Sue Osman - Development

Development

Sue has been described as "highly strung" with a parlous emotional state. Author Hilary Kingsley has suggested that Sue was a character who was "dogged by tragedy". She suggested that Sue was a "moaner" but despite this she "did enjoy life a lot", making reference to her love for her husband Ali (despite his flaws) and her babies as evidence of this. Kingsley's surmation of Sue stems around psychological problems however, with her suggesting that Sue was "always mentally unstable" and that she was never "that strong at the best of times". In her book Soapbox, Kingsley suggested that Sue, like many women in EastEnders, was "very much the power behind the throne. She virtually runs the cafe singlehanded. She fights with their landlord, tells the customers (the other residents) the unvarnished truth about themselves and struggles to keep Ali from gambling away the profits."

Before the show aired, Holland and Smith had already decided that Sue and her husband would be parents to a young baby named Hassan. However, as further characters were invented they realised that there would be a total of four babies in the show: Annie Smith, Martin Fowler, Vicki Fowler and Hassan. It was decided that it would be impossible for the studios to cope with four babies, and so they invented a storyline to eliminate one of the young babies from the cast. During this time in the 1980s, the issue of cot death was prominent in the British press, partly due to an increase in casualties, but also because a doctor had gone public with the accusation that parents were to blame for the tragic occurrence. Holland and Smith decided that covering this issue in the soap would be a good way of 'setting the record straight', and so it was decided that Sue and Ali's baby would die from cot death in the early months of the show. This was the first of many controversial storylines in EastEnders' history. After the storyline aired in June 1985, the show was praised by audience and press alike for the sensitive and unsensational way this harrowing subject was treated. The sudden tragedy came as a surprise to the audience, especially since the bereaved parents were a couple whose feuding, fighting ways had made them appear rather comic in the early episodes of the show. The British Cot Death Foundation initially feared that a soap opera would trivialise the subject and frighten new parents. They tried to stop the episodes from airing, but in the end they were pleased with the way the subject was handled, and provided back-up support after transmission to many viewers who wanted more information on the subject.

In 1987, after a long period of being shown trying to conceive, scriptwriters finally decided to make Sue pregnant in the soap opera with her second child. Sandy Ratcliff was positive about the storyline: "It's going to be the making of Sue and Ali. Neither of them has ever got over the death of Hassan but hopefully the new baby will fill the void in their life." Discussing the on-going storyline depicting marital problems with the Osmans, Nedjet Salih who played Ali said: "The marriage was going downhill. Ali is no angel, but he's had a lot to put up with and has been very tolerant about Sue's depressions. Sue hasn't been easy to live with, she's been such a misery. No wonder he's been looking at other women ... although to be honest it's all bravado. He'd get cold feet when it came to it. It's really only Sue he loves and wants."

According to Ratcliff, Sue getting pregnant put her in a dilemma because she worried that happiness for the Osmans would need to be curtailed if she decided to leave the programme; she felt this would be unfair on viewers because of all the misery Sue had been put through on-screen already. Discussing this in 1987, Ratcliff said, "I knew nothing about the baby plans until a few weeks ago when I came back from my holidays and was told that Sue was pregnant again. Sue has gone through enough in the last couple of years. I'm glad she's got her dearest wish . I think she'll make a great mum and I'm sure Ali will be supportive. Hopefully, the storylines will open up for me, but it also means that if the pregnancy goes well and the baby is fine, it would be very difficult for me to leave without there being another tragedy in the Osman family. I don't think that would be fair on the show or the viewers."

Additionally, the turmoil that Sue had been through had lead Ratcliff to consider quitting the serial prematurely. In 1987 she told the magazine Woman's Own, "'s been such an unhappy woman since Hassan died. And it was beginning to rub off on me. I'd go to work, six days a week, be stuck in that grim little cafe and be permanently miserable. I got to the stage when I started to ask myself if I really wanted to spend all my working life playing a misery." However, according to Ratcliff, the scriptwriters decision to make Sue pregnant changed her mind about leaving. She said, "Now Sue is pregnant and happy I feel differently about the role. So maybe it would be fun to stick around for a couple more years - if I'm wanted."

The character of Sue lasted in the show for four years, and many of her storylines resulted from the after-effects of the cot death plot, including the deterioration of her mental health. The actress was said to have been exposed to "horrific invasions of privacy" by the media during her tenure, in particular when it was revealed to the press in 1987 that she had spent time in prison for conspiracy to sell cannabis. At this time Ratcliff reportedly offered to leave the programme; however, producer Julia Smith stood by her and Ratcliff remained in the role of Sue for a further two years. Sue was eventually written out of the serial in 1989 following further off-screen personal problems of the actress who played her; Ratcliff admitted that she had been a heroin addict for eight years and was spending half her wages on drugs. On-screen, Sue's marriage to Ali broke down and she absconded with their baby, only to have a mental breakdown and be admitted to a psychiatric ward when Ali retrieved the child.