Tanya Turner

Infobox character
name = Tanya Turner
portrayer = Zöe Lucker
series = Footballers' Wives
duration = January 8, 2002 - July 15, 2006
creator = Maureen Chadwick
gender = Female
first = "Getting a Result"
(episode 1.01)
last = "The Last Ever, Ever Footballers' Wives"
(episode 5.09)
cause = Series finale
episode = "Footballers' Wives"
42 (plus three specials)
"Bad Girls"
3
age = 35
born = 1970 (stated in Series 1 Interviews)
occupation = WAG
alias = Tanya Laslett
Tanya Frederico
relatives = Anika Beevor (sister)
children = Pundarik Gates (previously thought to be Troy Turner who was later renamed Pheonix Gates) (son/deceased with Frank Laslett/ previously thought to be with Conrad Gates)
spouse = Jason Turner (1995-2003, deceased)
Frank Laslett (2004, deceased)
Mr. Federico (2005-2006, deceased)

Tanya Louise Turner is a fictional character on the ITV British drama "Footballers' Wives" and briefly "Bad Girls" played by English actress Zöe Lucker. She is the only character credited in every episode, she is considered to be the key protagonist and main footballer's wife of the series. Tanya is known as the superbitch of Earl's Park FC and for her manipulative manner, particularly in using her good looks to seduce men in order to gain what she wants, she married once for love, then again for money, was engaged for love again, and then finally married once again for money.

Biography

eries One

Tanya was originally married to the womanising captain of Earls Park Football Club, Jason Turner. Their relationship was stormy yet very strong even though Tanya knew of Jason's extramarital flings. He slept with his team-mate Ian Walmsley's young sister-in-law, Marie Minshall, who was Jason's biggest fan. He considered leaving Tanya for her after several bust-ups, but came to his senses and dumped the girl he used for sex.

In episode one, Jason and Tanya discovered that the club's chairman, Frank Laslett, had lied to them and secretly signed Italian striker Salvatore Biagi, whom he planned to replace Jason as captain. Tanya flew into a rage and attacked Frank after the event, causing him to tumble and hit his head on the side of his car, putting him in a coma.Tanya and Jason fled the scene leaving Frank for dead though he was found unconscious the next mornibg.

Months followed with a terrified guilty Tanya in bits and spending every day and night in constant fear of Frank waking up.Visiting Frank religiously in hospital in fear of her guilt being made public, Tanya discovered nurse Janette Dunkley having sex with a comatose Frank. In exchange for her silence, Janette agreed to convince Frank's ex-wife and son that Frank would never recover and it would be best to turn off the life-support machine. As everyone gathered to say goodbye to him, Tanya was stunned when Frank's hand twitched and he opened his eyes. Luckily for her, he remembered nothing about the incident that nearly lost his life and she hinted that they were having an affair so as to throw him off guard. She then paid Janette Dunkley to disappear. This also gave her the chance to get Frank to reinstate Jason as team captain, although he lost it to Ian Walmsley after some bad performances.

After begging for Tanya's forgiveness for being a useless husband, Jason got back up to his old tricks and seduced Jackie Pascoe, the mother of his team-mate Kyle, who was about twice his age. She fell pregnant but an uninterested Jason told her to abort the baby, however she couldn't bring herself to do so (unbeknown to Jason), and when her daughter-in-law, Chardonnay, discovered that she wasn't pregnant as previously believed, she decided to take on Jackie's child as her own to avoid humiliation.

While pretending to Frank to be in a secret relationship with him, Jason stormed in and started shouting, which brought Frank chilling memories of the night of his 'accident'.

eries Two

Series two began with Tanya and her husband in court accused of Frank's attempted murder from the start of series 1 but she lied her way out of it and as there was no evidence as the murse jeanntte has 'vanished' into thin air and in the end it was her word against Franks,the case collapsed while Frank was determined to get his revenge.FurthermoreThe Pascoes came home after Jackie secretly gave birth to Jason Turner's son, Patrick (Paddy), in Florida, USA, meanwhile the Turners were on trial against Frank Laslett (presumably for Tanya almost killing him, although there was a twist as it was Frank on trial as Tanya said that he attempted to rape her and she pushed him in self-defence).

Jason noticed Jackie's down-in-the-dumps attitude at a party celebrating baby Paddy's birth (he was delighted after Kyle and Chardonnay made him and Tanya godparents) and followed her into the house to confront her. After her breast milk leaked he realised that Paddy was the child he thought she had terminated several months before. He became broody and decided he wanted children after all, and offered to ditch his troublesome marriage to set up home with Paddy and Jackie (who had started to get doubts about giving up the baby after noticing how Chardonnay used the child as a fashion accessory). When Jackie made it clear that she and Jason had no future, he decided to try and persuade Tanya to have children, even though he knew that she would refuse. As the Turner marriage grew further apart Tanya and club shareholder Hazel Bailey came home from a party drunk, and after snorting cocaine, shared a lesbian romp, which Tanya deeply regretted the next morning as Jason walked through the front door.

