Carmel Jackson - Reception

Reception

Co-creator of EastEnders, Julia Smith, has been quoted as saying, "Our EastEnd setting was chosen for the diversity of its past — the strong culture it has and the multi-racial community that has developed." However, the way that EastEnders treated their black characters during the 1980s has been criticized. Stephen Bourne, author of Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television has commented that " black characters have rarely been as interesting as their white counterparts, or been given storylines of any substance...Viewers were more likely to tune in to watch the antics of Dirty Den, his wife Angie and bad boy Nick Cotton, than the Carpenter family and Carmel." In Robert Clyde Allen's book, To be Continued--: Soap Operas Around the World, Christine Geraghty has added "none of the black families rivaled the Fowler/Beale position at the heart of the programme's structure, and black characters were pushed to the margins of the story-lines. Carmel and Darren clearly had an extended family along the lines of the Fowler/Beale nexus but its other members were rarely seen."

Conversely, in The Black and White Media Show Book, edited by John Twitchin of BBC TV's Continuing Education Department (published in 1988), EastEnders is praised for portraying black people on mainstream television, and for giving them "respectable, fleshed-out parts which allow them to be the most difficult of things — 'normal people'." Additionally, actress Judith Jacob has said that she looks back on her three years in EastEnders only with "delight". She has also said that she disagrees with the criticism EastEnders gets for paying "token lip service to blacks and minorities, who are usually depicted stereotypically." In 2006, she commented to the Walford Gazette, "EastEnders was the only show to black actors. Coronation Street just recently started bringing in black characters. There has always been a good flow of people in EastEnders."

Further criticism has been aimed at Carmel's portrayal as a health visitor. In the late 1980s, a specialist nursing magazine called Nursing Times had a feature on the character, remarking that she "has come in for quite a bit of stick from HVA members who haven't felt that the character gives a good impression of their role". HVA members expressed disappointment that the character "has not developed in a way which promotes the role of health visitors more positively." Roma Iskander, who had discussed the role with EastEnders scriptwriters on behalf of the HVA, said that "Carmel isn't a positive image of a black woman or a health visitor." The magazine article suggested that Carmel's personal problems with family and clients served her right "for moving to Albert Square in the first place. Health visitors be warned — don't live on your work patch". However, in Dominic Strinati's book, Come on Down?: Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain, Christine Geraghty has argued that "the credibility of Carmel's character in the soap depended on her being part of the life of the Square, regularly and unproblematically available as a source of advice and support in her professional capacity as well as the focus of interest in terms of her personal life." Geraghty has said that tension arose from conflict in the 1980s soaps "between a desire to be positive about a particular issue and a commitment to credibility in terms of character and setting. The HVA, it would appear, want Carmel to be a model health visitor, demonstrating a wide range of skills in a professional manner. But the credibility of Carmel's character in the soap depends on her being a character who is part of the life of the Square, a professional who makes mistakes and whose personal life is almost a source of interest. Quite clearly, the demands for a positive image for health visitors as a profession are less pressing than the necessiity to be able to deploy Carmel as a soap opera character. Those making the programme are quite certain that this is the way it must be."