Development
Yolande was introduced in 2003 as a love interest for Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) with Angela Wynter being given the role. Yolande was apparently based on Wynter's deceased sister Merlene. Yolande has been described as assertive with a sassy attitude. Wynter has described the original character outline given to Yolande as "bubbly and positive". Discussing Yolande and Patrick's relationship, Wynter has said that Yolande tamed Patrick "with her charm and her toughness. Yolande's vulnerable, but she's principled. He has the same principles. To please her, he'll try not to stray too far away from those principles".
Following their screen marriage in 2004, the Truemans were involved in the BBC's "Taking Care" season, which covered issues "surrounding a different kind of childhood". As part of this, scriptwriters decided that the Truemans would 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."
Read more about this topic: Yolande Trueman
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