David Wicks

David Wicks
EastEnders character
David Wicks in 1996
Portrayed by	Michael French
Duration	1993–96, 2011-
First appearance	23 December 1993
Classification	Former;regular (returning)
Introduced by	Leonard Lewis (1993) Bryan Kirkwood (2011)
Book appearances	Swings and Roundabouts
In-universe information Occupation Car salesman Family Beale Father Pete Beale Mother Pat Evans Adoptive father Brian Wicks Half-brothers Simon Wicks Ian Beale Wife Lorraine Foster (1980–90) Sons Joe Wicks Daughters Bianca Jackson Karen Wicks Aunts Pauline Fowler First cousins Michelle Fowler Mark Fowler Martin Fowler

David Wicks (né Beale) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michael French. He originally appeared between 1993 to 1996. On 14 November 2011, it was announced French would be returning to EastEnders for Pat Evans' (Pam St Clement) departure storyline.

Storylines

Background

David is the son of Pat Evans (Pam St Clement) and her first husband Pete Beale (Peter Dean). Pat and Pete split up when David and his brother Simon (Nick Berry) were young and Pat remarried to Brian Wicks (Leslie Schofield), who adopted both David and Simon (who turned out to be Brian's biological son). Meanwhile Pete remarried to Kathy Hills (Gillian Taylforth) and had another son, Ian (Adam Woodyatt). Pete had no further contact with David and Simon when they moved away from Walford in 1976.

During his teenage years David got his girlfriend Carol Branning (Lindsey Coulson) pregnant. David and the rest of the Branning family tried to persuade Carol to have an abortion and after Carol's brother Derek (Terence Beesley, later Jamie Foreman) severely beat David up the Wicks family left Walford, so David never really knew whether Carol did have the abortion or not. For the next few years David, along with his mother and brother, suffered at the violent hands of his abusive stepfather Brian. Pat also proved to be a negligent mother due to her alcoholism and constant promiscuity and after turning 17, David began living with his girlfriend Lorraine (Jacqueline Leonard) away from his parents. During this time Lorraine fell pregnant by him and after they married she gave birth to their son Joe (Paul Nicholls) in 1980 when David was 18. This was shortly followed by the birth of their daughter Karen in 1982. However David was a restless man who felt he had been tied down too young and after embarking on several affairs he walked out on his wife and children in 1988, losing all contact with them.

1993-96

David returned to Albert Square on 23 December 1993 for the funeral of his father Pete, who had died in a car crash two weeks earlier. A few weeks later he turned up on the doorstep of his mother Pat and soon went into business with her stepson Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) with a car lot that they named "Deals on Wheels". He received a blast from the past in the form of Carol and her large brood of children and soon found himself falling for her oldest daughter Bianca (Patsy Palmer). Carol was very frosty and hostile towards him, and was horrified when she witnessed the growing relationship between David and Bianca. This resulted in Carol telling David that Bianca was his daughter in March 1994. David was stunned but agreed to keep his distance from Bianca, much to her chagrin. Eventually the truth was revealed to an embarrassed Bianca in March 1995 when, after drunkenly trying to kiss David after he rescued her from almost being mugged, David was forced to confess that she was his daughter. Despite being initially frosty towards David, Bianca soon formed a close relationship with her father.

David received a further shock when his estranged son Joe turned up in Walford in April 1996. With him came the news that his daughter Karen had died in a car accident nine months previously. Joe's return caused many problems for David, and at first David rejected the idea of having his son back in his life. However, after Joe ran away and turned up at David's again, he became more receptive to Joe and having him in his life again. Eventually Joe and Lorraine moved down to London from Bolton and Joe moved in with David. Things went OK for a little while but Karen's death had seriously affected Joe. Joe blamed himself for Karen's death because on the day that Karen died, they'd had an argument over who would sit in the front seat in the car. Joe won and Karen was sitting in the back when a lorry crashed into the car. Karen was horrifically injured and died, whilst Joe walked away with little more than bruises. This led to Joe developing schizophrenia and exhibiting increasingly weird behaviour that got progressively worse. This was too much for David and one of the reasons why he eventually left Walford.

David was a notorious womaniser. He had relations with Sam Mitchell (Danniella Westbrook, later Kim Medcalf) and an affair with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), the wife of his half-brother Ian. Unfortunately Cindy became obsessed with the idea of running off with David, and hired a hit man to kill Ian. Ian was shot but survived, and when David found out, he felt it was too much and ended the relationship, but not before helping her escape with her two sons. Shortly after, David had a fling with old flame, Carol.

Eventually, the truth came out about David's affair and fore-knowledge of the attempted murder of Ian, and with the loss of friends and alienation of his family, together with Joe's worsening mental condition with schizophrenia he decided it was too much and left Albert Square for Milan in a torrent of tears one night after telling Joe he was going. In 2010, David sent Bianca £10,000 for her wedding as he was unable to attend.

Development

In September 2011, it was rumored that David and Simon were to return to EastEnders for Pat's departure storyline. The Sun reported producers were working to get French and Berry on board. A BBC spokesperson declined to comment on the report, saying "There has been a lot of speculation surrounding Pat's departure, however we are not going to comment on rumours at this stage as we don't want to spoil the storyline for viewers." On 13 November 2011, it was confirmed French would be reprising his role as David after an absence of 15 years.

External links

• David Wicks at BBC Online