Carl King

For the American musician whose real name is Carl King, see Sir Millard Mulch. For the CBS recording artist 1966-1967 Carl King, see Carl King (CBS recording artist).

Carl King
Emmerdale character
Tom Lister as Carl King (2009)
Portrayed by	Tom Lister
Duration	2004–12
First appearance	6 February 2004
Last appearance	18 October 2012
Classification	Former; regular
Introduced by	Steve Frost
In-universe information Occupation Businessman Family King Father Tom King Mother Mary King Brothers Jimmy King Matthew King Max King Half-sisters Scarlett Nicholls Wife Colleen King (1998–2004) Lexi Nicholls (2009) Sons Thomas King Daughters Anya King Nephews Elliot Windsor Nieces Angelica King

Carl Thomas King is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by Tom Lister. He made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 6 February 2004. During Emmerdale's 40th anniversary live episode, broadcast on 17 October 2012, Carl was killed by Cameron Murray.

Casting and creation

In January 2004, The Sun announced that Emmerdale would bring in "four new single 'hunks'" who are all brothers in an attempt to increase the sex appeal of the serial. They announced that the siblings would arrive in February with Tom Lister having been cast as Carl who would arrive first after securing a job in Tate Haulage.

Character development

Characterisation

Describing Carl, itv.com said: "Carl is a bit of a womanizer and a ladies' man. As one of the younger King brothers he's always had to fight for his place in the family. He's also commitment phobic, and despite apparently finding his perfect match in Chas, his eyes wandered onto Eve and he wrecked what could have been a beautiful relationship. Carl has a bad temper on him and has been responsible for two accidental deaths - so he's not one to be crossed".

Departure

It was announced that during Emmerdale's fortieth anniversary celebrations a live episode would air which would include the death of a regular male character who has "had it coming". Digital Spy listed Carl as one of the characters who they felt were contenders to be killed off. When the episode was aired, Carl was confronted by Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) who hit him over the head with a brick and left him wounded, before he was confronted by Cameron Murray (Dominic Power) who hit him with the same brick, killing him. Lister said that when he was told his character would be killed off he was surprised but "thrilled" at the script, explaining that it "just seemed like a really nice way to end what has been an amazing journey for my character". Lister added that it was always expected that Carl would "have to face some reckoning" for his previous actions, which the character's exit did successfully. Lister's exit from the serial was not announced previous to it's airing which he said was difficult to keep secret. Lister added that he received messages through social networking websites from fans who said they expected him to die, although Lister said that fans were confused concering the exit as other cast members received similar messages.

Storylines

Carl was the first member of the King family to arrive in Emmerdale as the new driver for Tate Haulage. However, no one is aware that he is there as a spy, reporting it back to his family business, King & Sons. Carl learns what Tate Haulage plan to bid for a new contract and, with this information, his family revise their bid and win the contract.

Despite being married, Carl flirts with Louise Appleton and she agrees to a date. However, Carl's wife, Colleen, turns up and tells Louise that she is Carl's wife and they have two children; Thomas and Anya before telling Carl not to come home. Louise slaps Carl and cancels the date. So Carl moves in with his family at Holdgate Farm but is "persuaded" to go up and do some repairs to the roof, despite his fear of heights. Local postman, Paul Marsden helps him and seeing his nerves about heights, starts teasing him and mucking about but stretches too far and falls, dying instantly. Not wanting people to know they were involved, Carl and his brothers, Jimmy and Matthew King move his body to the back garden of the cottage Paul shared with his his wife, Siobhan. She finds him and assumes he fell from their roof after fixing the television aerial.

