EE - How many bloody Brannings are there?? My head hurts.

trio

My head hurts trying to figure out the Branning family tree - it's insane.

OK, let me try to get this right:

There's Jim, and he seems to have 10,000 kids who pop up whenever they need a new character.

Then there's Max - he hates Jim because Jim abused him as a child (or something) but I was pretty baffled when Jim returned the other week as to why Jim hated Max. I guess I missed a few episodes which explained it, oh I don't know, two years ago and so the producers don't want to bother re-explaining.

He has 4 kids, Blushing Bradley who's married to Stacy who Max had an affair with (and now Stacey has a fierce snot on whenever she sees Max as if we forget the whole thing was pretty damn consensual - whatever Stacey)

Bradley calls Dot "Grandma" but I'm pretty sure he's just being nice as Dot and Jim married as geriatrics.

And there's Lauren, Abbi and never-seen-baby-Oscar ("Oscar's sleeping upstairs" - do they drug that kid?)

Then there's Jim's son Jack, whos now living with Max's not-yet-ex-wife Tanya. Tanya buried Max alive but is now also acting all self-righteous like we've forgotten it.

Jack is a plank of wood, but Jim adores him.

And there's newly arrived older sister Suzy, who says every line like it's a come-on. Suzy has Daddy issues, but seems to be protective of Max.

So far so kinda straightforward, but on Jim's arrival Bianca was all "Oh Grandad" and I was like WHA? I'd totally forgotten.

So I'm guessing Carol, Bianca's Mum, was another of Jims progeny, correct?



So does that mean that Bianca is the niece of Max, Jack and Suzy? And that she's Bradley, Lauren, Abbi and Oscars 1st cousin?

And that Bianca's kids have 2 great-uncles and 1 great-aunt living in the same Square?

Why then have they never spoken two words to each other? Do they even know each other? This is when my head starts to hurt. Who else is related to all these people?

Miss Gulch

There is also another sister April Branning, she was in it a few years ago, she was supposed to be getting married but got cold feet at the altar so Carol married Alan instead.

They have also mentioned a brother Derek but he has not been seen on screen yet!

duridian

The EE site at the BBC has family trees for every family.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/characters_cast/

Tupins

When Bianca came back a while ago there was a scene where Bradley called to her door and said something along the lines of " Hi Bianca, it's me your cousin Bradley" and then pointed to both their hair and said "see the family resmblance" (or something).

I remember watching it thinking - smooth!

But yeah, the other thing though is what is Sonias relationship to the Brannings? If Carol is her mother doesn't that make her Biancas sister? She definitely used to call Jim 'grandad' although as far as I remember she always called Dot 'Dot'!

duridian

Bianca and Sonia are half sisters. Both were Carol Jackson's kids, but Bianca's dad was David Wicks and Sonia's dad was Terry Cant. Just to complicate things further, their half brother Robbie Jackson has a different father as well, Garry Bolton. Then take a look at the kids by Bianca. Already three different fathers, and Bianca has still a good few childbearing years left.
Personally, I think that the writers probably create such ridiculously overly complicated families, so that they will always have a good supply of new-but-related-to-someone-in-Walford characters to replace any who might leave Albert Square, due to actors wanting a change of career, taking a sabbatical or whatever.

Tupins

True, but then they also bring in total strangers out of the blue like the girl that's now working on Stacey's stall. What's her story?? She just arrived and started chatting to people on the market!

Then there's another new guy, Stacey's admirer - again came from nowhere!

duridian

Tupins wrote: »

True, but then they also bring in total strangers out of the blue like the girl that's now working on Stacey's stall. What's her story?? She just arrived and started chatting to people on the market

Currently the most plausible theory is: (potential)

Danielle = Ronnie Mitchell's daughter, given up for adoption when Ronnie was 14. Ronnie's dad, Archie, claims the child died when only 1 year old, but Ronnie always claims her dad is a liar so it's likely he made that up.
Ronnie is meant to be mid 30's, Danielle is around 20 and both are blonde. It could well be true that they are mother and daughter.

Info given in these long boring dialogue type episodes is often used to prepare for near future storylines.

[Edit] I guess after tonight's ep, it's clear enough who Callum (Stacey's admirer) is as well.

trio

Duridian, if that turns out to be true, my eyeballs may very well roll out of my head and down the street. Especially if they play it like a total coincidence. Which they probably will....

What annoys me about EE is that they purposefully enlarge families with new characters - it's rarely someone utterly new, they're always a relation of someone. This is their MO, though I'm not sure why.

