Frankie Osborne

Infobox soap character
series =Hollyoaks



caption=
name = Frankie Osborne
portrayer = Helen Pearson
creator =
first = October 2002
last =
born= 7 August 19??
occupation = Beautician
spouse = Johnno Dean
(1981-2005)
Jack Osborne
{2005-)
parents=
children= Jake Dean
(son)
Craig Dean
(son)
Debbie Dean
(daughter)
Steph Dean
(daughter)
Ruth Osborne
(step-daughter)
Darren Osborne
(step-son)
Beth Osborne
(step-daughter)

grandchildren= Charlie Dean
(adopted grandson)

Francine Bennedictine "Frankie" Osborne (previously Dean) is a fictional character in the long-running Channel 4 British television soap opera "Hollyoaks".

She is played by actress Helen Pearson.

Character history

Frankie was formerly married to Johnno Dean for 24 years, the two having started dating in the final year of high school. She is, by whim, often an occasional homophobe and/or an occasional Religious Zealot and is the mother of Jake, Debbie, Steph and Craig Dean. Her daughter Debbie has left to become a professional singer. The Deans were a happy-go-lucky family, always on the brink of financial disaster. Impulsive and slightly flaky, Frankie was hit hard by the departure of her husband Johnno, who left her to marry his pregnant 19 year old girlfriend. Evicted from her home for failing to pay the bills, she now lives at The Dog in the Pond with her new husband Jack Osborne. Frankie is an enthusiastic amateur singer who once had hopes of a career in show business; she used to sing at the pub on a regular basis.

In 2006, it was confirmed that Frankie was pregnant. She was very happy about the news unlike the rest of her family. Frankie unfortunately suffered from a miscarriage early on in her pregnancy. Frankie found this difficult to take and it took her some time to move on. Later that year, her family was rocked by multiple crises; son Jake's pregnant wife Becca left him for one of her students, and Jake then accidentally ran over Diane Valentine, killing her. Her other son, Craig, was bullied at school because of Jake's actions, and he nearly quit, which upset Frankie, since she saw him as the one in the family who would have the best chance of success. The nadir was when the Dog was destroyed in an explosion. While they used insurance money to rebuild the pub, they stayed at a grimy bed and breakfast where the owner constantly put the moves on Jake and treated the rest of them poorly. They were kicked out, and briefly lived with the McQueen family until finally Frankie could take no more and forced Jack to use the insurance money he had been pocketing to pay for a nice hotel until they could go back to their apartment.

Frankie was very concerned with making sure Becca's newborn son (although they were unsure of the paternity, Jake lied to them and said he was the father) stayed with them while Becca was in prison. Becca eventually agreed, and when Becca was soon killed in a prison fight, the baby (Charlie) came to live with Jake full time. Frankie and Jack then went away for a while, and returned from holiday only for Frankie to receive the news daughter Debbie had been in a car crash. Frankie went off to look after her.

Frankie returned in 2007. John Paul referred to her as a homophobe after she told him he had already failed at turning her son Craig gay (at which point she was unaware that John Paul and Craig were secretly sleeping together). After Jake confessed his love for Nancy, Frankie was disgusted about it. Nancy couldn't believe that she would put her prejudice before her own son. Jack was a little more supportive.

When she discovered the truth about Craig's sexuality, she refused to believe he was gay and tried to convince Craig to try and get Sarah to forgive him and go to Dublin. When Craig came out to his family Frankie was disappointed, which hurt Craig. Frankie reluctantly accepted her son's relationship with John Paul, but only very reluctantly, and was likely not very sad to learn they had broken up. The day after Craig left for Dublin, she was shown drinking a glass of gin and reading his acceptance letter, smiling.

When Steph told Frankie she didn't have feelings for Max Cunningham, Frankie told her that she protested a bit too much. Generally, Frankie does not have much time for Steph or her life, usually preferring to involve herself in the lives of her sons, or to boast about the showbiz success of her daughter Debbie.