Meanwhile, bonding over feeling like they are bad parents for abandoning their children, Carl grows close to Chas Dingle and tells her about Paul's death. They eventually begin a relationship. However, the relationship is rocky and they constantly split up briefly and then reconcile but during one of these breaks, Carl has a one-night stand with Chloe Atkinson (Amy Nuttall). When she finds out Carl is back with Chas, she decides to end their relationship once and for all. She starts a campaign of poison pen letters and undermines Chas's trust in Carl, successfully splitting them up and he reconciles with Chloe but soon grows tired of her and tries to end things. She promptly tells him she is pregnant, despite the fact that she isn't, but starts trying at every opportunity to get pregnant. Chas discovers Chloe's lie and makes her tell Carl the truth, that she isn't pregnant and never was. Before leaving the village for good, she reminds Carl that she still could be pregnant as they weren't taking precautions. Horrified at the mistake he made, Carl tries to reconcile with Chas but she leaves to join the army so Carl gets close to her cousin, Delilah. Realising that Carl doesn't really want to be with her, Delilah encourages him to fight for Chas so he tracks her down and declares his feelings, accidentally dropping her after picking her up, causing her to break her leg. Consequently Chas is discharged on medical grounds and returns to the village. Carl and Chas reconcile and Carl proposes. Chas initially refuses and asks him to do a wing walk to conquer his vertigo. Carl does and Chas accepts his proposal. They move into Home Farm with his father Tom and Chas becomes Jimmy's personal assistant.

Tensions erupt within the family when Matthew begins a relationship with Sadie King and they start a rival company. Matthew uses Carl to pass Jimmy false information so he loses an important deal while Tom and his fiancee, Rosemary, tell Carl that Chas isn't good enough for him and bully/bribe Chas to end things but Chas tells Carl the truth on Tom and Rosemary's wedding day. Tom later dies after falling from his bedroom window and his sons are the primary police suspects but are stunned to learn that they have a half-sister, Scarlett, daughter of their mother's nurse, Carrie Nicholls. Carl struggles to bond with her and he and Matthew try to buy her share of the business. Carl eventually softens but is uncomfortable around Carrie, as they once had a one-night stand. Carl is grateful to Carrie when she helps evict Rosemary from Home Farm. Tom leaves Home Farm Estates to Rosemary but the rest of his estate is divided between his children. Hari Prasad tells the police that he heard the King brothers discussing how they murdered Tom and Louise backs him up but the case collapses when Louise admits she gave a false statement but Carl admits to Jimmy and Matthew that he killed Tom. He reveals that he confronted Tom about Chas, hitting him when Tom called Chas names and then pushed him away, causing Tom to fall out of the window.

Carl begins dating DCI Grace Barraclough in secret, unaware that she is determined to find out who killed Tom, but Carl won't say. Grace ends their relationship and Carl gets drunk, telling Jimmy and Matthew about their relationship so Jimmy takes Carl abroad to clear his head. However, on his return, Carl gets himself arrested for drink driving to get closer to Grace and tells her that he killed Tom and decides to confess. Jimmy watches as Carl and Grace go to the police station and as Carl stops to answer his phone, Grace carries on and is hit by a lorry. Grace dies and despite telling the police that he is a killer, the police ignore him as they are more concerned about Grace.

Carrie's daughter, Lexi, visits her sister and becomes involved with Carl. He joins De Souza Enterprises, angering Matthew. Donald De Souza (Michael Jayston) appoints Carl the new MD of his business, disappointing his daughter, Anna (Emma Davies). Carl hires Lexi to be his PA, but discovers she has been passing information to Matthew and breaks up with her. Carl and Anna are attracted to each other and he is jealous of her relationship with Matthew. Carl reconciles with Lexi, but when he decides to end things with her, Lexi reveals she knows that he killed Tom. Donald buys Mill Cottage for Carl and he and Lexi move in there together. Donald dies and Matthew tells Carl that he refused to give him his heart medication. King & Sons is declared bankrupt and the bailiffs move in. On the day of Matthew and Anna's wedding, Carl reveals Matthew's involvement in Donald's death. Matthew and Carl fight and Matthew drives a van at him. However, on seeing Anna standing with Carl, he swerves and is thrown through the windscreen, dying on the road.