Possibly they think it's more plausible that new characters would move into the Square to be near distant family - though I can't think of anything less plausible than *counts* 13 members of the Branning family to live in the same Square, taking up about 4 or 5 different houses.

And if the logic goes that these people want to be near [Peggy Mitchell voice]"FAAHHHHMLY" [/PMV] then why then do the writers completely ignore their relationships, as in the case of Bianca and so far, everyone-but-one-brief-scene-with-Bradley?

If she ever even glances towards her uncles or her aunt in the next year I'll be shocked. It's most bizarre.

Tupins

trio wrote: »

And if the logic goes that these people want to be near [Peggy Mitchell voice]"FAAHHHHMLY"

LOL!

Yeah, there is a lot that's annoying about the storylines in soaps but at the end of the day I still can't stop watching them - totally addictive!:)

duridian

trio wrote: »

Duridian, if that turns out to be true, my eyeballs may very well roll out of my head and down the street. Especially if they play it like a total coincidence. Which they probably will....

Well I just got the idea from what they were discussing on another forum, so it is just specultaion, but like you said, this is their MO on Eastenders.

Conor108

They've fired Oscar (the baby)

Saint_Mel

Conor108 wrote: »

They've fired Oscar (the baby)

Heard that on the radio and the baby actors mother is trying to sue BBC for unfair dismissal! Cant have been a difficult part to play

Sharpshooter

duridian wrote: »

Currently the most plausible theory is: (potential)

Danielle = Ronnie Mitchell's daughter, given up for adoption when Ronnie was 14. Ronnie's dad, Archie, claims the child died when only 1 year old, but Ronnie always claims her dad is a liar so it's likely he made that up.
Ronnie is meant to be mid 30's, Danielle is around 20 and both are blonde. It could well be true that they are mother and daughter.

Info given in these long boring dialogue type episodes is often used to prepare for near future storylines.

[Edit] I guess after tonight's ep, it's clear enough who Callum (Stacey's admirer) is as well.

Sorry for going off topic here , but didn't they do something similar years ago with Mary ( Punk ) turning up in the square and ending up being someones daughter ( Kathy Beale l think ) she found out through Kathy being in the Samaritans or something.
And Kath didn't want to know.
Could be wrong , but it's come into my head for some reason.:pac:

dreamer_ire

sharpshooterH wrote: »

Sorry for going off topic here , but didn't they do something similar years ago with Mary ( Punk ) turning up in the square and ending up being someones daughter ( Kathy Beale l think ) she found out through Kathy being in the Samaritans or something.
And Kath didn't want to know.
Could be wrong , but it's come into my head for some reason.:pac:

Close sharp but it was Donna who was Kathy's daughter, she was raped as a teenager and gave her away

Sharpshooter

Thanks for that ,
lt was starting to bug me , have to get a life.:o

Sashy

Eastenders is addictive indeed, i think its a great show,

Sorry if this is off topic, but does anyone know how is peggy marrying another mitchell, i cant understand this, roxy's dad but peggy is related to roxy, but his name is archie mitchell??

dreamer_ire

Sashy wrote: »

Eastenders is addictive indeed, i think its a great show,

Sorry if this is off topic, but does anyone know how is peggy marrying another mitchell, i cant understand this, roxy's dad but peggy is related to roxy, but his name is archie mitchell??

My understanding is that she is marrying her dead husband's brother.... it really is deadenders lol

Sashy

Ah rite, i see now, i rarely miss an episode but they dont seem to make these things clear at all (unless I havnt been paying attention) !!
They like to keep things in the family!!

The other thing is how do they manage to have room to keep so many people in the one house like when the slaters first arrived, there must have been about 7 or 8 in the house!! How many bedrooms is there in these houses and Pats house does be full too!

kittex

duridian wrote: »

Bianca and Sonia are half sisters. Both were Carol Jackson's kids, but Bianca's dad was David Wicks.

Hang on, that would make Bianca and Ian's eldest, Stephen, brother and sister? Wicksie is his real dad.

And Wicksie is Pat's nephew, making Pat Bianca's grand aunt? I just thought she was letting them stay cos Ricky is Pat's step son via marriage to Frank.

Rightio.

EDIt: No, just looked it up and that makes Bianca and Stephen cousins, Simon Wicks is Stephen's dad. So that makes Ian's kids Bianca's half cousins?

kittex

Right, no. Wicksie 2 is Pat's son... so she Bianca's granny. Making Pat's interest in Bianca's sex life really creepy. But not as creepy as the obvious creepiness going on there. *shudders*

Is Tony Whitney's real Dad or her step Dad?

