Aidan Brosnan
Encyclopedia
Aidan Brosnan is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Sean Maguire
between January and December 1993. A popular character, Aidan was involved in storylines about homelessness, drug-abuse and suicide. His relationship with the character Mandy Salter
was a dominant storyline in the serial throughout 1993.
, apprentice footballer
for "Walford Town FC". When Arthur Fowler
noticed his talents he offered to assist him as his coach and keeper. Aidan went to live with Arthur and his wife Pauline
.
Aidan caught the attention of Mandy Salter and it wasn't long before they had begun a relationship, much to the concern of Arthur who was aware of Mandy's past misdemeanours. Mandy was a bad influence on Aidan. After persuading him to skip football practice she got him drunk on tequila
and would have seduced him if Mark Fowler
had not interrupted. Whilst on his way home, Aidan (still extremely drunk) climbed on top of a parked car and fell off, severely injuring his leg. Aidan was out of action for a while, but his leg did recover; however, shortly after he was involved in another accident during football training. As a result, Aidan could never play football again and his promising career was over.
Mandy and Ricky Butcher
tried to cheer Aidan up by luring him into club-culture. After taking ecstasy, Aidan passed out in an ecstasy-induced coma
and was hospitalised. He recovered from the incident, but after his parents heard of his escapades they forced him to return to Ireland. Mandy was not willing to give her boyfriend up so easily; she followed him home and dragged him back to the square in the summer where they quickly became Walford's most hated residents.
Upon returning, Mandy and Aidan found themselves with nowhere to live, so they broke into Pete Beale's
vacant flat and attempted to claim squatters rights, which lasted a couple of days before Grant
and Phil Mitchell
physically removed them. Left homeless, they began sleeping on the streets. During the following months they survived by begging, stealing prescription pads from Dr. Legg
and selling them on to drug-dealers, and stealing food whenever they could. Mandy turned to clipping (soliciting as a prostitute and then running away with the unsatisfied client's money), which ended after she was arrested and Aidan made her promise to stop. They eventually took up residence in a rundown flat at number 5 Albert Square. They stole electricity from the neighbouring houses, causing a massive power cut on the square; the electricity board soon put a stop to their scam. Meanwhile, Aidan and Mandy would spend what little money they did manage to earn on alcohol and drugs.
Towards the end of 1993 they both found employment at the First Til Last grocery store in Bridge Street, but when the job fell through they began to go into decline. Aidan received news from his parents telling him that his grandmother had died, but because they were unable to reach him he only discovered the news on the day of her funeral. Aidan visited Ireland briefly with money his parents had sent him, but upon his return he discovered that Richard Cole
had started a smear campaign in his absence — wrongly accusing him and Mandy of being behind a series of robberies around the Square. Everyone began to turn against them and Aidan became increasingly ill and depressed
. Things worsened when Richard purchased the flat they were squatting in. When they refused to leave Richard broke into their squat and evicted them days before Christmas. Aidan received a letter from his parents telling him that he was a parasite on humanity and that they were disowning him. After reading this, Aidan's depression became so bad that he attempted to commit suicide
on Christmas Day, by nearly jumping off the top of a tower block
. Mandy managed to stop him just in time, but Aidan blamed Mandy for his misfortune. He deserted her before the end of the year, returning to Ireland to reconcile with his parents. Mandy was devastated to lose Aidan and left Walford early in 1994.
. The role was cast to actor Sean Maguire. Having been a familiar face on children's television for many years, Maguire was previously most famous for playing Tegs in BBC's school drama, Grange Hill
.
Aidan was introduced as a talented young Irish football apprentice at Walford Town Football Club. He was soon taken in by the Fowler family as a lodger, leading to his association with Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton
), an established character who had been an EastEnders regular since the Spring of 1992. Aiden and Mandy's romance was of one of 1993's "major storylines", which ran throughout the year. Depicted as shy, naïve and impressionable, Aidan was quickly led astray by the troublesome Mandy, signifying the start of the character's misfortune and decline. In the storyline, a knee injury ended his promising football career, and after Mandy introduced him to alcohol and drugs and he fell out with his family in Ireland, the character ended up homeless and sleeping on the streets or in abandoned squats. Aidan slipped into a depression, culminating in a suicide attempt, when in the Christmas Day 1993 episodes, Aidan decided to jump off the top of a tower block. The producers' original plan had been for Aidan to succeed in his suicide bid; however, in the book EastEnders: The First Ten Years, author Colin Brake
has revealed that "the powers-that-be" at the BBC intervened in the storyline. They felt that a suicide on Christmas Day would be "too depressing even for EastEnders", so they ordered for the scripts to be revised. In the revised version, Mandy arrived just in time to stop Aidan jumping to his death, her love for him convincing him not to end his life. 23 million viewers tuned in on Christmas Day 1993 to witness Aidan's suicide attempt; it was the highest rated television programme of the day, trumping its biggest rival Coronation Street
by 3 million viewers. Nevertheless, the storyline spelt the end of the character's time in the soap, Sean Maguire having chosen to leave to pursue other projects. The following episode, Aidan — resenting Mandy for her role in his misfortune — left to return to Ireland alone.
