Mandy Salter

Mandy Salter
EastEnders character
Portrayed by	Nicola Stapleton
Duration	1992–94, 2011—
First appearance	12 March 1992
Classification	Present; regular
Introduced by	Leonard Lewis (1992) Bryan Kirkwood (2011)
Spin-off appearances	Dimensions in Time (1993)
In-universe information Mother Lorraine Salter

Mandy Salter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nicola Stapleton. Introduced on 12 March 1992, Mandy was portrayed as a teenage tearaway. She was featured in storylines about homelessness, child and drug abuse. Her relationship with Aidan Brosnan was one of the prominent storylines featured in 1993. Due to the character's devious behaviour, it has been suggested that Mandy was one of the most hated characters on television during her tenure. The character appeared in a special episode of Doctor Who in 1993, which was set in the fictional soap setting of Walford. Stapleton quit the role and Mandy departed on-screen on 13 January 1994. Stapleton claims that she has been asked to reprise the role in the past, and although she turned these offers down, in 2009 she stated the door has been left open for Mandy to return. In June 2011, it was confirmed that Stapleton was to reprise her role as Mandy and reappeared on 29 August 2011.

Storylines

Mandy arrives in Albert Square in March 1992 when her hospitalised mother, Lorraine (Linda Henry), leaves her in Pat Butcher's (Pam St. Clement) care. She makes friends with Sam Butcher (Daniella Westbrook) but eventually leaves the Butchers as she feels unwanted by Pat's husband, Frank (Mike Reid). She then begins squatting.

Mandy is a troublesome teenager. She blackmails Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), threatening to divulge that he visits prostitutes unless he employs her. Ian does not succumb, so Mandy survives by stealing, conning people and relying on charity. After Mandy is evicted from her squat, Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) allows her to live with her, but Mandy is eventually thrown out when she is caught spreading rumours that Kathy has been abusing her. Mandy ends 1992 homeless and sleeping in a make-shift shanty. Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) and Steve Elliot (Mark Monero) eventually let Mandy stay with them, but Mandy's stirring contributes to the demise of Steve's relationship with Hattie Tavernier (Michelle Gayle); Mandy and Hattie maintain an antagonistic relationship throughout their time together in Walford. On Christmas Eve 1992, Mandy receives a Christmas card from her mother, telling her she is visiting. However, Lorraine never arrives, so on Christmas Day, Mandy returns to Lorraine's flat but finds her mother's boyfriend, Gary (Thomas Craig), instead. He is abusive to Mandy and starts beating her, until she is rescued by Mark.

Mandy meets trainee footballer, Aidan Brosnan (Sean Maguire) in 1993. They begin dating, but Mandy is a bad influence on Aidan and encourages him to skip football practice, get drunk and use ecstasy. This results in an intoxicated Aidan falling and damaging his knee, and following a subsequent injury, Aidan is told that his career in professional football is over. The loss of his dream hits Aidan badly, but by now Mandy has fallen for him in a big way, and when he returns to Ireland, she follows him. Both soon return, having had a poor reception from Aidan's family. The young lovers are unable to find work so they begin sleeping on the streets and squatting. To get money, Mandy and Aidan beg and occasionally do odd jobs. It is on one such occasion that Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) leaves his wife Sharon Mitchell's (Letitia Dean) pet poodle, Roly, in Mandy's care. However, Mandy loses control of Roly and he dies after running straight into an oncoming truck, devastating Sharon. Mandy later cleans Harold Legg's (Leonard Fenton) surgery, but after stealing prescription slips and selling them to drug dealers, she is sacked. She then turns to 'clipping', acting as a prostitute then running off with the customer's money without performing the sexual service. However, the other prostitutes in Kings Cross beat Mandy and after she is arrested, Aidan makes her promise to stop.

When Richard Cole (Ian Reddington) starts a smear campaign against them, accusing them of being behind a series of robberies around the Square, everyone turns on them. Aidan becomes depressed and on Christmas Day 1993 he attempts to commit suicide by threatening to jump off the top of a tower block. Mandy manages to stop him but Aidan realises that Mandy is bad for him, and he returns to his family in Ireland.