Realising that this could be the last big chance to save her marriage, Tanya pretended to agree to try for a baby, taking birth control pills in secret. Jason made a grand gesture as godfather by putting a large sum of money in Paddy's bank account, however ripped up the cheque after finding out that the Pascoes had thrown Jackie out of their house after they caught her breastfeeding the baby. The police then gatecrashed the christening party and Tanya's handbag was emptied, revealing drugs and a packet of pills. Jason decided to end their marriage once and for all, disgusted, and began divorce proceedings. She was interviewed by Chardonnay on her chat show and branded Jason as impotent, but he hit back by saying that he had fathered a baby.

He decided to sort out the mess once and for all and kidnapped Paddy from the Pascoe home, beating up Kyle when he tried to intervene after he announced he was the child's father. With no legal adoption papers, their case was hopeless and the press, wondering why Paddy hadn't been seen for such a while, questioned their parenting abilities.

However things changed when Jason ended up completely cutting all ties with baby Paddy after a doctor revealed that s/he was intersexual after a womb and ovaries were found. Jason called his son/daughter a freak, and blew a fuse after a magazine was published with him, Chardonnay, Kyle, and Tanya dressed as with the bodies of the opposite sex stuck under their heads to try and show the world that they do not care about Paddy being a hermaphrodite. At this point, new, shy, teenage football player Darius Fry was besotted by Tanya, who seduced him on a number of occasions, before making him strip in the sauna and throwing him out of her house naked.

Jason then begged Tanya, who was revolted by her fine and community service at an old people's home cleaning false teeth and toilets due to her drug addiction, to reconcile with him after admitting to fathering Paddy Pascoe. She agreed, and was stunned when blast from the past Janette Dunkley turned up at the home. Janette blackmailed more cash out of Tanya and joined forces with Frank to prove that she put him in a coma and tried to get Nurse Dunkley to finish him off for good.

During a meeting with Tanya, Janette, who secretly wore a microphone underneath her top linked to Frank's headphones, starting talking about how Tanya put Frank in a coma. Tanya, twigging that Janette had a plan with Frank, purposely diverted the conversation to the nurse raping Frank in hospital, while the chairman listened in horror. Janette knocked a glass of wine down her top and Tanya took this as her chance to finally move on from the incident that almost killed Frank by agreeing to put Janette into hiding by dying her hair grey and disguising her as a resident of the old people's home she worked at. Frank, now finally knowing for sure that Tanya almost murdered him, tracked Janette down by using her mobile phone signal and told her that she must help him make Tanya pay.

Jason and Tanya were arranging the renewing of their vows, when the philanderer bragged to his team-mates about having slept with the manager's deranged daughter, Freddie. Darius, who was still besotted with Tanya and genuinely believed that he was the right man for her, had a go at Jason in the changing rooms, provoking the angry captain to threaten him. Chardonnay informed Tanya of Jason's cheating yet again, and she went through with their renewing of vows right until the moment she was to say "I do", but she threw the ring across the room and told him that their marriage was over for good. Jason responded by punching her, however she told everyone to enjoy the ceremony. By now Jason was despised, in particularly by Tanya, Salvatore, Kyle, Chardonnay, Darius, and Jackie. He was soon informed of his wife's indiscretion with weedy Darius during their separation, and got drunk on the roof of the building. He began to shout at an unseen character (Later revealed to be Chardonnay), and fell off the edge of the roof, hanging on by one hand. He begged Chardonnay to help him, but she picked up an empty bottle and whacked it hard on Jason's fingers, causing him to let go of the roof and fall to his death.

eries Three

The series opened with a funeral, assumed to be Jason's, although it turned out to be Chardonnay's when a glass coffin with her name on in large crystal letters appeared from the back of the a funeral car. Her widower, Kyle, bore her secret — she had killed Jason, and then battled with anorexia due to the pressure of her guilt, which eventually led to her death. Jason, however, was ruled in court to have committed suicide.

Events in Tanya's life also took a pretty surprising turn. Despite always previously having hated Frank Laslett, who had by now agreed to drop all charges against her in favour of their new business arrangement, Tanya, having been left a string of debts by her late husband, Jason, married him in a business settlement. Of course Frank demanded more than just an arrangement, and Tanya began to cringe during sexual encounters with her new husband, and it seemed that Frank's revenge was coming in a different form.

