| Pat Evans | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[[ Pam St. Clement as Pat Evans | |||||||
| EastEnders | |||||||
| Portrayed by |
Pam St. Clement Emma Cooke (flashback) | ||||||
| Created by | Tony Holland | ||||||
| Introduced by | Julia Smith | ||||||
| First appearance | June 12, 1986 | ||||||
| Last appearance | January 1, 2012 | ||||||
| Book appearances | Swings and Roundabouts | ||||||
| Spin-off appearance |
Dimensions in Time (1993) EastEnders: Pat and Mo: Ashes to Ashes (2004) EastEnders: Last Tango in Walford (2010) | ||||||
| Profile | |||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||
| Date of birth | May 12, 1942 | ||||||
| Date of death | January 1, 2012 (aged 69) | ||||||
| Occupation | former barmaid/landlady of the Queen Vic/owner of car lot | ||||||
| |||||||
Patricia Louise "Pat" Evans (née Harris; previously Beale, Wicks and Butcher) was a long-time character on the long-running series, EastEnders. She was played by actress Pam St. Clement from 1986 to 2012, when the character died.
The one with the outlandish earrings[]
We first meet Pat Wicks (her married name at the time) in 1986 when she arrived in Walford from Romford, where she had moved with her then husband.
Pat was a Walford native. She had two older brothers, Jimmy and Geoff and an older sister named Joan who had been institutionalized when Pat was four years old; because of Downs Syndrome.
When she married Michael, another young man with Downs, their mother, Lydia, disowned Joan.
She and Mo Potter were former best friends (Mo had married Jimmy Harris) but after a huge falling out, Mo selfishly kept Pat away from her own brother's funeral.
The spiteful woman didn't even bother to tell Pat that Jimmy had even died! The former best mates were bitter rivals for many years until they made peace on the 25th anniversary of Jimmy's death.
She was formerly married to fruit and vegetable stall owner Pete Beale. She had cheated on him with his brother, Kenny, and for that, earned her the wrath of their mother, Lou Beale. She had shipped Kenny off to New Zealand for that!
Undaunted by what Lou did (Her mother in-law never liked her anyway!) Pat had affairs with nearly every male in the square, including the very distasteful James Wilmot-Brown, who would later rape Kathy, Pete's second wife, and Pat's arch-enemy; and the even MORE disgusting Charlie Cotton, which sparked a fight with HIS wife, Dot.
The furious Dot would argue with and slap the interloping woman, calling her a harlot and a scarlet woman. However, to her credit, Pat would slap Nick Cotton in the face when he made some snide remarks to her.
In 1986, she arrived at the Queen Vic from Romford (she had left her husband, after he started to bang her around a bit), intent on making and causing trouble for her ex and his new wife, Kathy. She felt that she was entitled to Pete keeping her in money, even though she was married to a man named Brian Wicks.
At first, it was thought that Pete was the father of Simon Wicks (Wicksy), but that was later proven not to be the case. It was Brian who was the father. She had used the secret of Simon's paternity as a means to keep control over her men, a fact she had confessed to Lou.
However, it was revealed that Pete was the father of her oldest son, David, but he had been adopted by Brian, hence his last name of Wicks and he had lived away from Walford, as David had issues with schoolmate, Derek Branning. THEIR rivalry was due to the fact that David had impregnated Derek's sister, Carol.
She soon settled into Walford, and became one of the stalwarts of the Square for many many years. Because of her colorful nature and backstory, she would have her share of rows with various folk in the square. She and Pete were always at loggerheads over something or other (usually over money, which she thought she was entitled to), and during another argument, Pete slapped Pat in the face after she badmouthed Kathy one time too many.
Not long after that, Pat was attacked by a criminal called the Walford Attacker. Everyone thought it was Pete, but the real attacker was disarmed by Debbie Wilkins. However, Pete would clobber a policeman, and would land himself in the clink for it.
Then along came Frank Butcher. Frank was, without question, the love of Pat's life. They had met when she won a Miss Butlins competition and she had snared Frank's heart. However, he would marry a woman named June Simmonds, and would have four children with her, Claire, Diane, Ricky and Janine, most assuredly the bane in Pat's existence!
