- Deano Wicks
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Deano Wicks 
EastEnders character Portrayed by Matt Di Angelo Introduced by Kate Harwood Duration 2006–08 First appearance 2 January 2006 Last appearance 7 February 2008 Classification Former; regular Profile Date of birth 1987 Occupation Market trader (clothing) Family Mother Shirley Carter Adoptive father Kevin Wicks Half brothers Jimbo Wicks Half sisters Carly Wicks Aunts Tina Carter[1] Cousins Zsa Zsa Carter Dean "Deano" Wicks is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders played by Matt Di Angelo. He made his first appearance on 2 January 2006. It was announced on 18 August 2007 that the characters of Deano and his sister Carly were being axed by executive producer Diederick Santer. Deano made his final appearance on 7 February 2008.[2]
Contents
Storylines
Deano and his elder sister Carly were the product of two affairs Shirley Wicks had with unnamed men. At the time, Shirley was married to Kevin Wicks, who brought Deano and Carly up as his own children. When Shirley and Kevin's marriage ended, Shirley abandoned her family and lost contact with her children.
Deano arrived in Walford in 2006 and was taken in by Kevin's in-law Pat Evans after he claimed that his father had died.[3] It was a lie, and Deano was soon joined in Walford by Kevin and his big sister, Carly. Throughout 2006, Deano caused trouble by spiking Stacey Slater's alcohol with drugs and allowing Bradley Branning to take the blame, and later stealing The Queen Victoria (The Vic) public house's bust and driving recklessly, crashing a car — behaviour that was prompted by the anniversary of his brother Jimbo's death, which Deano took badly.
Deano was unwittingly reunited with his mother in the autumn 2006, during a family holiday in Dorset. Despite Kevin's best efforts to stop her, Shirley made herself known to Deano and Carly and eventually revealed that she was their mother. Deano struggled with this and after seeing Shirley behave promiscuously, he began to behave recklessly and crashed a car at high-speed injuring himself, his passenger Chelsea Fox and a pedestrian, Abi Branning. Deano was hospitalised and nearly died from his injuries, but began to bond with Shirley during his recovery. Kevin was opposed to this and amidst various arguments, the truth about Deano and Carly's paternity was revealed. Deano was devastated and threatened suicide by almost setting himself on fire, but was stopped before going through with it. Despite initial hostilities, he accepted Kevin as his real father.
Unlucky in love, Deano had a one-night stand with Stacey Slater, and unrequited crushes on Dawn Swann and Chelsea Fox. Chelsea used his attraction for her in 2007, coaxing him to get involved in a vendetta against Sean Slater, who dumped Chelsea for Carly. Deano tried to attack Sean but was overpowered and beaten. Chelsea and Deano swore revenge. They framed Sean for the assault of Patrick Trueman, stealing CCTV footage that would have exonerated him. Sean was imprisoned, but he got revenge on Deano by having him beaten by a gang of thugs. When Carly found the stolen CCTV footage, she gave it to the police and Sean was released. Deano and Chelsea were arrested for perverting the course of justice. Both were released on bail and Sean assaulted Deano again, flushing his head down the toilet. Afraid of the prospect of spending time in prison, Deano attempted to run away twice before his trial but eventually faced up to his responsibilities and was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. Deano found prison hard. On visits, his family discovered that he was bullied by the other prisoners and, after getting into trouble, he was denied early parole.
Deano was permitted to attend Kevin's funeral under police supervision in January 2008; he took Kevin's death badly. In February, Shirley was informed that Deano was being released. However, when Deano eventually came home, she discovered he had changed vastly. He behaved in a hostile manner, bringing a prostitute back to Shirley's flat then forcing her to pay for her services. Shirley took Deano for a drink in The Vic, but he was thrown out for headbutting Sean as revenge for the constant taunts that Sean had previously been giving him. Shirley attempted to get through to Deano, explaining that she wanted to rebuild their relationship, but Deano responded in fury. He pinned her up against a wall, ripped off her jewellery, and shouted in her face, showing her his prison injuries. After rejecting his mother, Deano left Walford.
