Mary Smith (EastEnders)
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| Duration | 1985 - 1988 | ||||||
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Mary Smith (Punk Mary) was a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She was played by Linda Davidson.
Punk Mary was Walford's original wild child. She often made life difficult for herself due to her stubborn, defensive nature and she tended to feel that everyone around her was out to get her. Infact Mary was her own worst enemy and most of her misfortune was down to her irresponsible behaviour and her inability to heed good advice.
Mary's story
Mary arrived in Walford in 1985 when she moved into Reg Cox's old flat, following his death. Originally from the North, Mary moved to London when she fell pregnant as she wanted to escape her overbearing family, who viewed Mary's choice of lifestyle with contempt.
Mary was the young, single, mother of baby Annie, and she found bringing her daughter up extrememly difficult. She had little money and virtually no experience, and her incapability to listen to anyone's advice meant that Mary would often make mistakes with her daughter's welfare. This was compounded by the fact that Mary couldn't read and baby Annie was nearly harmed when Mary gave her daughter the wrong dosage of medication. Nurse Andy O'Brien took Mary under his wing and undertook the difficult task of teaching her to read. This backfired on him, however, when Mary decided she was in love with him. Andy was forced to reject her advances and an anxt-ridden Mary spitefully sabotaged his property to repay him.
Mary also made an unlikely friendship with local busy body Dot Cotton, who would regularly be put upon to babysit for baby Annie whilst Mary went out to party or earn cash. Although Dot liked to preach to Mary, she was one of the only people that Mary listened to on the square.
Strapped for cash, Mary found it difficult to provide for Annie, so she began stripping to earn some money and she would regularly dance for the married shop keeper Saeed Jeffery. Later a dsperate Mary was persuaded to turn to prostitution by local villain Nick Cotton, who worked as her pimp. Her unsocial hours meant that she was often forced to leave baby Annie alone at night whilst she went out to work the streets. This culminated in baby Annie nearly dying one night when she was left alone. Luckily for Mary she survived, but social services took Annie away from her as a result.
In 1987, Mary began a relationship with Rod Norman; a good-hearted, scruffy, layabout who had a soft-spot for women in distress. Rod was a good influence on Mary and desperately tried to get her off 'the game' and back on the 'straight and narrow'. Rod was also instrumental in helping Mary regain custody of Annie, who was now in the care of Mary's parents.
Mary's father, Chris Smith, came to visit her in 1987, bringing baby Annie back to an overjoyed Mary. However disaster struck on Christmas day that year when her drunk father crashed his car whilst driving Mary and baby Annie home. Annie survived, but Mary would not forgive her father for his near fatal mistake. In 1988, however, Mary grew tired of struggling to pay her rent and after beng evicted from her flat she made the decision to go back up North to her parents, with Annie in tow.