Mandy is distraught at losing Aidan. Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) takes sympathy and allows her to stay with her; Mandy sees New Year 1994 in, huddled and sobbing on the Fowlers' couch. Early in 1994, Mandy turns to Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) for comfort and they have a one-night stand. However, this only makes Mandy realise how much she misses Aidan, and she rejects Ricky's further advances. All alone, Mandy leaves Albert Square in January 1994, repaying the Fowlers' kindness by stealing Pauline's purse and hitching a ride with a lorry driver, who is heading west on the M11.

On the 19th August 2011, Ian Beale visits a strip club with Anthony Moon and others who are celebrating Anthony's birthday. They aren't allowed in with Tyler and Anthony. They leave, but Ian returns to see Mandy being thrown out of the club.

Creation and development

Introduction

Mandy was one of several introductions to the cast of EastEnders in 1992. Executive producer Leonard Lewis took a tentative approach to introducing new characters in 1992. Most were introduced gradually, making an initial appearance and then joining the programme full-time a couple of months later. This allowed the producers and writers to create new characters and see them brought to life by the actors before committing them to a longer contract. Mandy first appeared in March 1992 as a school girl aged 15, abandoned by her mother in Pat Butcher's care. She left the series temporarily a few weeks later; in the storyline she went back to her mother's flat, but she returned by the summer of 1992 as a regular character, squatting in the soap's setting of Albert Square.

Mandy was portrayed as a troublesome teenager, with an underpinning storyline of child abuse and abandonment. Nicola Stapleton, 17 at the time, was cast in the role. During her initial stint in the soap, the character was featured in storylines about child and drug abuse, homelessness, blackmail, theft and prostitution (in the form of clipping).

Characterisation

In his 2005 book, Eastenders: 20 Years in Albert Square, author Rupert Smith classified Mandy as a "lost girl". He described her as "poisonous [...] the daughter of a dodgy old lush that Pat had picked up in a hostess bar, and she arrived in Walford to work out some grudge she held against the entire world." He added that "she lied, cheated and stole", suggesting that "there have been very few characters as entirely loathesome as Mandy Salter [...] The serpent in an East End eden." Author of EastEnders: Who's who?, Kate Lock, suggested that, "You wanted to feel sorry for homeless waif Mandy but her deviousness made it hard to even like her."

She has been described as a "manipulative force of nature" with a "spiteful streak". In 2011, the executive producer of EastEnders, Bryan Kirkwood, described Mandy as outrageous, uncompromising and pragmatic. He added, "although she's the result of a life on the streets, she's a survivor and isn't down on her luck. Mandy knows what to do to get by".

Homelessness

Mandy (left) and Aidan were the focus of a storyline on teenage homlessness. Here the characters are depicted squatting in a maintenance room, on the roof of a block of flats (1993).

In 1993, the character was paired romantically on-screen with Aidan Brosnan, played by Sean Maguire. Aidan and Mandy's romance was dubbed by EastEnders' scriptwriter Colin Brake as one of 1993's "major storylines", which ran throughout the year. Depicted as shy, naïve and impressionable, Aidan was quickly led astray by Mandy. In the storyline, Mandy introduced Aidan to alcohol and drugs and a swift decline for the couple culminated in them becoming homeless and sleeping on the streets or in abandoned squats. Aidan slipped into a depression, culminating in a suicide attempt, when in the Christmas Day 1993 episodes, he decided to jump off the top of a tower block. The producers' original plan had been for Aidan to succeed in his suicide bid; however, in the book EastEnders: The First Ten Years, author Colin Brake has revealed that "the powers-that-be" at the BBC intervened in the storyline. They felt that a suicide on Christmas Day would be "too depressing even for EastEnders", so they ordered for the scripts to be revised. In the revised version, Mandy arrived just in time to stop Aidan jumping to his death, her love for him convincing him not to end his life. 23 million viewers tuned in on Christmas Day 1993 to witness Aidan's suicide attempt; it was the highest rated television programme of the day, trumping its biggest rival Coronation Street by 3 million viewers.

