PAAAAT! FRAAAAANK! PAT! FRAAAAAAAAAANK! PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! PAT! FRAAAAANK! PAAAAT! FRAAAAAAANK! FRANK! PAAAAAT! FRAAAAN! PAAAAT! FRANK! PAAAAT! PAAAAAT! FRAAAAAANK!
Viewers of Eastenders will know exactly what that opening paragraph is all about because, for a brief moment in Soapsville, Pat and Frank Butcher became the best thing since sliced Brian Tildsley guts.
However, Pam St Clement who plays Pat Butcher is leaving EastEnders, which is lousy news (that we’ll get over when the news picks up).
With her famed sharp-intake of breath with those pursed lips daubed in garish lipstick, the dangly earrings and make-up applied with Homer Simpson’s make-up gun, not to mention the most hideous wardrobe in soap history, Pat Butcher was a battleaxe supreme. Almost Coronation Street levels of world-weary viciousness. Almost.
And now she’s going to leave the show… leaving us with… erm… ah… well… Mo’s just a comedy figure isn’t she?
Pat will leave the show in a storyline which is, of course, going to climax over Christmas, which has been described as a “fitting finale not to be missed” by BBC bosses. This probably means she’ll get run-over. Or Janine will kill her.
Pam says:
“I have enjoyed 25-and-a-half wonderful years in ‘EastEnders’ creating the character of Pat, but feel it’s time to hang up her earrings.
“Leaving the EastEnders family will be akin to a bereavement. But I’m looking forward to the other work and life opportunities that I will have the time to pursue.”
Since she first appeared on the show way back in 1986, Pat has been involved in some excellent storylines. There was once which saw her and feuding Peggy getting pissed in an ice-cream van, which was just brilliant. However, we’ll all remember that scene with Mike Reid and nothing but a dickie bow.
‘Enders boss Brian Kirkwood paid tribute to the actress, saying:
“Pam St Clement has created one of the most iconic and loved characters in British TV history. Over the years we’ve seen her develop from a shrew into a matriarch.
Pam will invariably look for jobs elsewhere in television and not get them, leaving her returning to Albert Square in a few years time.
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Arthur ASCii says
No idea how you can write an article about Pat without including a mention of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HELofmbpDM0