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Max Branning
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Max Branning is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is played by Jake Wood. He made his first appearance on 27 June 2006. Wood went on paternity leave as of 24 March 2008. He returned on June 23 2008.
is the estranged son of Jim Branning and father of Bradley. He arrived in Albert Square to confront his father after a seventeen year absence from his life, and to make amends with his son. Jim asked Max to leave, not wanting to be reminded of his past mistakes and refusing to apologise.
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Encyclopedia
Max Branning is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is played by Jake Wood. He made his first appearance on 27 June 2006. Wood went on paternity leave as of 24 March 2008. He returned on June 23 2008.
Storylines
Max is the estranged son of Jim Branning and father of Bradley. He arrived in Albert Square to confront his father after a seventeen year absence from his life, and to make amends with his son. Jim asked Max to leave, not wanting to be reminded of his past mistakes and refusing to apologise. Max then met Bradley, and explained to him how he was a teenage father and couldn't cope, leaving his wife Rachel after an affair with a woman named Tanya, who he later married. Tanya then arrived in Walford, and agreed to give their marriage one last chance and relocate their family to the area, despite having discovered Max had a mistress and deciding to file for divorce.
The Brannings moved into number 5 in the episode shown on 3 July 2006, with Max announcing he had bought number 10 Turpin Road for Tanya to open as a beauty parlour. He met up with Bradley again, who warmed to him more, however their relationship was damaged again when Bradley discovered that Max was having an ongoing affair with a woman named Gemma. Max broke up with her, and began repairing his bond with Bradley yet again.
After Bradley and his girlfriend Stacey Slater broke up, Max and Stacey started an affair. They slept together on Christmas Day 2006, and took every opportunity they could find to spend time together. When Max forgot to collect his daughter Abi from school because he was with Stacey, she was hit by a car. Max broke up with Stacey out of guilt, though they resumed their affair a few weeks later.
Tanya announced to Max that she was pregnant, and Max became more determined to save his marriage. He took his family on holiday to Spain, leaving Stacey behind. For a short while, they intended to move there permanently, though returned to Walford some weeks later. During Max's absence from the Square, Bradley had proposed to Stacey and she accepted. Upon his return, Max attempted to break them up, to little avail. The pair married, although Max and Stacey shared one last kiss before Stacey left on her honeymoon, unaware that Max's daughter Lauren had left her video camera recording and caught them in action.
When Tanya went into labour unexpectedly, Max was forced to deliver the baby himself; they named their son Oscar. However, on Christmas Day, the Brannings and the Slaters shared the festivities together, and Max was horrified when Lauren's wedding video was played, revealing the affair to his entire family. Tanya immediately broke off their marriage, and initially announced that she was taking the children and leaving him, however later chose to throw him out of the family home instead.
After begging for another chance, Tanya finally allowed Max to move back in. Max was unaware that Tanya was planning revenge, and agreed to sign over everything he owned to her, as security that he would not cheat again. He later destroyed the legal documents attesting to this, and Tanya decided to kill him. She prepared a meal for Max, spiking his wine with crushed pills. When he collapsed, she and Sean Slater took him in a van to some deserted woodland, where Sean had dug a hole and placed a coffin. They put Max in the coffin, and left him to die. However, Tanya later felt remorse, and dug Max up. He attacked her, but the pair then ended up letting their emotions out to each other. Tanya brought him back home, and he told her that he would leave in order to give her time to recover from everything he had put her through. He told her that he would return if she texts him, day or night, then packed his things, kissed Lauren and Abi goodbye in their beds, and left Walford.
Max returned home in June 2008, when Abi stole Tanya's phone and text him. He was confused by his wife's frosty reception to his return, until he discovered she was seeing his brother, Jack Branning. Furious with the situation, Max tried many times to separate the couple; attempting to purchase their house from Ruby Allen, seducing Jack's ex-girlfriend Ronnie Mitchell, and planning to frame Jack for a crime he didn't commit by acquiring a gun with his fingerprints on. Tanya and Jack planned to move to France, severing all contact between Max and his children. On 30 October, Max was abducted and beaten by Jack. Upon returning to the Square, he shared a kiss with Tanya, and later that evening was the victim of a deliberate hit-and-run, which appeared to be the fault of Bradley, however, on November 10, Tanya had confessed to being the one driving the car.
However, the storyline took a dramatic turn when on December 1, 2008 Tanya was on the phone to a mystery caller admitting that she was covering for them. It later transpired to be Max's daughter Lauren.
On January 2nd 2009 Lauren watched Tanya plead guilty to Lauren's crime and minutes later outside the courtroom, Lauren in an angry mood confessed to Max that she attempted to run over him. On January 5, Max was torn over who to save, and tried to prevent Lauren from confessing but was too late as she had already turned herself in to the police against his wishes.
Tanya returned on the 19th January 2009, slapping Max and chucking him out due to discovering that Lauren went into care and Max didn't inform her.
Reception
The storyline which saw Tanya bury Max alive prompted 167 viewer complaints, citing the inappropriate nature of the scenes, which aired prior to the 9.00 pm watershed. The BBC responded with the statement: "Whilst we appreciate that these episodes were dramatic, they were carefully filmed and edited in order that Max's ordeal was in the main implicit, rather than explicit, whilst still retaining their powerfulness. It's also important to note that Max made it out alive after Tanya realised she couldn't go through with her plan to leave him for dead. The burial is in no way glamorised or glorified, rather we see that when pushed to the edge, Tanya's behaviour becomes out of character, and indeed that it's Tanya herself who ultimately suffers because of her actions. Once again we are sorry that you did not enjoy these episodes."
The UK communications regulator Ofcom later found that the episodes depicting the storyline were in breach of the 2005 Broadcasting Code. They contravened the rules regarding protection of children by appropriate scheduling, appropriate depiction of violence before the 9pm watershed and appropriate depiction of potentially offensive content.
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