Oh, it was very well researched and plotted. All of the Costellos big storylines were.

She was the first actor to ever win a BSA for the show, and rightly deserved it was. It put the show on the map, and got people to look at it differently. This was why the cancellation was such a shock. I guess Channel 5 were tiring of the show, and thought the positive exposure of the awards would suddenly translate into bigger ratings, which didn't happen. They said the show had a £1 million budget, and it was a cost saving measure; I guess splashing £40 million on Home & Away left them strapped for cash...

Edited October 20, 201213 yr by Ben

The Yasmin stuff in the first articles in this post - was that a main story, or a B or C level story? I think the brothers both wanting her is a little trite.

It seems like they wanted to take Pete's stories in a very different direction when he returned, as there's no mention of crime sagas.

Was Charlotte gone by the time he hooked up with her sister?

Someone uploaded this episode to Dailymotion earlier this year. Not sure what time period of the show its from.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xo8vs1_family-affairs-channel-51997-rar_shortfilms

Yasmin's story with Deke and Ziggy wasn't a main story; it was probably a C-story. I never liked it. None of it felt true, and Yasmin never suited either character. Both characters were dire. I was glad when they left town.

The crime stuff was toned down, but not for long...

Charlotte didn't stick around for as long as I would've liked. She was a good character, who only lasted several months. I can't remember if Charlotte was still around when Pete/Lucy happened - I want to say she wasn't... But don't quote me on that. LOL.

That episode looks like it is from 1998-99, give or take a year.

This first article should have featured further above.

Edited October 27, 201213 yr by Ben

That last story sounds very good.

So Pete was with mother and her two daughters. That's one of those wonderful soap records I can never remember how many others have reached.

I'm so sorry Carl (and to anyone else) that the articles have all been deleted. Photobucket redesigned their layout, so I took the opportunity to reorganise the scans, not realizing the links would change! Doh!

I don't remember too much about the Cheryl stalker story. She was a guest character, so she didn't stick around for long. She and Dave weren't that great a couple, IMO. They seemed like they were for the long haul.

I had to laugh at both ladies saying they didn't want their character with Marc. Way to inspire voting!

Who did he choose?

This story doesn't sound very interesting to me.

Marc (or the viewers) chose Yasmin. However, Geri ended up getting cancer, and Yasmin, finally finding her self respect and dignity (and out of loyalty to Geri) kicked Marc out and got a divorce! Due to the viewer vote, Marc stayed around for a little while not doing anything, until he left town, only to return a year later wanting to get back with Yasmin.

It was more interesting on screen, however, Marc wasn't an interesting character, really. It was also the first time a British soap had launched an interactive service like this. I did wonder if TPTB were inspired by Days viewer vote in 2001, to choose the father of Hope's baby...

This is the last batch of articles. I'll post some character/story bios to help fill in the blanks of some these, too.

Edited November 1, 201213 yr by Ben

From the side in that one article Caleb looks like Lenny Henry.

The show seemed committed to a diverse canvas, at least.

I'd never heard of this Denise.

Did Sean and Tanya do artificial insemination?

The longer the show went on, the more diverse it got. I'd say, it was the best at diversity, as you never really had stereotypes, and they weren't afraid to mix it up and have black or Asian characters be both villains and good guys, or gay characters not being just white. You know what I mean? These days, everything is scrutinised and analysed, and people complain about this and that. I guess maybe being a minority soap, it was never in the public spotlight to be critiqued to death.

The Boulters came into the latter half of 2005, and while the family wasn't that great to begin with, Denise's rape put them on the map and showcased how talented they were (well, how talented Denise was - she'll be good on EE, I hope).

I'm sure Sean and Tanya did... it sounds familiar, and a story that writes itself.

I'm not seeing the Lenny Henry comparison, but maybe that's b/c he's older and tubbier these days.

He looks like him in that Final Kiss article.

So the Boulters came in at the very end?

Looking at Wiki, I'm totally mistaken. It says the Boulters arrived in December 2003 and were all gone by the latter half of 2005. This makes more sense, otherwise their stories would have been all squashed in to a few months!

Here's a brief story overview for Denise Boulter.

