gangland boss, Johnny arranges for Paul's body to be unearthed. When that happens, Patrick is visited by the police and he is devastated to learn that Paul has been killed.
After identifying Paul's corpse, Patrick realises that Andy had Paul killed and confronts him about it. Andy denies this, but Patrick swears revenge on Andy for having Paul killed by telling him "Paul's ghost is not going to rest, until I make you pay for it!". In February 2005, Paul's funeral takes place and a few weeks later Andy gets killed by Johnny, much to Patrick's delight, as Patrick feels that justice has been served for Paul's murder.
Development
Beadle was critical of his exit storyline, accusing EastEnders of racial stereotyping for turning his character into a drug dealer. He commented to The Mirror: "I hate the storyline, I'm really not happy about it. It's so unimaginative, full of stereotypes - black people and drugs, blah, blah, blah. Any scenes involving drugs, you can rest assured I hated filming them. I just knew Paul wouldn't do that - it's not his style. Once they started hanging my character so dramatically, I knew I'd made the right decision to leave."[1] Speaking to BBC Radio 1 in 2004, Beadle stated that the storyline had a negative effect on his private life, with public shouting at him in the street things such as 'Drug dealer' or 'Sell me some drugs'. Beadle suggested that the storyline was "about a very deep subject and if you are going to write about that subject then you need to explain it completely. I'm just talking about believability. You need to show the beginning, the middle and the end, otherwise it looks negative."[2] Beadle also said that he was disappointed that Paul was not shown to die on-screen - his death was implied not screened.[1]
Reception
In 2020, Sara Wallis and Ian Hyland from The Daily Mirror placed Paul 78th on their ranked list of the best EastEnders characters of all time, calling him "wayward" and noting his key role in Janine killing "poor Barry Evans".[3] In 2021, Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap wrote that Paul was "one of the best Walford characters of his time – taken from us in such a way that we still cling to the hope that he's not really dead...C'mon EastEnders, we know you're reading this!"[4]
References
- ^ a b "EASTENDERS 'TOO RACIST' Axed star Gary slams the show's black drug-dealer stereotype". The Mirror. 21 December 2004. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
- ^ "'EastEnders' actor unhappy with character". Digital Spy. 21 December 2004. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
- ^ Sara Wallis; Ian Hyland (12 June 2020). "100 Best EastEnders characters ever". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ Tyler, Laura-Jayne (1–7 May 2021). "Hits & Misses!". Inside Soap. No. 18. p. 98.