Carl realises his only assets are Mill Cottage and a mortgage he gave Debbie Dingle and begins pressuring her for money. Carl, Jimmy, Lexi and Scarlett manage to scrap enough money together to start a new haulage company. Carl tells Chas that he still loves her, but she insists they are history. Lexi proposes to Carl and he accepts. Lexi sets a date but Carl goes missing on the day. He meets Chas and asks for a reconciliation, but she turns him down. Carl goes to the church and marries Lexi. He is furious when he discovers she is trying to get pregnant without his knowledge. Lexi discovers she is pregnant but loses the baby almost immediately as the pregnancy is ectopic. She then learns she is unlikely to conceive again without IVF and Carl agrees to try because he feels guilty but soon changes his mind. Nicola insists that Carl tell Lexi this, which he does, and they argue. She also argues with Nicola and Nicola goes into premature labour after falling down the stairs. Lexi apologises and Nicola forgives her. Later, after a nurse gives baby Angelica to Lexi while Nicola is in the shower, she takes her up on to the roof, simply wanting to show her the world but on seeing Lexi sitting on the roof with baby Angelica, making Jimmy, Nicola and Carl panic that she is going to jump. Carl tries to talk her down and is forced to admit that he does not love her so she returns the baby to Jimmy and Nicola and leaves the village. Carl moves out of Jimmy and Nicola's house and he has sex with Chas. Carl tells Chas's partner, Paddy Kirk, about her infidelity and they get back together.

Carl begins an affair with Eve Jenson (Suzanne Shaw). Chas proposes to him and implies she is pregnant. Carl accepts and gives her money to organise the wedding and ends things with Eve but on the day, Chas reveals Carl's affair with Eve to the village and humiliates him. Carl becomes bitter towards Chas for stealing his money and is accused of starting a fire near her house, which engulfs the village and kills Terry Woods and Viv Hope. Carl is arrested but later freed. He and Chas have a one-night stand months later and he comforts her when her son, Aaron, is charged with murder. Carl borrows money from Scarlett to hire a lawyer for Aaron but when Aaron refuses to take it, invests it in his business instead. Disgusted, Scarlett discovers what he has done and leaves the village. Carl is caught speeding on CCTV and he convinces Rodney Blackstock (Patrick Mower) to take his speeding points for him, in exchange for a job. The police reveal that a cyclist was hit during the incident and Carl is shocked when he learns Rodney could go to prison. Rodney blackmails him into giving him money and a job. Jimmy discovers what is happening and confronts Carl. Carl discovers Chas has been having an affair with Cameron Murray and begins blackmailing them both for the £30,000 that Chas originally stole from him. Carl asks Chas to run away with him and she agrees. However, after she marries Dan Spencer, Carl realises that she has no intention of being with him. He tries to rape her, but she hits him over the head with a brick, injuring him and runs off. Cameron finds a weak Carl and they fight. after Carl tells Cameron he will never be able to kill him because he is invincible Cameron then picks up another brick and hits Carl over the head once again finally killing him.

Reception

At the 2007 Inside Soap Awards Lister was nominated for the "Sexiest Male" award for his portrayal of Carl. The same year, at the British Soap Awards, the "Who killed Tom King?" storyline was nominated for "Best Storyline". At the 2008 Digital Spy Soap Awards Lister was nominated in the "Most Popular Actor" category. He was later nominated in the "Sexiest Male" category at the British Soap Awards in 2009. In 2012, Lister was nominated for the "Best Bad Boy" Award at the Inside Soap Awards and for "Villain of the Year" at the British Soap Awards.

The Guardian's Grace Dent commented that "Carl King is powerless when presented with sexy golddiggers like Eve. Carl absolutely cannot and will not stop marrying these awful women until he's living in the back of a Land Rover heating up Heinz London Grill with a lighter his wife's lawyer owns half of. A fool and his underpants are easily parted." Carl's death episode boosted the serial's viewing figures and helped secure the highest viewing figures of the year. Carl was Bookmakers favourite to be killed off during the live episode. In a poll run by Digital Spy to find who readers though would die in the live episode, Carl came first with nearly 50% of fans voting for him. In a similar poll run by Radio Times Carl was voted as the character readers felt would die with 47.51% of the votes. Regarding Carl's exit, David Brown of Radio Times joked that Carl received "death by polystyrene brick". Brown added that the live episode "Tom Lister, who’s played Carl since 2004, gave a barnstorming valedictory performance: in a show once described by Les Dawson as “Dallas with dung”, he really was a bucolic JR Ewing [...] But as Carl lay lifeless on the floor in those dying seconds, it really did feel like the end of an era. New babies - even when they have prophetic names like Jack Sugden – are ten-a-penny on soaps. But decent villains are priceless: at the moment, it’s hard to see who deserves to inherit the mighty Carl King’s crown".

See also

• King family
• List of soap opera villains

External links

• Character profile at itv.com
• Character profile at What's on TV