Tanya, meanwhile, began an affair with new signing, Conrad Gates, a bisexual who had always shared an open relationship with Bollywood star wife, Amber. It became clear to an extremely jealous Amber, who strongly loathed Tanya, that the fling she urged her husband to end was becoming much more serious. Tanya also discovered that Conrad was playing away with closet gay team-mate, Noah, and after Conrad dumped him, she set him up with a rent boy and had the whole scene filmed and shown to the world to make sure he didn't get involved with Conrad again.

Amber was then abducted and Conrad decided to cool down his affair with Tanya, but she exposed Amber as a liar and that the kidnapping incident was set up to make Conrad finish with Tanya. The disgusted team captain decided to leave Amber and move in with Tanya after she watched Frank die of a heart attack after realising that rampant sex wasn't good for his dodgy heart.

Life became tough for Conrad and Tanya when Amber began to stalk them, going as far as pretending to have hung herself outside their front door. She found out that she was pregnant, and Conrad moved her in with him and Tanya to keep a watchful eye on her. Not long after, Tanya was revealed to be in the family way, and was devastated when a video was sent to her of Frank saying that she would get the tape when she was pregnant and said that his condoms were very weak. Tanya got one of the remaining condoms from Frank's old drawer and filled it with water, only for the liquid to come shooting out of mini holes. She realised that Frank had been doing this all along and the unborn child was his. Amber then planted cocaine in Tanya's handbag.

Bad Girls: Series Six

Tanya was sentenced to Larkhall prison for 5 years for possession of cocaine. This was her second offence, she was previously arrested for being in possession and sentenced to community service. However, this time, Tanya is innocent, the cocaine was planted in her handbag by her arch nemesis, Amber Gates. Tanya did a deal with yardie gangster Rik Revoir – if she discovered the whereabouts of a stolen bag from its thief, fellow inmate Darlene Cake, he would arrange for someone to confess to planting the drugs on her. However, when Rik kidnapped Darlene’s younger brother Terence and sent one of his severed toes into Larkhall, Tanya quickly realised that she was in over her head. But Rik was the least of her worries, because of the luxury hamper that was delivered shortly after her arrival on the wing, Tanya was considered by the police to be the prime suspect in the mass oxalic poisonings that resulted in Al McKenzie’s death. But then luckily, the discovery of a stash of rhubarb hooch in the servery put her in the clear. Tanya conspired with Wing Governor Frances Myers to double-cross Rik. In exchange for leniency, Rik confessed to planting the cocaine in Tanya’s handbag and she was released on bail pending an appeal.

eries Four

Amber's waters broke, and Tanya demanded a Caesarian section immediately while Conrad was in Spain. Certain she was carrying Frank's baby, she ordered the nurse, none other than former acquaintance Janette Dunkley, to swap the babies around at birth, so if Amber's accusations of Tanya cheating and having a child with someone else went as far as paternity tests, the story wouldn't match since 'her' child would have Conrad's DNA.

The truth eventually outed when, Pundarik (Tanya's biological son) was smothered to death by Amber's pet pooch, Krishna. Results revealed that the baby had been wearing fake tan at the time of his death. Amber eventually clocked on to what has happened and ambushed the christening of Tanya's (biologically her) baby, Troy. Conrad attacked Tanya and broke off their engagement, and Tanya left the show in episode four of series four in a helicopter. At the end of that episode, she was seen on a beach in Rio chatting up a fat, old, Brazilian millionaire, which obviously hinted to the viewers what Tanya would've been getting up to in Brazil.

Later in the series Conrad and Amber reunited with their son, Troy, now renamed Phoenix, but their joy was cut short when Conrad was accidentally shot dead by teammate Bruno Milligan when he mistook him for Aerosmith, the man who kidnapped Lucy.

eries Five

Tanya returned to the show in episode four. In typical Tanya fashion. In an airport talking to the ticket lady.
*Lady: Are you travelling alone Mrs. Frederico?
*Tanya: Correcto, one widow, one dead husband (shows the urn)
*Lady: Window seat?
*Tanya: I don't care where i'm sat as long as the champagne's on ice.
*Lady: The flight departs just under an hour. Departing from gate 3.
*Tanya: Thank you (walks off)
*Lady: Excuse me, madam, haven't you forgotten something? (points to the urn).
*Tanya: Tell you what, darling. You keep it. I won't be needing that where i'm heading.

