Sue Osman - Creation

Creation

Sue Osman was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. British Sue and her Turkish Cypriot husband Ali, were an attempt to portray a multi-cultural relationship, with an emphasis on conflicting customs, cultural and personality differences. Their marriage was scripted to be volatile, highlighting the problems that can occur when customs and beliefs are not shared in a relationship.

Sue's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story.

Sue was the child of older parents. Affection was what was missing from the house. No real love, no fire and no closeness. She never saw her parents touch each other, or demonstrate tenderness ... Is Sue actually looking for a bad time in life? Is she a big martyr? Perhaps convinced that her parents had no affection for her, she can't understand anyone else doing so. She's a very insecure woman — furiously jealous and possessive and always accusing her husband of being unfaithful. She is always putting herself in the position of being the victim. Sometimes she nearly goads her husband into hitting her ... A gigantic, self-imposed, chip on her shoulder... She needs dramas — it's something she is good at. She is a poisonous bitch, but it is important that we understand why.

Holland and Smith required the character of Sue to appear 'hard', but also to be a 'loser' and a 'victim'. They initially considered casting the role of Sue to Gillian Taylforth, the actress who would go on to play Kathy Beale in the serial. In the end she was rejected because she had blonde hair and they had always envisioned Sue to be a brunette. Sandy Ratcliff (previously Lord Snowdon's face of the seventies) was recommended for the role by the writer Bill Lyons. Ratcliff was invited in for audition. Holland and Smith were struck by her appearance, suggesting she had "one of the most photogenic faces on television". They suggested that she had a "toughness in her face and manner, a fiery gypsy-like quality." and that she sounded "East-end enough". Holland and Smith surmised that Ratcliff would clearly be competent at playing the "hard" aspect to Sue's character, but they were not originally certain that Ratcliff would be able to portray the loser and victim aspects as convincly because, on the surface, Ratcliff appeared to be the exact opposite.

Ratcliff was renowned for being a staunch feminist and a political actress; Holland and Smith initially feared that her own personality and strongly held views would be at odds with the character. For instance, Ratcliff requested that they make the cafe that Sue was scripted to run into a "women's-only bookshop". Ratcliff was also not renowned for being the most disciplined actress, 'more the free spirit', which sparked fears over how she would react to the strict disciplines of a twice-weekly drama. However, it was eventually decided that Ratcliff did possess all the qualities that were needed to play Sue convincingly and, despite initial objections from Ratcliff's agent who did not approve of her artists appearing in soap operas, she become "hot favourite" for the role. Although auditioning for Sue was done first, the casting could not be confirmed until an actor was found to play her husband, Ali. Ratcliff was brought in at a later date to read scripts with two potential actors, Nejdet Salih and Haluk Bilginer (two out of only three working Turkish speaking actors in London at the time). The creators differed in opinion on which of the two they wanted to have the role; it was initially felt that Ratcliff would "make mincemeat" out of Salih, but following a successful reading, it was eventually decided that Salih and Ratcliff worked as the Osman partnership and were cast as Sue and Ali. Billinger was cast as Ali's brother Mehmet.