Cazlou

kittex wrote: »

Hang on, that would make Bianca and Ian's eldest, Stephen, brother and sister? Wicksie is his real dad.

And Wicksie is Pat's nephew, making Pat Bianca's grand aunt? I just thought she was letting them stay cos Ricky is Pat's step son via marriage to Frank.

Rightio.

EDIt: No, just looked it up and that makes Bianca and Stephen cousins, Simon Wicks is Stephen's dad. So that makes Ian's kids Bianca's half cousins?

Wicksie (Simon) and David were both Pat's sons - by different fathers. Pete Beale (Ian's dad) was Wicksie's father, so in effect Ian was raising his nephew (Stephen), if I remember right, Cindy at one stage tried to imply that David might've been the twins' dad when she was running away but I could be remembering wrong...



Tony's Whitney's stepdad, Bianca mentioned it last week.

Sharpshooter

Yes thats right , he is not the father of any of her children.
They are running a storyline

about paedophilia at the moment,turns out he is grooming more than one of her children

Hope it is handled in the right way.

Pigletlover

kittex wrote: »

Making Pat's interest in Bianca's sex life really creepy. But not as creepy as the obvious creepiness going on there. *shudders*

I was having my dinner last night when that was on :eek:

why is Pat so mad to show Tony off anyway? Is he supposed to be good looking?

kittex

sharpshooterH wrote: »

Yes thats right , he is not the father of any of her children.

Well Whitney's not Bianca's so I wasn't sure.

And Pete Beale is Wicksie's dad? That's so gross. Uggg.

duridian

Cazlou wrote:

Tony's Whitney's stepdad, Bianca mentioned it last week.

Bianca and Tony have never been married.
Whitney was "inherited" by Bianca from her deceased boyfriend Nathan Dean, with whom Bianca had Tiffany. (She never married Nathan either)
Whitney's natural mother, whether living or dead, has never been identified other than to tell us that it wasn't Bianca.
So in effect Bianca's status is that of Whitney's legal guardian, and the mother of her paternal half-sister.
No matter what Bianca says informally, formally that means Tony is just Whitney's guardian's boyfriend, not her stepfather.

Cazlou

duridian wrote: »

Bianca and Tony have never been married.
Whitney was "inherited" by Bianca from her deceased boyfriend Nathan Dean, with whom Bianca had Tiffany. (She never married Nathan either)
Whitney's natural mother, whether living or dead, has never been identified other than to tell us that it wasn't Bianca.
So in effect Bianca's status is that of Whitney's legal guardian, and the mother of her paternal half-sister.
No matter what Bianca says informally, formally that means Tony is just Whitney's guardian's boyfriend, not her stepfather.

Yes I'm well aware they were never married, the original question was if Tony was her real dad or stepdad, so instead of getting all pernickity(sp?) it was as easy to refer to him as her stepdad as meaning 'not her real father';)

duridian

Cazlou wrote: »

Yes I'm well aware they were never married, the original question was if Tony was her real dad or stepdad, so instead of getting all pernickity(sp?) it was as easy to refer to him as her stepdad as meaning 'not her real father';)

But the fact remains that he is not any kind of "dad" to Whitney, and saying otherwise is simply not stating the truth.
So, for example, if somebody said to you, "Is Dublin the capital of England, or is it the capital of France?", would you tell them that it was the capital of France, simply because it is easier than explaining that Dublin is in fact Ireland's capital?

I hardly think it is being pernickety, just to point out whatever connections there are between characters, especially in a soap like EE, with such complicated families, which incidentally is what this thread really started out about.

Cazlou

duridian wrote: »

But the fact remains that he is not any kind of "dad" to Whitney, and saying otherwise is simply not stating the truth.
So, for example, if somebody said to you, "Is Dublin the capital of England, or is it the capital of France?", would you tell them that it was the capital of France, simply because it is easier than explaining that Dublin is in fact Ireland's capital?

I hardly think it is being pernickety, just to point out whatever connections there are between characters, especially in a soap like EE, with such complicated families, which incidentally is what this thread really started out about.

Ok, without going too Off Topic, I think the problem here is differing definitions of what a parent or step-parent (as is the case here) is/can be!
You it seems are of the belief that a person must be either the biological-parent or married to a parent/guardian in order to be considered a 'mam' or 'dad'.
Whereas, I believe (and it seems to be how the writers have chosen to define it) if someone devotes time to raising a child in the place of a biological parent, i.e. a boyfriend/girlfriend of a biological parent/guardian, then they too (although not legally) can be referred to as a parent or step-parent.

