Remember when Shirley Carter sprang upon our scenes back in 2007? How she contrived, with the help of an old friend of Kevin's, to show up when he and the kids were on a break on the South Coast, just so she could meet her children?
We found out that Shirley was really the Kat of her day - marrying a decent bloke, having a disabled child and then cheating on him twice (at least) with one night stands, resulting in the birth of two more children. We found out that, when all of the children were very young, Shirley did a runner. Walked out. Left.
In short, she left her husband and kids, left the heavy-duty work for Kevin to do and returned only after they'd finished school and started their own adult lives, expecting to be welcomed with opened arms. As time progressed - in fact, after the kids, themselves, had left Walford - we found out that she'd really left her life as a wife and mother to return to party down and look after her malleable and much-bullied best friend, Heather.
In many ways, Heather was like a surrogate child for Shirley. When Heather was beleagured by her own bitch of a mother, Shirley stepped into the breach to encourage her and give her confidence, and then stepped out of the breach whenever a man caught her fancy. I've no doubt that Shirley loved Heather, but she loved her at her convenience. She rescued Heather from her mother, but only because she needed Heather's deposit and second income for the flat she wanted to rent. At best, she and Heather were a team against the world, with Shirley benevolently tolerating Heather's obsession with the Eighties and her attitude stunted in an adolescence filled with George Michael adoration; at worst, she was as much of a brutish bully to Heather as Queenie had been, dropping her abruptly whenever she sniffed the right odour of testosterone.
Heather pointed out once how Shirley had dropped Heather from a great height in order to be with Kevin; she then left Heather homeless on a park bench, in order to help Phil through one of his addiction crises.
Phil was Shirley's weak spot. The love of her life.
Shirley adores Phil and lives only for him to tell her he loves her. In fact, Phil Mitchell validates Shirley. She went from strong zero to weak hero with him. Her status in the community is contingent upon Phil Mitchell's goodwill. She loves him, but for Phil, Shirley is a friend with benefits.
To begin with, Shirley is not the type of woman to whom Phil Mitchell is attractive. Phil likes soft, feminine women with a core of steel. Shirley isn't feminine in the least, and any pretence of a backbone went out the window the moment Phil Mitchell slept in her bed more than once. In fact, for the longest time, Phil could only sleep with Shirley when he was drunk - so Shirley contrived to keep him in a state of inebriation and drank with him, herself, to ensure that he stayed with her, all the time, knowing that Phil was an alcoholic.
The one thing Shirl had in her favour, however, was the fact that, for some unknown reason, Ben had bonded with her - but then, sociopaths often form bonds with inappropriate people. After the Stella fiasco, Phil welcomed this association, even moreso after Shirl contrived to lie to Social Services about being Phil's partner in order that he might obtain temporary custody of Louise.
Still, Phil threw all this back in Shirl's face, culminating in his cheating on her with Glenda Mitchell. The lowest point in Shirley's life came when, discovering Phil's betrayal, she asked him to promise complete fidelity to her before their ceremony on the day they were to wed.
He couldn't.
Instead, he simply said he couldn't promise to remain faithful to her, because, simply, that's the way he was.
That was tantamount to an admission that he didn't love her. She should have run a mile. Instead, Shirl decided to stay, but not marry him. She buckled and became a doormat, attaching herself like a leech to the Mitchell name and legacy and even debasing herself in the hope that one day Phil might say the three magic words: I love you.
Well, he's said that now, but not because he honestly loves her. He's said he loved her, in order to get her back onside Team Mitchell, especially in the cover-up of Heather's murder. And it's working. Shirley is now moving on from Heather's death, living with "her boys", flattered at Ben's declaring that she was his true mother, and all the while, blithely unaware of the dreadful and terrible secret "her boys" are keeping from her: the fact that her "son" Ben bludgeoned her best mate, Heather, to death the night before Heather's wedding, the fact that Ben would quite happily have seen Andrew Cotton or his own cousin Billy Mitchell be arrested for that murder, the fact that Ben harboured the murder weapon upstairs in his dingy little room all these months, and the fact that Phil's covering all of this up.
When the shit hits the fan, Shirley will be a casualty, and she'll lose everything - her home, her pseudo-family, her dignity and maybe even her fortitude. She lost her backbone ages ago.
