Trevor Short - Storylines

Storylines

Trevor arrives in June 1989 in search of his friend, the builder Paul Priestly (Mark Thrippleton), who had roomed with him briefly at a youth hostel. Paul isn't pleased to see Trevor initially, but he nevertheless finds him a job working on a construction site with him.

A dim-witted individual "two biscuits short of a box" is how they describe him in The Queen Victoria public house. His life has been hard. Rejected by his parents, he spent his youth in and out of children's homes and never really felt that he belonged anywhere as a result.

Trevor manages to hit it off with the pensioner Mo Butcher (Edna Doré) after he kindly mends a broken washing machine at the launderette. Mo decides to take Trevor under her wing, and ropes him into helping with the renovation of the community centre. However, foolish Trevor steals the supplies from the construction site he is working at, and when Mo forces him to return them, he is caught and loses his job. An array of odd jobs follow for Trevor, all equally unsuccessful. He has a brief spell as the potman at The Vic but he proves a liability. Landlord Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) gives him a job at his car lot, which only lasts a few days before his ineptitude becomes too much for Frank to bear. Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) hires him to remove a partition in his café, but this goes awry when Trevor resurrects the partition after he'd just demolished it. Despite all these blunders, Paul still persists in helping his friend out, and allows him to assist him with the renovation of Julie Cooper's (Louise Plowright) salon and the decorating of Karim's (Aftab Sachak) new property. True to form, Trevor even manages to make a mess of these jobs when he strikes a water main — flooding the market — and causing the Karim's ceiling to collapse.

In July 1989 Trevor begins lodging with Mo Butcher, who he often refers to as "Mrs. Mo". He finds work tending a stall on the market, but has most of the contents stolen by thieves and is the victim of many practical jokes from hooligans such as Junior Roberts (Aaron Carrington) and his girlfriend Melody (Lyanne Compton). He later works on Pete Beale's (Peter Dean) fruit and veg stall.

Trevor develops a crush on Paul's casual girlfriend, Diane Butcher (Sophie Lawrence), which isn't reciprocated. He sides with Diane when Paul jilts her in favour of Julie Cooper. He lends her his support and even invites her out one night, which Diane agrees to, but only to make Paul jealous. Trevor is overjoyed and thinks that a relationship will be possible. His dreams, however are shattered when Paul dumps Julie and immediately reconciles with Diane.

More bad luck follows for Trevor when he becomes the prime suspect for a series of thefts at The Queen Vic. Trevor isn't guilty and is just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. After receiving a tirade of abuse from Frank and being barred from The Vic, Trevor does some investigating for himself and discovers that the real culprit is Frank's daughter, Janine (Rebecca Michael). After confronting her, she runs away from home in fear. Trevor is beside himself with worry, hysterically blaming himself for the whole ordeal. Janine is eventually found inside a derelict van with the stolen items on her, and Trevor is exonerated.

During the latter part of 1989, Trevor manages to get himself into trouble with the Department of Social Security for benefit fraud. It is revealed that Trevor has been signing on for unemployment benefit while being employed at Pete's stall. For a while it looks as if Trevor will face prosecution or a heavy fine, and he reacts with typical hysteria at the prospect of going to prison. In the end, he manages to avoid this by signing off of 'the dole' and promising to never fraudulently claim benefits again.

In December 1989, Trevor is heartbroken when Paul decides he'd had enough of living in London, and moves away from Walford. Trevor mopes around feeling sorry for himself for a while but manages to take his mind off things by developing a new crush, this time on Shireen Karim (Nisha Kapur). Shireen is polite enough to let him think his attention is appreciated and even agrees to go on a date with him. Trevor spends a lot of time preparing for the date, seeking advice from almost everyone on the Square, and it ends up being a success. However, after the date, Shireen tells Trevor that it can only be a one off occurrence, as she is already betrothed. Trevor is outraged and makes several attempts to point out the unfairness of arranged marriages to Shireen's father, all of which have no effect whatsoever.

In February 1990, Paul returns to Walford briefly to give Frank Butcher information on his missing daughter, Diane, who has run away from home. Trevor is overjoyed to see him again, but his happiness is fleeting as Paul soon announces that he is leaving once again, and this time for good. Seeing how upset Trevor is over this, Paul decides to ask him to join him in his home town of Leeds. As Trevor has made such a great success of gardening the local allotments, Paul is sure that he can make a career of it up north. Trevor is overjoyed, and leaves with Paul in March 1990.