Character creation
In September 2005, an official BBC press report announced the arrival of a new family of characters who would be joining the soap early in 2006. The Wickses were an extension of Brian Wicks's family, a minor character that had appeared briefly in the 1980s as the second husband of the more prominent character Pat Evans and father of Simon Wicks. The first of the trio of characters to arrive was Deano, played by Matt Di Angelo, branded by the press as a "heart-throb".[4] Deano was described as "cocky, charismatic [with] an eye for the ladies and doesn't see anyone as out of his league". Commenting on his casting, Di Angelo said, "I can't wait to join EastEnders to play Deano. He's a combination of a young Alfie Moon and Del Boy. He rates himself quite highly too so he's going to have lots of fun in the square."[5]
Di Angleo began filimg for the soap at the end of 2005 and was first seen on-screen as Deano in January 2006. The character was quickly joined in the soap's setting of Walford by his father Kevin Wicks (Phil Daniels) and sister Carly Wicks (Kellie Shirley). Executive producer Kate Harwood commented, "The Wicks family is going to be a force to be reckoned in Walford".[6] The characters' introduction was branded by the press as an attempt to "spice up the show", following the announced departures of many popular and long-running characters, such as Sharon and Dennis Rickman (Letitia Dean and Nigel Harman), Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman), Kat and Alfie Moon (Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie), Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf), Johnny Allen (Billy Murray) and Little Mo Mitchell (Kacey Ainsworth).[4]
Character development
Following his introduction, the character was involved in few high-profile storylines until September 2006, when his estranged mother Shirley Carter (Linda Henry) was introduced in a special week of off-set episodes, filmed in Weymouth, Dorset.[7] In the storyline, the Wicks family went on holiday and were traced by Shirley, who liaised with her unsuspecting children and, despite Kevin's best efforts, later revealed her true identity.[8] The revelation was shown to have a negative effect on the Wicks family, in particular Deano who was involved in a car accident shortly afterwards and was hospitalised after driving recklessly. The storyline progressed further, when it transpired that Shirley was hiding a secret for Kevin, that he was not the biological father of Deano or Carly. When revealed, Deano was shown to "go off the rails". Commenting on the storyline, Di Angelo has said, "I don’t think you can ever forget about things like that. But at the same time, Kevin’s looked after him since he was a baby so why does that make him not his dad, just because he’s not his biological father? In my view, your father is [the person] who looked after you since you were born."[9] Describing his character's relationship with his mother Shirley in 2007, Di Angelo said, "I think he’s very fond of his mum, he’s a bit of a big kid. He’s not the big tough guy, he’s not aggressive and he’s quite a placid guy. That’s because he does have this longing for a mum that he never had [...] he’d like to get to know her".[9]
Reception
Matt Di Angleo was nominated in the "Sexiest Male" category in 2006 and 2007 at The British Soap Awards, for his role of Deano Wicks.[9] Di Angleo has acknowledged soap fan criticism of his acting and his character in an interview with media website Digital Spy in 2007. He commented, "I'd love for some people that write on Digital Spy to try and act in front of 9 million people a night, and then listen to their own criticism on Digital Spy [...] Digital Spy people say I can't act, very mean [...].[10]
References
- ^ Swift, Simon (9 January 2010). "Meet Walford's new wild child...". Soaplife (IPC Media) (215): page 27.
- ^ "'Kevin Wicks' quits 'EastEnders', Digital Spy. URL last accessed 2007-08-18.
- ^ "Harry Potter star to join EastEnders, BBC Press Office. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ a b "EASTENDERS EXCLUSIVE: YOU'RE NICKED!, The Mirror. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ "Mike Reid to make 'EastEnders' return, Digital Spy. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ "Phil Daniels to join EastEnders, BBC Press Office. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ "EastEnders in Weymouth, BBC. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ "ENDERS IS SUCH A DRAG, Daily Mirror. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ a b c "Matt di Angelo, Digital Spy. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
- ^ "In Video: Inside Soap Awards 2007, Digital Spy. URL last accessed 2008-09-26.
External links
EastEnders Characters Crew members Julia Smith · Tony Holland · Simon May · Mike Gibbon · Michael Ferguson · Leonard Lewis · Barbara Emile · Corinne Hollingworth · Jane Harris · Matthew Robinson · John Yorke · Louise Berridge · Kathleen Hutchison · Kate Harwood · Diederick Santer · Bryan KirkwoodLocations Storylines The Banned · The Firm · "Sharongate" · "Who Shot Phil?" · "Get Johnny Week" · "The Secret Mitchell" · "Who Killed Archie?"Episodes Off-set episodes · Two-handers · Episodes in Ireland · "Pretty Baby...." · "EastEnders Live" · "Queen Vic Fire Week"Families Spin-offs Music Categories:- EastEnders characters
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