What a waste of a great character.
We found out that Shirley was really the Kat of her day - marrying a decent bloke, having a disabled child and then cheating on him twice (at least) with one night stands, resulting in the birth of two more children. We found out that, when all of the children were very young, Shirley did a runner. Walked out. Left.
In short, she left her husband and kids, left the heavy-duty work for Kevin to do and returned only after they'd finished school and started their own adult lives, expecting to be welcomed with opened arms. As time progressed - in fact, after the kids, themselves, had left Walford - we found out that she'd really left her life as a wife and mother to return to party down and look after her malleable and much-bullied best friend, Heather.
In many ways, Heather was like a surrogate child for Shirley. When Heather was beleagured by her own bitch of a mother, Shirley stepped into the breach to encourage her and give her confidence, and then stepped out of the breach whenever a man caught her fancy. I've no doubt that Shirley loved Heather, but she loved her at her convenience. She rescued Heather from her mother, but only because she needed Heather's deposit and second income for the flat she wanted to rent. At best, she and Heather were a team against the world, with Shirley benevolently tolerating Heather's obsession with the Eighties and her attitude stunted in an adolescence filled with George Michael adoration; at worst, she was as much of a brutish bully to Heather as Queenie had been, dropping her abruptly whenever she sniffed the right odour of testosterone.
Heather pointed out once how Shirley had dropped Heather from a great height in order to be with Kevin; she then left Heather homeless on a park bench, in order to help Phil through one of his addiction crises.
Phil was Shirley's weak spot. The love of her life.
Shirley adores Phil and lives only for him to tell her he loves her. In fact, Phil Mitchell validates Shirley. She went from strong zero to weak hero with him. Her status in the community is contingent upon Phil Mitchell's goodwill. She loves him, but for Phil, Shirley is a friend with benefits.
To begin with, Shirley is not the type of woman to whom Phil Mitchell is attractive. Phil likes soft, feminine women with a core of steel. Shirley isn't feminine in the least, and any pretence of a backbone went out the window the moment Phil Mitchell slept in her bed more than once. In fact, for the longest time, Phil could only sleep with Shirley when he was drunk - so Shirley contrived to keep him in a state of inebriation and drank with him, herself, to ensure that he stayed with her, all the time, knowing that Phil was an alcoholic.
The one thing Shirl had in her favour, however, was the fact that, for some unknown reason, Ben had bonded with her - but then, sociopaths often form bonds with inappropriate people. After the Stella fiasco, Phil welcomed this association, even moreso after Shirl contrived to lie to Social Services about being Phil's partner in order that he might obtain temporary custody of Louise.
Still, Phil threw all this back in Shirl's face, culminating in his cheating on her with Glenda Mitchell. The lowest point in Shirley's life came when, discovering Phil's betrayal, she asked him to promise complete fidelity to her before their ceremony on the day they were to wed.
He couldn't.
Instead, he simply said he couldn't promise to remain faithful to her, because, simply, that's the way he was.
That was tantamount to an admission that he didn't love her. She should have run a mile. Instead, Shirl decided to stay, but not marry him. She buckled and became a doormat, attaching herself like a leech to the Mitchell name and legacy and even debasing herself in the hope that one day Phil might say the three magic words: I love you.
Well, he's said that now, but not because he honestly loves her. He's said he loved her, in order to get her back onside Team Mitchell, especially in the cover-up of Heather's murder. And it's working. Shirley is now moving on from Heather's death, living with "her boys", flattered at Ben's declaring that she was his true mother, and all the while, blithely unaware of the dreadful and terrible secret "her boys" are keeping from her: the fact that her "son" Ben bludgeoned her best mate, Heather, to death the night before Heather's wedding, the fact that Ben would quite happily have seen Andrew Cotton or his own cousin Billy Mitchell be arrested for that murder, the fact that Ben harboured the murder weapon upstairs in his dingy little room all these months, and the fact that Phil's covering all of this up.
When the shit hits the fan, Shirley will be a casualty, and she'll lose everything - her home, her pseudo-family, her dignity and maybe even her fortitude. She lost her backbone ages ago.
What a waste of a great character.
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