Jam & Jerusalem - Characters

Characters

Sal Vine (Sue Johnston) is practice nurse at the Clatterford Health Centre. She is mother to James and Tash, and widow of Mike. After the death of her husband, James takes over the surgery and replaces Sal with his wife, Yasmeen. Sal subsequently joins the Women's Guild to give herself something to do. Her best friend Tip helps her get her old back by scheming to bring in James' old headmistress Joyce Midge for a smear test. Finding himself overwhelmed with embarrassment, James accepts Sal back part-time on her old wage. Sal is sympathetic towards Rosie's condition, and, in one episode of the first series, reprimanded the Vicar, for not being sympathetic. In the Christmas Special, it is revealed that Sal had still not scattered Mike's ashes and she asks Spike to send them up over the town in a firework. This was not quite done to plan, as the firework was used to end the pantomime that Sal helped produce, cast and choreograph. In the second series, Sal is still involved in the Guild, volunteering to organise the ramble, during which, she felt, the time should be spent talking and bonding. In the third series, Sal was dismayed to find that her privacy was being invaded by builders and bulldozers as a residence for esteemed actor Charles Dance (ostensibly) was to be built behind her house. In addition, she deals with older patients at her house, and is accused of being a prostitute. Sal's attitude to the builder (Jock, played by Clive Russell) subsequently thaws, and in the last episode they are seen to share a kiss.

Tip Haddem (Pauline McLynn) An Irish woman, who worked as the receptionist at the health centre for the first two series and switches to bartending in the third series. She is married to Colin, who owns a farm. She is best friends with Sal, and helps her in many situations, such as getting James to give her her job back. Despite this, she is very indiscreet, and often reveals people's personal medical information gleaned from patient files. She was apparently brought up in a convent in Ireland, and loved it, saying she wouldn't hear a word said against the nuns there. In the Christmas special, Tip played the Wicked Stepmother and spent most of the play with Colin at the pub, arriving drunk for the finale. In the second series, her marriage to Colin is deteriorating, and in the last episode, he was sleeping in a caravan outside the house, and they were communicating by writing to each other on the back of an envelope. But by the end of the episode their marriage seemed to be back on track. In the third series, Tip was working behind the bar of the Fountain pub, and a supporter of Sal's protest against the building behind her house. She was also revealed to be sympathetic towards Rosie's condition.

Rosie Bales (Dawn French) is a sweet little woman with an alter ego called Margaret, who is angry, rude and hateful towards anyone and everyone. Rosie has at least two sons, apparently, and an unseen husband called Ricky. Rosie works at the local cheese factory, and often presents cheese as presents for things such as luck, remembrance and welcoming. She has numerous adventures and incidents during the series, such as forgetting to order pasties for a picnic, finding a potato with Jesus' face on it, going on a celebrity diet (and subsequently swallowing a marigold glove because she couldn't find a balloon to swallow), stealing from the SPAR and getting the Guild bowls team disqualified for indecent exposure. Rosie also had a bad experience (it is not confirmed what) as a child with a man called Peter. In the Christmas special, Rosie borrowed loads of town decorations to make her costume for the pantomime, in which she played the Fairy Godmother. After winning her audition (seemingly by default) she helped Eileen, Queenie and Sal with auditions.

Delilah Stagg (Joanna Lumley) was the elderly church organist, and was often getting herself into problematic situations. These included getting jammed in her car, taking a day to put her donkey called Hetty on a lead, nearly choking on her false teeth and needing to buy a tomato and not being able to find 10p, after which the shopkeeper gave her 10p. At the subsequent bring-and-buy, she was influenced by the shopkeeper's actions and ended up giving away all of the profits. Delilah once revealed that her family were Nazis, which had been referenced in the first series when she was seen in a photograph shaking hands with Hitler, who she said had more charisma than anyone she had ever met, apart from Lester Pigott. In the first episode of the second series, she came flying off of her bicycle and was rushed to hospital. In the Christmas Special, Delilah came to audition early, before anyone else had arrived. As soon as Eileen, Queenie and Pauline arrived, she left. She was known to say a simple sharp "Goodbye" when leaving anywhere. In the pub she offers youths drinks before leaving them to pay the tab. Delilah has a bad bicycling accident in the first episode of the second series and has not appeared since.

Eileen Pike (née Brewer) (Maggie Steed) is self-proclaimed chairwoman of the Women's Guild, and proudly marks her position with some handmade "regalia", which Rosie insists are medals or armour of some sort. Eileen has quite a haughty personality and a superiority complex. She was revealed to be adopted in the first series when she took her adoptive father to a hospice. Sal and Tip used Genes Reunited to find that she had a brother, in whom, at first, she had no interest, but after consideration contacted, finding she also had nieces and nephews. Eileen is very sympathetic towards Rosie's condition, and assists Sal in reprimanding the Vicar after he is less than sensitive towards Rosie. Eileen helps cast, produce and choreograph the pantomime in the Christmas special with Sal. In the third series, Eileen agrees to help with Sal's protest against the development behind Sal's house until she finds out that the person moving into the development is apparently Charles Dance.

