Patrick Trueman - Creation and Development

Creation and Development

Patrick was introduced by John Yorke as a replacement parental figure to the Trueman brothers; Anthony (Nick Bailey) and Paul (Gary Beadle), following the departure of Audrey Trueman (Corinne Skinner-Carter), the mother of Anthony and Paul who was killed-off in September 2001. Patrick first appeared at Audrey's "rum-fuelled wake" as her estranged husband. Walker was keen to play a comic element to the character; telling Larry Jaffee of Walford Gazette, "Before joining, I told the producer comedy is an area I would like to explore with the character because there was not enough of it in the show. Patrick treats a lot of things with a certain amount of humour. His way of escaping a problem is to find something funny to do or say or sometimes to get himself out of a tight corner. That’s really the sort of foundation. I try to put as much humour as possible into the character."

Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) was introduced in 2004 as a love interest for Patrick. Following their screen marriage in 2004, the characters were involved in the BBC's season "Taking Care", which covered issues "surrounding a different kind of childhood". The Truemans were involved in a storyline about fostering after they decided to foster a 14 year old boy, JJ, following an encounter with him at their Bed and Breakfast. In 2007, executive producer Diederick Santer used Patrick and Yolande to cover a storyline about racism, that according to the producer, was inspired by the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother race row, sparked by supposed racist bullying of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty by UK celebrity Jade Goody. In the storyline, the characters Jay Brown and Sean Slater used racist phrases to the Truemans, and their reaction to the insults. Santer commented, "The Celebrity Big Brother race row kicked off as I took charge of my first scripts. I thought it was fascinating because it showed there was a real need for a debate about race in Britain. didn’t do it particularly well, so I thought it could be something EastEnders should do. Our stuff won’t be overly moralistic or preachy but it will tackle this serious issue head on." Wynter was axed from EastEnders in 2008, ending Patrick and Yolande's screen union. Wynter commented, "'Patrick and Yolande’s marriage is the only representation of a black union in British TV, which I am very proud to have played." Discussing Wynter's axing, Rudolph Walker said: "I really enjoyed working with Angela, because apart from anything else, she was a tremendous help to me - we've known each other a long time. I have to be thankful for the time she was in the show, and I'm in regular contact with her. I know she does watch EastEnders and while she obviously misses being part of the cast, she still enjoys it. Whether she's keeping an eye on Patrick or Rudolph, I can't be sure!"

In February 2009, EastEnders aired its first episode consisting of an entirely black cast. The episode focused up on Patrick and the Fox family. It concentrated on Patrick reminiscing about London in the 1950s after his arrival from the Caribbean. The script involved discussion about racism, with reference to the real life occurrence of the 1958 Notting Hill race riots in London. Taking the discussion of racism further, the characters considered it lessened in the 21st century, but that it still existed, possibly in more subtle forms. The episode averaged 8.37m (35.6%) viewers. It was part of a wider storyline concentrating on Patrick's past, and the murder of his fiancée during the race riots. Actor Edward Woodward was brought in especially for the storyline as Tommy Clifford, the man who killed her and subsequently sought his redemption before he died.