league". Sean Maguire's departure upset his fans, though the actor attempted to develop his appeal towards the young audience by becoming a television presenter and a pop singer.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, played by Sean Maguire
Sean Maguire
Sean Maguire is an English actor and singer, who rose to fame in 1988 when at the age of eleven he took on the role of "Tegs" Ratcliffe on the BBC children's drama Grange Hill, in which he remained until 1992...
between January and December 1993. A popular character, Aidan was involved in storylines about homelessness, drug-abuse and suicide. His relationship with the character Mandy Salter
Mandy Salter
Mandy Salter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nicola Stapleton. Introduced on 12 March 1992, Mandy was portrayed as a teenage tearaway. She was featured in storylines about homelessness, child and drug abuse. Her relationship with Aidan Brosnan was one of the...
was a dominant storyline in the serial throughout 1993.
Storylines
Aidan was first seen in January 1993 as a young, IrishIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, apprentice footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
for "Walford Town FC". When Arthur Fowler
Arthur Fowler
Arthur George Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Bill Treacher.The father of the Fowler family, Arthur was essentially a good man, but he made some foolish choices and he always ended up paying dearly for them, also being bossed to the brink of insanity by...
noticed his talents he offered to assist him as his coach and keeper. Aidan went to live with Arthur and his wife Pauline
Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional London borough of Walford. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between 1985 and 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer...
.
Aidan caught the attention of Mandy Salter and it wasn't long before they had begun a relationship, much to the concern of Arthur who was aware of Mandy's past misdemeanours. Mandy was a bad influence on Aidan. After persuading him to skip football practice she got him drunk on tequila
Tequila
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
and would have seduced him if Mark Fowler
Mark Fowler
Mark Albert Fowler is a fictional character from the popular British BBC soap opera EastEnders. Mark was an original regular character in the series starting February 1985 but became a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the role in April 1985. Scarboro made...
had not interrupted. Whilst on his way home, Aidan (still extremely drunk) climbed on top of a parked car and fell off, severely injuring his leg. Aidan was out of action for a while, but his leg did recover; however, shortly after he was involved in another accident during football training. As a result, Aidan could never play football again and his promising career was over.
Mandy and Ricky Butcher
Ricky Butcher
Richard Francis "Ricky" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sid Owen. Introduced as a school boy in 1988, Ricky is one of the longest-running, male protagonists to feature in EastEnders. Owen originally left the role in 2000 to pursue a music career...
tried to cheer Aidan up by luring him into club-culture. After taking ecstasy, Aidan passed out in an ecstasy-induced coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
and was hospitalised. He recovered from the incident, but after his parents heard of his escapades they forced him to return to Ireland. Mandy was not willing to give her boyfriend up so easily; she followed him home and dragged him back to the square in the summer where they quickly became Walford's most hated residents.
Upon returning, Mandy and Aidan found themselves with nowhere to live, so they broke into Pete Beale's
Pete Beale
Peter "Pete" Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Peter Dean. He made his first appearance in the programme's first episode, on 19 February 1985. The character was created by Tony Holland, one of the creators of EasEnders; he was based on a member of...
vacant flat and attempted to claim squatters rights, which lasted a couple of days before Grant
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
and Phil Mitchell
Phil Mitchell
Philip James "Phil" Mitchell is a long-running fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Steve McFadden.Phil first arrived in Albert Square on 20 February 1990, and was soon joined by his brother, Grant, sister Sam and mother Peggy...
physically removed them. Left homeless, they began sleeping on the streets. During the following months they survived by begging, stealing prescription pads from Dr. Legg
Dr. Harold Legg
Doctor Harold Legg is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Leonard Fenton. Dr. Legg was Walford's original GP. He was widely trusted within the community, and was always on hand to dish out advice. Dr Legg appeared as a regular character between 1985 and 1989, but...
and selling them on to drug-dealers, and stealing food whenever they could. Mandy turned to clipping (soliciting as a prostitute and then running away with the unsatisfied client's money), which ended after she was arrested and Aidan made her promise to stop. They eventually took up residence in a rundown flat at number 5 Albert Square. They stole electricity from the neighbouring houses, causing a massive power cut on the square; the electricity board soon put a stop to their scam. Meanwhile, Aidan and Mandy would spend what little money they did manage to earn on alcohol and drugs.