Departure (1994)

The homelessness storyline spelt the end of the couple in the soap, Sean Maguire having chosen to leave to pursue other projects. The following episode, Aidan — resenting Mandy for her role in his misfortune — left to return to Ireland alone. Heartbroken, Mandy fled several weeks later, in January 1994.

In reality, Stapleton had grown tired of all the attention she received from being in such a high-profile show, and despite being offered a contract to continue, she quit the role. She has discussed a disagreement she had with the scriptwriters regarding a controversial scene involving Mandy, recalling, "Mandy had been technically raped and her line was, `Oh, rats.' I was up to the producer's office in five minutes. I couldn't believe it. It was stronger not to say anything than a line like that." In an interview in 2005 Stapleton commented: "Working on EastEnders was so high-profile it put me off working on soaps for a while[…] I've been asked a number of times to go back but I've done a lot of really credible stuff in theatre, and I thought, 'It took me a long time get here. I'm not ready to go back to Mandy just yet' […] The publicity with something regarding EastEnders is huge and sometimes you end up feeling like a famous person rather than an actress - I wanted my work to be more fulfilling than that."

In a 2009 interview with Walford Gazette, Stapleton said, "[EastEnders] always left the door open for Mandy to return. [But] at the moment I'm quite happy to be doing what I'm doing." She told the Daily Record that same year, "It doesn't bother me that I'm still recognised as Mandy from EastEnders. It means I made an impression with the character. I would never say never to going back. I don't think the show is as fabulous as it was 10 years ago but it's still pretty fantastic and you have to go where the work is."

Return (2011)

On 9 June 2011, it was confirmed that Stapleton would reprise her role as Mandy after 17 years, in autumn 2011. Bryan Kirkwood, the producer overseeing Mandy's return, stated, "I love Nicola Stapleton, having worked with her elsewhere, and Mandy is going to be like a breath of fresh air when she arrives back". It was reported that Mandy had grown up slightly, but that she was still fun, chaotic and wild and she was tipped to cause trouble for at least one of Walford's well-known residents. Stapleton said of her return "I'm looking forward to playing Mandy again—it will be interesting to see what she's been up to all this time. I'm excited to be coming back and working with some old friends."

In her return storyline, Mandy is found working as a lap dancer by Ian Beale, who offers her a place to stay back in Walford. An EastEnders' source told The Sun newspaper, "Nicola [Stapleton] doesn't look like she has aged since she left. She looks amazing. She found it a bit strange to film her first scenes in underwear and bikinis but she joked that she might as well 'jump straight back in'." Discussing her character's return storyline and involvement with Ian Beale, Stapleton said, "Mandy has got her eye on every man in the Square - but with Ian it's just a friendship. She lifts his spirits and has a big effect on his life." She added, "I think [Mandy] is the most exciting thing that has happened to Ian in a long time. There's banter between them and she has a real energy that lifts his spirits. They have fun and Ian agrees to put her up [...] When we meet [Mandy] she's very much on her own living hand-to-mouth. I think there's a part of her that wants to be maternal as she gets on really well with [Ian's son] Bobby, who becomes her little mate." Her return is expected to air on 29 August."

In other media

Mandy was featured in a special episode of the popular science fiction series, Doctor Who, which was entitled Dimensions in Time (1993). The episode was specially screened as part of BBC's annual fund-raising event, Children in Need. Viewers were asked to phone in and vote which EastEnders character, Mandy or 'Big' Ron (Ron Tarr), would appear in the show and save the Doctor from certain death. Two versions were filmed for each voting outcome, but the Mandy version won with 56% of the vote.

Reception

According to Josephine Monroe, author of The EastEnders Programme Guide, Mandy Salter was one of the most hated characters on television during her reign; a "teenager from hell". Stapleton has alleged that some viewers hated Mandy so much, due to her despicable deeds on-screen, that she was subjected to taunts in the street and her car was regularly vandalised.

Underpinning the character of Mandy was a storyline about child abuse, and Stapleton has revealed that she received "a lot" of letters from children in the same situation. She commented, "You want to help but all you are really permitted to do is say this is Childline's number and encourage them to talk to someone."

See also

• Dimensions in Time