To get over the loss of Craig, Frankie decided to take in a foster child. Their first attempt, a little girl named Daisy, ended quickly due to Darren's hostility towards her, but then they took in a moody-15 year old emo boy named Newt. He got taken back into care after being accused of taking Frankie's jewellery. It was discovered that it really was Darren when Carmel was buying Christmas presents for her family and ended up buying Frankie's ring from a pawn shop. Frankie then borrowed the video from the pawn shop which showed Darren selling the jewellery. Whilst Frankie and Jack argued with Darren about it Warren and Louise came into the pub with Warren revealing another bombshell, Darren had betted and lost his fifty percent of The Dog In The Pond. Jack ended up having a heart attack.

Charlie's cancer and Paternity issues

On 22 January 2008, Charlie was revealed to have an accute form of leukimia, Distraught at the news, Nancy and Jake pleaded with doctors to run tests to see if either of them were eligible to donate their bone marrow to Charlie. Later on doctors confirmed that he could not donate bone marrow as he was not Charlie's biological father, confirming that Justin Burton (who had an affair with Becca) was in fact Charlie's dad. Jake later confesses that when he took the DNA test last year, he threw away the envelope with the results and that he didn't even open it. Frankie was really hurt by this when she knew that Jake could've confided in her. When Nancy tries to find Justin, Jake protested and told her that Justin isn't going to go anywhere near Charlie - to stop the argument, Frankie slaps Jake in order to calm him and tells Nancy to find Justin. After Frankie and Nancy's past problems, since Charlie's cancer, Frankie and Nancy's relationship has become more of a friendship.

The Raid at the Dog

Frankie is concerned when Jack borrows £100,000 in cash from a loan shark to buy back Warren's share of the Dog. When Carl and Anthony, criminal friends of Warren's, raid the pub to demand the cash at gunpoint, Frankie bravely stands up to them in passionate defence of Jack and Newt.

Defending Jake

More than any of the Dean's, Frankie was fiercely protective of Jake after his split from Nancy, not knowing that Jake had tried to rape Nancy on their wedding night. When Nancy filed for custody of Charlie, Frankie was furious, claiming that they were Charlie's real family. While Jack and Steph began to notice Jake's increasingly erratic behaviour, Frankie still stood at his side. She vented most of her anger at Nancy and Justin, who she blamed for trying to ruin Jake's life, especially after Nancy accused Jake of rape. When Steph came forward and revealed that she had walked in on Jake attempting to rape Nancy, Frankie began to blame her, telling her she was turning her back on her family, despite Jack, Steph and Newt trying to make her see reason. It wasn't until later at the hospital that Jake revealed that he did try and rape Nancy. Horrified that Jake could do this she finally saw her son for what he was. She left him alone to say goodbye to Charlie and then she would take him to the police. Jake later abducted Charlie and attempted to kill himself and the baby by gassing the two of them in the car in the woods. Frankie began to frantically search her son. She later found Nancy with Charlie and demanded to know where Jake was. She was shocked when Nancy said she left him behind to die. Running off to the car, Frankie was shocked when she discovered Jake was gone.

She continued to blame Nancy, Justin and Steph for Jake's problems, while trying to find him. She later admitted she was scared for him, knowing that he would try and kill himself again. Jake tried to blame his descent into madness on his father walking out on the family three years earlier; however, Frankie told him that "your father may have been a naive and immature man; but, for all his faults, Johnno would never have done anything as bad as what you have done".

Feud With Louise

Warren offered Darren £100,000 to help with money problems if he framed Jake by putting Sean's wallet in Jake's room. Jake got convicted of killing Sean and Louise was released. However Frankie doesn't believe Jake killed Sean and accused Louise of framing Jake. Shortly after Eli used Frankie's salon keys to get in and trashed the place then put red paint everywhere and wrote DIE and RIP all over the walls. The next day a thug came in with an iron bar smashed all the glasses and stole money from the till. Frankie immediately assumed Louise sent him round.

External links

* [http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/hollyoaks/cast/girls/frankieosborne Frankie Osborne] on the [http://hollyoaks.com Hollyoaks website]