After Frank married June (whom he cheated on with impunity), she married Pete Beale, and after that marriage soured, she met her second husband, Brian Wicks, with whom she had Simon (although, as stated, Pete had always thought Simon was his son). As stated, David was revealed to be Pete's son, but he was adopted by Brian Wicks.
Frank came along after the Wicksy paternity row, and caught her heart once again. After a time, they would eventually marry (June was now dead), and they would become the new landlords of the Vic, buying the license (but not without a bit of chicanery and bribery) from previous landlords, Den and Angie Watts who had divorced (and were planning on selling it anyway).
Frank and Pat did their best, what with her inheriting his children by June, not to mention the antics of her tyrannical mother in-law from Hell, Mo Butcher, who thought less than nothing of the new Mrs. Butcher. She would later be sent off to Colchester (due to the onset of Alzheimer's). She would live with her daughter, Joan, Frank's sister, until her death.
A huge tax debt which meant they had to sell the B&B, helped Pat realize that she had a flair for business. She opened a cab service called PatCabs which was a rousing success, but during one of her drives, she ran over a girl while drunk. She would serve six months in prison for what she had done.
However, things would get worse for her before they got better. Frank, who, among his vices, was a terrible businessman, burned the car lot down (with the aid of criminal Phil Mitchell) and tried to collect the insurance money for it. However, unbeknownst to the felonious firebugs, a homeless young man was burned to death when he was sleeping rough in one of said cars.
Frank was arrested for manslaughter (due to the young man's death), but was released. However, he found out that Pat had given his business accounts to the loss adjusters, as he was trying to commit insurance fraud. His goose was cooked, and Frank, dejectedly, disappeared.
Pat took his disappearance very hard, especially after Diane told her that he was never coming back. She had gone into a hard tail spin, stealing money from everyone and even having to borrow money from the greedy Ian Beale, who was, at that time, working as a loan shark.
However, Sharon Watts helped Pat out financially and got her back into the swing of things. At that time, Pat had started to mature and was no longer the carefree troublemaker she had been.
However, her appetite for men had not been stopped while she was married to Frank (she was notorious for cheating on her husbands, which explained her acrimonious divorces from Pete and Brian, not to mention being slapped around by the latter), because she began to compete with Michelle Fowler for the heart of Geoff Barnes. Michelle would win that one, but he would wisely realize that she wasn't the one for him.
Pat would later become enamored of Walford newcomer, Roy Evans, a wealthy car dealer.
He was impotent, but that was nothing to Pat, who was pleased that he liked her for her other attributes and not for sex. They moved in together, but, surprise, surprise! FRANK showed up!
However, Pat gave him his marching orders, forthwith! Frank left again. She would later marry Roy. Frank would return and fall for Peggy Mitchell. This allowed for Peggy to contend with the troublemaking Janine for once!
She would gain a family in David's former wife, Carol Jackson, and their brood, Bianca, Robbie and Sonia, as well as Billy. She was also the grandmother of Steven Beale (her youngest son, Simon, was his father).
Frank and Peggy would marry, but yet again, Pat and Frank just couldn't keep their hands to themselves! At first, it was thought that they were having an affair, thanks to Roy's son, Barry, who had no liking for Pat. But it was revealed that wasn't the case.
However, Roy didn't get that flash, because he had his own share of troubles! He was despondent after Barry had been bilked of 140,000 quid by a crafty con-artist called Vanessa Carlton, and he had lost his business because of it. He attempted suicide, but Frank (of all folk!) talked him down and they became business partners.
Things were somewhat back to normalcy, especially when Frank and Peggy were married, but whilst they were all on a trip to Spain, Frank and Pat would steal away for some secret rendezvous. In 2000, it all came to a head. Peggy had had a mastectomy and wanted to renew her wedding vows to Frank, but at that point, even Pat realized Frank was a no-good love rat. That realization came far too late.