Denise, along with her husband Les and children Brendan and Kelly moved into Stanley Street in December 2003 shortly after the death of Roy Farmer in the cybercafe fire. Denise and her husband purchased the corner cafe and number 16 Stanley Street from Roy's widow Nikki Warrington. They started a restaurant on the site of the cafe and the family moved in to number 16. Les's old friend Caleb Andrews (Steve Toussaint) was employed to work in the restaurant as a cook.

Denise initially tried to keep secret the truth about a long-ago affair with Caleb, and the fact that Brendan was actually Caleb's son. Denise and Caleb resumed their affair, but quickly ended it when Denise realised she loved Les, however Les found out about it soon after.

During her time on Stanley Street, Denise built up strong friendships with Cat MacKenzie, Chrissy Costello, Eileen Callan and Cheryl Barker. The five of them formed a pub darts team.

While walking home one night in December 2004, Denise was raped by an unidentified assailant. Les immediately suspected Christian Habgood, Denise's tutor at Charnham College. However when entering the car of local taxi driver Graham Harker (Lee Warburton) Denise suspected him of the crime based only on her recollections of the smell of his aftershave and his usage of the phrase "Scout's honour". The police questioned Harker, but no forensic evidence could be found to link him to the crime and they were forced to release him due to lack of evidence. Denise persisted with her desire to see him arrested, and eventually learned the true identity of her attacker.

Shortly after this Denise discovered that Les had been to see prostitutes on a number of occasions. Marriage counselling was unsuccessful, the couple split and in late 2005 Denise moved away. Her daughter Kelly and granddaughter Susie later joined her.

That taxi rape story was originally on Brookside, I think.

Really?! It was a good storyline. Graham was one of those characters who was nice to everyone, but then nasty to Denise. At one point, she let doubt filter through and started to believe she was mistaken and even apologised to him, but then he switched and revealed she was right all along. He was so nasty and creepy, who had no remorse; he totally got off on terrorising/taunting her, knowing that no-one believed her. It went on for months, and was so good when Denise was finally able to unmask him.

Here's Pete and Eileen's bios, and you can see how there stories intertwine.

Pete entered the storyline in June 1997. As Maria's callous former husband he was disliked by most of her friends, the Hart and Gates families and their associates. Nevertheless he took over running the local bar restaurant The Lock where they all regularly hung out. Pete developed a deep seated enmity with Roy Farmer, and later developed similar rivalries with his employee Josh Matthews and Josh's father Dave.

Despite his thuggish tendencies Pete was revealed to have a love of children. During a brief and troubled marriage to Claire Toomey, he was nevertheless a devoted stepfather to her twins Evan and Stella.

After splitting from Claire, Pete embarked upon a De facto marriage to Dave' ex-wife Cat for several months, but it was eventually revealed to have been a con perpetrated by Pete to exact revenge on Dave and to swindle Cat out of her home. He had convinced her to sign over ownership of her home to him as a formality to expedite a business transaction. After this was done he revealed the con to her, ended the relationship, and kept the house. Soon after this Cat found she was pregnant. At first there was doubt as to whether the child was Pete's or Dave's. Tests showed the child to be Pete's.

After selling The Lock and buying the pub The Black Swan, Pete reemployed Josh as a barman to pay off a debt. Pete later murdered Josh, framing his then-wife Siobhan for the crime. She was found guilty and given a suspended sentence. Soon after the trial she realised that Pete had framed her. Pete was imprisoned (on remand) for a lengthy period starting December 2003 after being framed for arson by his then-wife Eileen. He returned after being acquitted at his trial in June 2004.

He continued in Charnham until September 2005 when he was shot dead during an armed standoff with S019 officers.

Pete was a very iconic Family Affairs character. He was born on 9 July 1959 in Liverpool or London but was living in Stepney, London by the time he was 11. His real father's first name is unknown but his Scouse mother Joan, who we saw in the series, remarried when Pete was 11 and Pete suffered years of abuse at the hands of his stepfather. His mum knew but never did anything. Pete was charged for his stepfather's manslaughter in 1975 and sentenced to 3 years in prison. He had an affair the very early 1980s with Patsy Jones, the wife of his mate Reg and Patsy gave birth to Julie Ann in 1981 but Pete never knew Julie Ann was his until 18 years later. He married Maria in the 1980s and made his debut in Charnham in 1997.

