Carmel Valentine

Infobox soap character
series =Hollyoaks

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name= Carmel Valentine
portrayer=Gemma Merna
occupation= Nail Technician/ PCSO
creator =
first = August 2006
parents= Ricky Bowen (father)
Myra McQueen (mother)
siblings = Michaela McQueen (sister)
John Paul McQueen (brother)
Niall Rafferty (halfbrother)
Tina Reilly (halfsister)
Jacqui Malota (halfsister)
grandparents = Nana McQueen
spouse = Calvin Valentine (2008-)

Carmel Celine Marguerite Valentine (née McQueen) is a fictional character on the long-running British Channel 4 television soap opera "Hollyoaks".

She is played by actress Gemma Merna and made her debut in August 2006. She has proved popular with fans, winning both funniest character and favorite actress at the annual "Hollyoaks" Awards. [http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/hollyoaks/awards/] Merna also won 'Best Comedy Performance' at the 2007 British Soap Awards.

Character history

At first glance, Carmel appears to be a stereotypical blonde airhead. Yet what she lacks in brain-power she makes up for with compassion, for Carmel is possibly the kindest member of the McQueen clan as opposed to her fierce sisters Jacqui and Mercedes. Yet because she possesses a naive nature, Carmel is easy to take advantage of. She is one of Myra McQueen's daughters, and the sister of John Paul and Michaela. She is also the half-sister of Jacqui Malota, Mercedes McQueen,Tina Reilly and her co-worker at Evissa, Niall Rafferty, although she is not aware of this. She is a talented singer and describes herself as being a good Catholic, she even once wanted to be a nun. Carmel can be quite clever, as when Myra thought Tina was the only one who could finish her Sodoku book, it was revealed to be Carmel who had done it.

inging career

Darren Osborne recognised Carmel's singing talent and asked her to sing for his regulars in the SU Bar. Carmel, along with most of her sisters, performed just as Darren had asked, unaware that he had told his regulars that the McQueen girls were going to give explicit performances. Even after Darren's deception was uncovered by Mercedes, Carmel remained unconvinced of Darren's insincerity towards them and carried on with the show.

Change of direction

After sisters Mel and Sophie Burton were killed at the explosion of the pub Dog in the Pond, Carmel applied for and received a job at the health spa where they had worked. She spent most of her time filing nails, whether her own or someone else's.

Carmel, seemingly lacking in confidence, was often insecure about her looks, specifically her breasts, and stole some money Jacqui had recently received (Carmel did not know the money was from a criminal acquaintance of Jacqui's) in order to pay for implants.

Lonely

After seeing Jake Dean at the spa, Carmel was attracted to him and asked a somewhat surprised Jake Dean out for dinner. They were having a good time until they ran into his estranged wife, Becca, and her teenage lover Justin. During the confrontation which followed, Carmel was all but ignored, and she paid for the meal and quietly left. Afterwards he wasn't interested in any further dates, and she quickly moved on. Still looking for affection, Carmel met up with OB at a party, and went back to his place. Their signals were crossed, leading him to begin groping her breasts because he assumed she wanted sex. Carmel thought he was saying she was just for sex, and he had to reassure her he really did care about her. They went to the reopening of the pub Dog in the Pond, but OB was suddenly consumed by memories of his former girlfriend, the late Mel Burton. He told an upset Carmel that he couldn't date her, or anyone else, at the moment.

Affair with Alek

Carmel was very supportive towards little brother John Paul after he came out as being gay, but tended to go over the top as she signed him up to a gay website and took him to a gay club. Carmel's sister Jacqui was forced into marrying Albanian Aleksander Malota, who Carmel fell for and after weeks of temptation, slept with, despite the fact he was married to her sister. After their first time, he told her the real reason he was married to Jacqui.

When Alek asked her to keep it a secret she agreed when eventually Jacqui found out she was furious at Carmel and warned her not to say anything. Carmel felt guilty until discovering that Jacqui was seeing Tony.

Myra found out the truth and was disgusted at Carmel. Once Myra had begun to accept that Carmel and Alek were in love, she decided to invite both Tony and Alek round to join her, Carmel and Jacqui for a meal where Tony accidentally spilled gravy over Carmel's chest and Jacqui makes a joke about her breast implants. Alek realises what Jacqui means and is disgusted that Carmel would waste £4,000 on her cosmetic surgery and leaves Carmel. However, soon after they made up and got back together.