Caroline Martin (Jennifer Saunders) is a wealthy mother of 4 - Mikey, who is in a rock band, Christopher, who is in the army, and two daughters Beattie and Freya. She is married to a man called John. She enjoys horseriding, and is not aware as to why her daughter Freya does not show the same enthusiasm. Caroline also often goes away for weekends spending time with the various celebrities that her son Mikey knows. While a prominent member of the Guild, she and Suzie seem separate from it, keeping their own company. Caroline also often mistakes words such as dogging and rimming to mean something completely different to what they actually mean, like taking dogs to the river to swim and wetting the rim of a glass and making a tune (respectively). It is Suzie who divulges their true meanings, to which Caroline expresses deep shock. In the Christmas Special, Caroline helped backstage with make-up and general organisation. In the third series, she first supported Sal in her protest, but changed her mind after she learnt it would bring Charles Dance to Clatterford. Saunders deliberately chose to play a character with little screen time in Jam & Jerusalem, stating she preferred to write, sit back and watch, however the second episode of the third season is one centred around Caroline.

Dr. James Vine (David Mitchell) is Sal's eldest child, who inherits the practice after the death of his father, Mike. He is married to Yasmeen, who takes Sal's job as practice nurse, despite Yasmeen being horrifically squeamish. James is uptight and unsympathetic to patients. After Sal helps James deal with an embarrassing smear test of his old headmistress, he brings her back part-time. In the Christmas special, he takes his deceased father's place in the Clatterford Christmas Panto and plays an Ugly Sister in Cinderella. His relationship with his sister Tash is very negative, yet he expresses his love at her wedding, at which he speaks on behalf of their deceased father. In the third series, he believes a rumour that his mother was a prostitute, and also expressed interest in becoming Clatterford's local MP. He shows that he has emotionally matured when he approves of the relationship between his mother and Jock.

Natasha "Tash" Vine (Sally Phillips) (born 1971) is Sal's younger child, who is a hippy. She has a son from an unknown relationship, called Raph. Her selfish and irresponsibe behaviour lead to causes frequent disputes between her and her mother. In the first series, she is in a relationship with a man called Rufus, who then leaves her. She plays the lead role in the Christmas pantomime (for the 21st time running, despite being 36 at the time), and subsequently starts a relationship with an old school friend called Marcus. She eventually left him in the second series, and married the rival for her affections, fellow hippy Spike. In the third series, she, Spike and Raph are all living in the old portable library outside Sal's house, which is then removed by force by builders after refusal to move it themselves.

Queenie (Doreen Mantle) was verger at the church and local lollipop lady, despite there being hardly any traffic in Clatterford. She is somewhat a second-in-command to Eileen in the Guild. In the first series, it is mentioned that she had a daughter called Gaye, who coincidentally is a lesbian. In the second series, she had her arm in a sling, changing arms sometimes. In the Christmas special, she was director of the pantomime, yet often fell asleep during rehearsals, and stuffed her face full of biscuits. Queenie is absent from the third series.

Yasmeen Vine (Salima Saxton) is wife to James, and becomes practice nurse after he inherits the practice, putting Sal, her mother-in-law, out of a job. She is terrible at her job being extremely squeamish, unable to even say "smear". She is also accomplished in netball and tries to teach the Guild how to play, despite coming to blows with Suzie over who is the best. Yasmeen is Muslim.

The Vicar (aka Hillary) (Patrick Barlow) is the rather fussy, old-fashioned, insensitive and grumpy vicar at the local church. He takes great disdain in suffering the eccentric townsfolk of Clatterford, saying that "being vicar around here is like ploughing bloody concrete". He is shown to have a girlfriend in the second series, called Veronica, who reveals his first name to be Hillary, to which the Guild all respond with laughter, none of them realising that Hillary was a unisex name. The Vicar was opposed to things such as the cancellation of the re-enactment of the Clatterford Skirmish, and the building of Charles Dance's residency behind Sal's house.

Kate Bales (Rosie Cavaliero) is a self-pitying, lonely and irritating young widow who is at first disdained by the majority of Clatterford, described as having "as much charisma as a flip-flop". Her husband died shortly after they got married, and she is still wallowing in grief after five years. She became a bereavement counsellor but often ends up being counselled by those she is trying to help. She joined the Guild to try and come out of her mourning. In the Christmas special, she was forced into auditioning and almost inaudibly sang "Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing", subsequently revealing that she didn't actually want to be in the pantomime and so was enlisted to be ticket saleswoman. Kate is also the guild's computer wizard, despite knowing little about how computers actually work. She does however claim to be the one member who is "oy vey" with computers. She ran a school for people who wanted to learn to use a computer, such as Mrs Ottery, Queenie and Rosie, which was called the "Silver Surfers". In season 3 Kate and the Vicar have a whirlwind romance as a result of the support Kate offered him during his emotional crisis over the safety of Caroline's soldier son.

Suzie (Suzie Aitchison) is a wealthy friend of Caroline's and a guild member, and is married to a man called Charles. She often mistakes Caroline's son Mikey for being in a pop band rather than a rock band. She is very competitive, especially about playing centre in netball. She wanted play Prince Charming in the Christmas Panto, yet a casting change meant she had to be Dandini instead, much to her dismay and disappointment. She went to Sal for advice when she had a pregnancy scare in the second series.

Jock (Clive Russell) is a builder who was renovating the barn behind Sal's house in the third series. Sal had been ignorant of the planning application (Tash had seen it but ignored it), and took her ire out on Jock. Jock, with an abrasive, no-nonsense personality, ignored all protests. Rosie, on speaking to Jock, got the mistaken idea that the house was being built as a hideaway residence for Charles Dance. The thought of a celebrity in the village removes local opposition to the build, leaving Sal without support. Jock, over time, becomes friendly with Sal, eventually becoming her love interest. When it dawns on Sal and Tip that Charles Dance will not be appearing at the local Ladies meeting, it's Jock who saves the day.