In the next episode, Tanya is getting on a plane when she sees new Earl's Park signing Paulo Bardosa. She bribes the air hostess with money to let her sit next to him and he mistakes her for a giddy fan and is surprised when Tanya reveals she is a shareholder in Earl's Park. The plane runs into turbulence and Paulo comforts her during it and it becomes clear between the two that they have a very strong attraction to one another. After landing in England she is horrified to find that Eva da Wolffe, an old magazine publisher, is actually Paulo's lover (she thought she was his mother). They meet again later that night at a restaurant and Eva gets Tanya's best seat and Eva makes some bitchy remarks to Tanya, who overhears her bragging about her contract costing £1.5 million to take photos for her magazine at Tremaine Gidigbi and Liberty Baker's wedding so Tanya asks Lucy for a free invitation in order to get close to Paulo. After more bitchy remarks from Eva, she sneakily steals her shoes while Paulo massages her feet and pulls off the heels before placing them back where she took them and then edges on Eva for a fight, only for her to approach Tanya and go crashing into the waiter and his tray of drinks and falling to the floor.

The next day Eva publishes an article showing Tanya eating away and smoking. They continue to feud at Trisha Watson's cancer appeal and they have an auction competition for a dinner with Paulo, but Eva wins (after Tanya continued to raise her bid to sums of cash that became obvious to the people surrounding that it was all just part of a bitter feud between the pair) and gives it to Trisha. At the opera, Tanya follows Paulo and Eva in the opposite box, Eva finds Tanya and Paulo together having sex and demands he come home. When he refuses to move, Eva says something to him in Portuguese, calling him Marchello, and he just goes with her as though being mesmerised.

At her mansion, Eva goes crazy at Paulo and makes him say sorry. After doing so, an unsatisfied Eva shouts "Sorry what?!", to which Paulo responds "Sorry mama". Tanya realises that something isn't right and searches Eva de Wolffe on the Internet and sees pictures of her in poor countries helping abandoned and orphaned children, and realised that the boy in a picture underneath which read 'Marchello', was actually Paulo, and discovered that Eva had adopted him.

Meanwhile viewers have seen that when Paulo is 'naughty', Eva handcuffs him and puts him in a cage to bring back the bad memories of the state he was in when Eva first rescued him. Tanya by now has decided to go round to Eva's residence and confront her with the fact she was sleeping with her own son. Eva's indifferent words show how ruthless and sick-minded she is, especially since she expected Paulo to love her in more than just a motherly way for the rest of their lives. Tanya lures Paulo towards her, but Eva hits him with a rake and tries to strangle Tanya. She fails and Paulo resists her calls and goes off with Tanya. They move into a new home and have a housewarming party, in which drunken footballer Callum Watson makes a pass at her causing Paulo (who was coming up the stairs and saw this happening) to get a vase and smash up the house and Tanya's expensive sports car, before begging her to punish him in front of all the guests. The next episode revealed that he'd been carted off to a psychiatric unit.

In the final episode of the series, club boss Garry Ryan makes several attempts to sleep with Tanya, although he is gunning for revenge when she makes it clear that she doesn't do old fat sleazeballs anymore. The next morning, she discovers that her dead Brazilian husband's properties and businesses (from which she gets her income) had been frozen as he was suspected to have been involved with fraud, leaving her penniless and unable to afford the rent on the new house. On the advice of her solicitor, she decides to sell her shares in Earl's Park. However, the stock in the company has fell and she has to persuade Garry to buy them off her (although she had to sleep with him at his request). Because she previously rejected his sexual advances, he gets revenge on her by tricking her into some dodgy shares and she now loses all this money.

Tanya then discovers that Garry was linked to club manager Roger Webb's fatal fall down a lift shaft as the dictaphone that was unknowingly to Garry in Roger's pocket at the time of his death recorded their whole conversation (including details of Garry's attempt to rape Roger's wife, Jackie) and indicated that Garry had directed his blind former employee to the broken lift that lead to him dying, and tries to blackmail him with the dictaphone recording. They then arranged to meet in a Soho nightclub in a back room to sort out some sort of pay off for Tanya to keep quiet, and as Garry offered Tanya a line of cocaine, the camera slid slowly to underneath the table they were sitting at, and a shot of deadly poison came into view, leaving viewers with an end-of-series cliffhanger, and Tanya in a life or death situation.

Finale Spoof

On Saturday 15 July 2006 the BBC aired what some people have considered to be the very last episode of Footballers Wives, however the episode is not considered and was merely an episode aired to make money for charity. The episode ends with Tanya waking from a bed, claiming the last five series were all a dream. Tanya then blows up her flat in a freak accident when she lights her cigarette, leaving Turner dead. This special was a six minute spoof, and didn't fit into the shows chronology, therfore none of its content is considered a tie-up to end the series.

Relationships

Ex-Husband: Jason Turner (deceased)Ex-Husband: Frank Laslett (deceased)Ex-Husband: Frederico (deceased)Ex-fiance: Conrad Gates (deceased)Ex-boyfriend: Paulo Bardosa (Mental Institution)Affair: Darius FrySlept with: Hazel Bailey