Frank and Pat tried to elope to Manchester, but Peggy found the Dear Jane letter he wrote to her, and read it to the entire pub, with Frank and Pat in attendance. She would then indulge in a time-honored Cockney tradition.....the art of slapping! She slapped the no-good Frank in the face, then she would slap the equally no-good Pat across the face!
Roy and Pat would have a blistering row both at the pub and then at home. Roy would demand that Pat get rid of her famous earrings (she had a pair for virtually every occasion and they were rather large and gaudy. The earrings were Pat's trademark) because he found them cheap and gaudy.
However, he found a suitcase with some lingerie and some lubricant for her and Frank, as they were going to elope (being made privy to this, by Barry, who did not like Pat).
Roy exploded in rage, remembering what Mo Harris (who thoroughly disliked Pat) said about her, "Once a Tart, ALWAYS a tart!" He threw her out of the house in the pouring rain!
Pat missed her ride with Frank and would be miserable for the remainder of the year, while at Christmas (when else?!), Peggy would then indulge in another time-honored Walford activity......smashing up the pub with a baseball bat! The Christmas of 2000 was none too good for either Pat or for Peggy.
Despite it all, they would become frenemies, fighting like cats one minute, palling around with one another the next.
Some of Pat and Peggy's misadventures would range from screaming rows, where they would slap one another and would ALWAYS utter their infamous line, "You BITCH! You COW!", to times where they would bond over drinks and would be close friends.
One of their more hilarious misadventures was when they were in an ice cream truck, which was being used by Shirley Carter, a paramour of Peggy's son, Phil; and they proceeded to raid it by gorging on soft-serve, vodka and just clearing the air. They knew each other inside and out, which was why their double act worked.
When she wasn't with Peggy, Pat would also scrap with the formidable Shirley, one famous fight would land them both on the inside; or dealing with the trials of her stepdaughter, the hated Janine.
One minute she would be offering her support to the troublemaking vixen, the next, they would be in a screaming row where either one or both of them would slap one another.
Roy would eventually die of heart failure, which would earn her Barry's enmity and would become even worse when Janine married Barry, a short-lived marriage as the murderous money-grubber would shove him down a cliff in Scotland, killing him.
However, some years later, she would begin battle with another woman, Yolande Trueman, when she began to sleep with her husband, Patrick.
This was revealed during the wedding reception for Pauline Fowler and her new husband, Joe Macer. Pat and Yolande got into a slapping and screaming match, which degenerated into an all-out brawl (what else?!) which left the pub in a shambles.
Widowed Pat would be trying to butt her beak into everyone's business, slapping around people who threatened her family (even Janine). She would slap Stacey Slater when she made a play for Ryan Malloy, who had just married Janine. However, she would later find out that Ryan did not love Janine and loved Stacey.
This led up to a violent row in the Queen Vic, when Ryan announced to everyone that he loved Stacey and kissed her in front of all. The Butchers and Slaters began rowing.
The sinister Janine did everything possible to undermine things. Calling the social services and filing a false report about Stacey abusing her daughter, Lily (Ryan was her father, a fact which made Janine furious); and then taunting her about her bipolar disorder (which manifested itself when Stacey was witness to her best friend, Danielle Jones, dying from a hit and run which Janine had committed!), just all in a days work for the evil Janine.
That led the furious Stacey to completely thrash Janine in the garden, by throwing her around and slapping her. Another battle royale occurred at the R&R club where Janine was soundly thrashed by Stacey and her cousin, Kat.
Meanwhile, Pat had her health issues, and she had some very bad heart attacks in her life; and one heart attack led to her finally being bed-ridden. Surrounded by her family, Pat Harris Beale Wicks Butcher Evans finally passed away in 2012.
Pat would make one last appearance as a ghost which had come for her old friend/enemy, Peggy when she realized that she was about to die herself (Peggy had brain cancer). After the usual exchange of "You bitch, you cow" which was very quiet, Peggy asked Pat if she would desert her.
Pat quietly said, "No, sweetheart, I will be with you all the way."
Then Peggy took an overdose of medicine and quietly died in her sleep. Pat and Peggy went off to heaven together.