Towards the end of 1993 they both found employment at the First Til Last grocery store in Bridge Street, but when the job fell through they began to go into decline. Aidan received news from his parents telling him that his grandmother had died, but because they were unable to reach him he only discovered the news on the day of her funeral. Aidan visited Ireland briefly with money his parents had sent him, but upon his return he discovered that Richard Cole
Richard Cole (EastEnders)
Richard Cole is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Ian Reddington between 1992 and 1994.-Storylines:...
had started a smear campaign in his absence — wrongly accusing him and Mandy of being behind a series of robberies around the Square. Everyone began to turn against them and Aidan became increasingly ill and depressed
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
. Things worsened when Richard purchased the flat they were squatting in. When they refused to leave Richard broke into their squat and evicted them days before Christmas. Aidan received a letter from his parents telling him that he was a parasite on humanity and that they were disowning him. After reading this, Aidan's depression became so bad that he attempted to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
on Christmas Day, by nearly jumping off the top of a tower block
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
. Mandy managed to stop him just in time, but Aidan blamed Mandy for his misfortune. He deserted her before the end of the year, returning to Ireland to reconcile with his parents. Mandy was devastated to lose Aidan and left Walford early in 1994.
Creation and development
The character of Aidan was introduced on-screen in January 1993 by executive producer, Leonard LewisLeonard Lewis
Leonard Jack Lewis was a British producer and director. He was most active in television. He was the Executive/Series Producer for BBC's EastEnders during the early 1990s, though he had success with many other television programmes for both the BBC and ITV...
. The role was cast to actor Sean Maguire. Having been a familiar face on children's television for many years, Maguire was previously most famous for playing Tegs in BBC's school drama, Grange Hill
Grange Hill
Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television...
.
Aidan was introduced as a talented young Irish football apprentice at Walford Town Football Club. He was soon taken in by the Fowler family as a lodger, leading to his association with Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton
Nicola Stapleton
Nicola Kathleen Stapleton is an English actress. Stapleton began her career at an early age. She is most famous for her work on British television, in particular her roles as Mandy Salter in BBC's EastEnders and Janine Nebeski in ITV's Bad Girls.-Early life:Stapleton grew up off East Street, which...
), an established character who had been an EastEnders regular since the Spring of 1992. Aiden and Mandy's romance was of one of 1993's "major storylines", which ran throughout the year. Depicted as shy, naïve and impressionable, Aidan was quickly led astray by the troublesome Mandy, signifying the start of the character's misfortune and decline. In the storyline, a knee injury ended his promising football career, and after Mandy introduced him to alcohol and drugs and he fell out with his family in Ireland, the character ended up homeless and sleeping on the streets or in abandoned squats. Aidan slipped into a depression, culminating in a suicide attempt, when in the Christmas Day 1993 episodes, Aidan decided to jump off the top of a tower block. The producers' original plan had been for Aidan to succeed in his suicide bid; however, in the book EastEnders: The First Ten Years, author Colin Brake
Colin Brake
Colin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who...
has revealed that "the powers-that-be" at the BBC intervened in the storyline. They felt that a suicide on Christmas Day would be "too depressing even for EastEnders", so they ordered for the scripts to be revised. In the revised version, Mandy arrived just in time to stop Aidan jumping to his death, her love for him convincing him not to end his life. 23 million viewers tuned in on Christmas Day 1993 to witness Aidan's suicide attempt; it was the highest rated television programme of the day, trumping its biggest rival Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
by 3 million viewers. Nevertheless, the storyline spelt the end of the character's time in the soap, Sean Maguire having chosen to leave to pursue other projects. The following episode, Aidan — resenting Mandy for her role in his misfortune — left to return to Ireland alone.
Reception
Although the character's duration was relatively short — he appeared in only 63 episodes of the soap — Aidan became "a very popular" character, particularly with the young audience. EastEnders scriptwriter Colin Brake has suggested that by the end of his stint in the soap, Sean Maguire's status as a teen pin-up "put him in the Take ThatTake That
Take That are a British five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter...
league". Sean Maguire's departure upset his fans, though the actor attempted to develop his appeal towards the young audience by becoming a television presenter and a pop singer.