Carmel Jackson

Carmel Jackson (also Roberts) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Judith Jacob from 5 June 1986 to 24 August 1989. Carmel, a health visitor, was initially introduced in a recurring, minor role in 1986, when she is credited as "health visitor". Producers saw potential in the character, and script writers were asked to develop more prominent storylines, and Carmel became a regular character. She is portrayed as a well-meaning, caring individual who is forever getting everyone's problems dumped on her. She is featured in storylines about domestic violence and various family and career upsets. Jacob remained in the role until 1989, when she opted to leave. Off-screen, the character was the subject of criticism regarding the portrayal of her profession from the Health Visitors Association.

In July 1984, before EastEnders went to air, the show's creators, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, attended an opening evening at the Anna Scher Theatre School in North London, in order to find actors for roles in their upcoming serial. According to Holland and Smith, Anna Scher's school was unlike many other drama schools, where students were "ironed out", all looking and sounding the same. At Anna Scher's school, students' natural personalities and accents were encouraged, "her students aren't taught how to act, they're helped to dig inside themselves and be." In Holland and Smith's own words, this was "just the sort of non-acting that [EastEnders] was looking for".

Often, former students who were already working in the acting profession attended Scher's classes, and on the night Holland and Smith attended, actress Judith Jacob performed. Holland and Smith described Jacob as "an old friend", as they had previously worked with her on their medical drama Angels, where Jacob had played nurse Beverley Slater between 1979 and 1981. Following the end of the class, Holland and Smith concluded that Judith Jacob "had been as good as ever", but that "there wasn't really a part for her" in the original character line-up.

However, in 1986, a year after the soap had first aired, Jacob was recruited by Julia Smith and offered a part in the serial, the minor role of Carmel Roberts, a health visitor who tended to the character Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) after the birth of her baby Vicki. In his book, EastEnders: The First 10 Years, author and EastEnders scriptwriter Colin Brake has used Carmel as an example of the way minor characters can develop in EastEnders: "Often a new character is introduced for a limited number of episodes, to serve a particular storyline or the story function. If the casting is good and the character 'works' on the screen, then the writers may be asked if there is potential in the character for further appearances." This occurred with the character of Carmel, and later in 1986 she was reintroduced as a regular character, moving to the soap's focal setting of Albert Square.

As Walford's health visitor, Carmel's principal purpose was to act as an advisor to the troubled residents of Albert Square. In the EastEnders Handbook, author Hilary Kingsley describes Carmel as "saintly by nature", adding "if anyone deserved a medal for patience it was Carmel Roberts when she was working as Albert Square's health visitor".

In 1987, an extended family was introduced for Carmel, including her brother Darren (Gary McDonald), and his two children Junior (Aaron Carrington) and Aisha (Aisha Jacob). According to the EastEnders Handbook, parents of young child actors were sometimes upset unavoidably during filming of EastEnders. For instance, the parents of the baby who played Hassan Osman were affected when their baby was used in a storyline about cot death, as they had not been warned. This problem was avoided with the two-year-old girl who played Carmel's niece, Aisha Roberts, as she was the real-life daughter of actress Judith Jacob. The writers "obligingly" called the young character Aisha, to make it less confusing for the actors. The idea to use Jacob's real daughter had come from the serial's co-creator Julia Smith. Jacob was initially against the idea. In an interview she commented, "Children on the set can be so horrible", due to awkwardness inherent in disciplining someone else's child in the workplace. However, she has said that she found it hard to turn Julia Smith down, and realised that she would get to spend more time with her daughter if she also was working on the set of EastEnders. This caused a problem once on-screen, when Aisha referred to Carmel as "mummy", even though Aisha's character was not Carmel's daughter. Despite the inconsistency, the producers left the scene in.

Carmel's storylines included a brief relationship with a toyboy, Kelvin Carpenter (Paul Medford), and numerous family and career-based problems. In 1988, Carmel gained a new partner, a white man named Matthew Jackson, played by Steven Hartley. The characters were shown to marry in a register office in January 1989, beginning a domestic violence storyline. By March 1989, Matthew was beating Carmel. This was the first time that EastEnders had dealt with the issue of domestic violence. After several months of abuse, a "particularly violent" incident ended with Junior stabbing Matthew with a kitchen knife to protect his aunt. By July 1989, the marriage "was as good as dead". Jacob has commented, "It was a great part to play. People couldn’t understand how a professional woman can stay with someone who beats her. That shows the durability of the character."

Jacob opted to leave the serial in 1989, and she has since commented that "They didn’t want me to leave, and made me a couple of offers to stay", but leaving seemed like the right thing to do at the time. On-screen Carmel's marriage collapsed, and the following month her father died, so she left Walford to tend to her grieving mother. She last appeared in August 1989.