So, to make it relevant, the writers made a point of Bianca explaining to Ricky that although Tony isn't Morgan's father, he was the one there for her when Morgan was born, and helped her raise Morgan and the others, so therefore she referred to him as Morgan's Dad, and the others' StepDad.

duridian

Cazlou wrote: »

Ok, without going too Off Topic, I think the problem here is differing definitions of what a parent or step-parent (as is the case here) is/can be!
You it seems are of the belief that a person must be either the biological-parent or married to a parent/guardian in order to be considered a 'mam' or 'dad'.
Whereas, I believe (and it seems to be how the writers have chosen to define it) if someone devotes time to raising a child in the place of a biological parent, i.e. a boyfriend/girlfriend of a biological parent/guardian, then they too (although not legally) can be referred to as a parent or step-parent.

So, to make it relevant, the writers made a point of Bianca explaining to Ricky that although Tony isn't Morgan's father, he was the one there for her when Morgan was born, and helped her raise Morgan and the others, so therefore she referred to him as Morgan's Dad, and the others' StepDad.

The point of Bianca explaining that stuff to Ricky was to show that Tony wasn't connected by blood to any of her kids, not even Morgan, not to redefine what a step-parent is. Thus making it more apparent that his only real interest in Bianca family was his perverted lust for Whitney. I do not narrow the term parent down in the way you have outlined .That would also exclude adoption and fostering, which I view as legit parental situations. However I do not consider every tom, dick or harry boyfriend that comes along to be somebody's stepfather, especially when the character is being developed in the manner that Tony is at the moment.
That is why I said what Bianca says informally has very little relevance. Do you honestly think she'll consider him anyone's stepdad in three or four weeks time, when it gets out that he's been abusing Whitney?

Cazlou

duridian wrote: »

The point of Bianca explaining that stuff to Ricky was to show that Tony wasn't connected by blood to any of her kids, not even Morgan, not to redefine what a step-parent is. Thus making it more apparent that his only real interest in Bianca family was his perverted lust for Whitney. I do not narrow the term parent down in the way you have outlined .That would also exclude adoption and fostering, which I view as legit parental situations. However I do not consider every tom, dick or harry boyfriend that comes along to be somebody's stepfather, especially when the character is being developed in the manner that Tony is at the moment.
That is why I said what Bianca says informally has very little relevance. Do you honestly think she'll consider him anyone's stepdad in three or four weeks time, when it gets out that he's been abusing Whitney?

Well duhhh! Obviously she's not!:rolleyes: but as the viewer we know what's going on, whereas the 'character' has yet to find out.
What I was saying was, in REAL LIFE - (which is why I said I don't want to be dragging the thread off topic)(oh and I counted Adoption and fostering under the umbrella of the Legal forms of parenthood) that just because a couple aren't married, doesn't mean a longterm partner should automatically be disregarded as 'having no connection whatsoever' to a child they have helped to raise.

Anyways, I think the Poster (who asked what the relationship was) has their answer either way so maybe the thread can get back to what it was - establishing who are Brannings and who aren't.

duridian

Whether they should or they shouldn't be disregarded is just opinion, it doesn't change the fact that as society stands, they have no status, title or claim to the child in those circumstances.
The actual question posed by kittex:

kittex wrote:

Is Tony Whitney's real Dad or her step Dad?

To which you replied:

Cazlou wrote:

...
Tony's Whitney's stepdad, Bianca mentioned it last week.

Bianca does not say this. She actually says "He's been a real dad to Morgan, he loves Morgan, he loves all my kids, so for me that means he is Morgan's dad..."
- "for me" implies opinion, Bianca a fictional character's opinion, nothing more solid I'm afraid. Surely you don't think we can judge the writer's personal opinion from that. What about if characters hold different views to each other, what then, schizophrenic writers?
But in any case that is about Morgan; she doesn't say he is Whitney's "anything", just that he loves her kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuQydYKnOXc

Anyway, I think you are concentrating too much on this as some sort of battlecry for quasi-parenthood and ignoring something much more obvious. The scene isn't really about Ricky and Bianca, nor as some thought is it about racism (on other forums), it isn't even about defining parenthood in whatever form. The main thing the scene drives home, from a storytelling perspective, is to show that Tony's acceptance of such a mixed bag of kids, not one of whom is related to him, simply sounds too good to be true, as indeed we now know is the case. The scene is just the first real installment of the abuse storyline, all other points are just dressing.
Please note Cazlou, I am not "against" people who help to look after kids from their partners previous relationships, in fact I'd praise someone highly if they genuinely and truly made such a commitment. But that said, I also do not think the terms "mom" and "dad" are something to be taken lightly and should not be used in just any similar circumstance.