Eileen first arrived in Charnham, in October 2002, where her daughters Charlotte and Lucy were living. Charlotte resented this and left immediately, but Lucy was happy to see her mother again. Pete Callan, Charlotte's ex-boyfriend, viewed Eileen with not much regard but things came to a head on Christmas Day when Pete and Eileen kissed.

Eileen went on to have a complex relationship with Pete, which managed to survive her sleeping with Lucy's boyfriend, Jake Walker. When Eileen found out Lucy had tried to commit suicide after sleeping with Pete, who rejected her, she set about getting revenge.

Eileen formulated a plan to marry Pete so she could divorce him and take half of his money, but this revenge plan got complicate once Mike Shaw, Eileen's former boyfriend and pimp was in the mix. Mike organised a scheme to have Pete put away for arson, by setting fire to The local cybercafe which was owned by Pete's enemy, local resident Roy Farmer. The plan backfired as Roy was killed in the fire while saving his wife, Nikki Warrington.

Pete was arrested on his and Eileen's wedding day, which occurred coincidentally on the same day as Roy's funeral. Eileen was made interim licensee of the Black Swan Pub Pete owned.

During this period, Eileen's conscience managed to get the best of her and she told Dave about it. Dave, having a soft spot Eileen, covered for her and agreed to work several shifts in the bar.

When Sam Taylor arrived in Charnham, looking for Bar work in May 2004, little did Eileen know she was staring at the son she had given away. It wasn't until an argument caused by Sam's clumsiness that the truth was revealed. Lucy, who had taken a liking to Sam was disgusted when she found he was her half-brother. Eileen revealed to Sam that Mike was his father.

On the day of Pete's trial, Mike turned up and attempted to rape Eileen, Dave and Lucy were quick to intervene. Mike lunged for Eileen but Lucy pushed him to the floor in the bathroom, causing his death. Pete, having been acquitted of Roy's murder came home to witness this and devised a plan to dump Mike's body at a footbridge.

Mike's body was found and Eileen was forced to come clean to Sam, who lied to the police to protect her.

Eileen then found herself at the mercy of a stalker who had known of her plot; It turned out it was none other than her old friend Trish Wallace, who had also dated Mike when they were younger. It transpired that Trish had been seeing Mike while living in Hastings and fallen pregnant but had miscarried.

Trish then preceded to get Pete onside and provided him with the tape of Eileen confessing to frame Pete. This culminated in Pete throwing Eileen in the River Thames on their first wedding anniversary, after playing the tape back to her.

Eileen and Pete were separated for several weeks with Pete having an affair with barmaid Katie Williams and Eileen seeking refuge with Dave and had a little fling. Both these affairs fizzled out once Pete and Eileen realised they loved each other.

That Summer, Trish returned with the news that she was pregnant. Eileen figured out Pete was the father and agreed to make a deal with Trish about the baby. Pete had always wanted a baby with Eileen but Eileen had suffered several miscarriages. Trish began manipulating things and stirring up trouble for the Callans. Trish eventually gave birth to a baby boy, Thomas.

In September 2005, on the day of Thomas' christening, Trish appeared upstairs at the pub with a gun and held the Callans and Katie hostage. Pete managed to wrestle the gun away from Trish and shoot her with it. Worse was to come when S019 officers stormed the pub and ordered Pete to drop the gun. Pete took a shot at the police and was killed for his trouble.

Eileen was left depressed as Pete had died and left her with nothing and everything to his two sons, Davie and Thomas. To repay Pete for this, Eileen flushed his ashes down the toilet. After Thomas had been taken into care following Trish's arrest, Eileen's mental state went from bad to worse, alienating many locals including her friend, Chrissy Costello.

One night that October, Eileen set fire to the pub. Everyone had feared she committed suicide, but she was alive and well. Eileen decided to bid farewell to Charnham after getting in contact with her brother in Australia.

Two months later on New Year's Eve (the series' final episode), Eileen returned to Charnham having won the lottery and purchased two houses in Chigwell, one for her and one for her friend Chrissy and her family.

No mention of the threesome.

Why did Pete shoot at the police? Was he wanted? Was he having a breakdown?

Eileen sounds like such a mess I'm surprised the town was happy to have her back.

So they brought her back because they knew the show was ending? That was nice of them. Did they bring anyone else back?