Jacqui announced to Carmel that she was pregnant with Tony's child. Carmel was pretending to be Tony's girlfriend, starting from a surprise visit by an immigration officer. Later, Carmel and Tony went to a dinner party together, as they had to pretend to be a couple to the Hollyoaks village, however Carmel was ignored by Nancy and Zoe to her dismay.

When Jacqui lost her baby Carmel told Tony that she and Alek would move out for a bit to give them some space, however when Tony saw everyone grieving for Alek in the bar he attacked him and when he was pulled off he let it out that it was his baby. Later Tony and Jacqui invited Alek and Carmel over to tell Alek that he had to go back to Albania much to Carmel's unhappiness.

Later on Carmel arrived home from Evissa and saw Alek packing, and it all became clear to her that he was going. She slapped him on the face and tried her best to convince him not to go even saying that she would go with him, but Alek didn't want her to cause she wouldn't have a life. She begs him to stay and he agrees knowing that she's never going to let him go without her. She sleeps with him one last time and then goes to the chip shop and when she comes back she finds that he has gone and she is heart broken.

She was devastated about Aleks leaving and blamed Jacqui for her grief. Louise visited her to find out why she has taken time off work where Carmel says she's just feeling under the weather. She later goes to Il Gnosh and near attacks Jacqui in front of everyone. Jacqui decided they should sort this out at home, but Carmel was inconsolable and even said that she wished Jacqui was still in prison so she couln't ruin anyones life, and Myra struggled to keep the peace showing Jacqui the state that she got her sister into and reminding them that they're family. Jacqui then went to Carmel's room and tried to sort things out saying that Tony and the baby she lost is also family and that this isn't the first time Tony has lost a baby but Carmel (despite feeling awful about this) isn't prepared to forgive her sister replying that she is too selfish to care about her own family and ends the conversation by saying that everyone's right about her being a bitch. John Paul saw her on the street prepared to leave to find Alek but he convinced her to stay and took her back home.

Carmel was called as a witness in Warren's attempted murder case. Despite her best efforts her nerves overcame her and ultimately ended up making things worse for Warren.

Brush with death

Still angry with her sisters, she took pity on her brother-in-law Russ, helping him to look for a new place to live and the two became very close. She soon started to develop feelings for Russ. Whilst attending a party at the student halls, Carmel and Russ had a heart to heart in John Paul's bedroom and they both admitted feelings for one another. However, they also admitted that they could not be together because of the past.

While this was happening, they had no idea that they were being poisoned by carbon monoxide and they both collapsed. When Justin later saved the students, he had no idea Carmel and Russ were locked in John Paul's room. When Mercedes realised that Carmel was at the party, they tried to find them, knocking the door in the process, and saving them. However, due to their long exposure, both Carmel and Russ were in a coma at this point. They recovered a few days later.

New Man, New Career

Carmel was feeling down because she had no man in her life. She read her horoscopes and they said she would fall in love with someone related to the number '3'. She dropped her ring down a drain and then Calvin Valentine came and helped her. He had a number 3 on his top. They then went out for a drink and almost kissed, but Calvin was distracted by Evissa being on fire.

The next day, Calvin only seems to be worried about Louise, who was trapped in Evissa when it was on fire and Calvin had to rescue her. Carmel isn't convinced that's he's over Louise. By the end of the night, Calvin realises he's spent the day neglecting Carmel and the two kiss, becoming a proper couple. Carmel has recently announced her decision to join the police force, a decision which is likely to put further pressure on her already strained relationship with her family. Matters were not helped when she told Jacqui and Mercedes they could no longer shoplift.

On New Year's Eve Carmel spotted a supposed ticking bomb in a van whilst with Calvin who was meant to be on duty. They ended up evacuating the whole village before it was revealed that it was just Myra and Leo. She was hurt when Calvin laughed at her and told her she had embarrassed herself. He made it up to her by giving her tickets so they could go away on holiday.

Carmel's confidence improved when she solved the mystery of who was harassing the Ashworth family, it turned out to be Kathy Barnes.She had to take her fitness test for the police. Calvin gave her a pair of purple sparkly trainers to help boost her confidence, but Mercedes repeatedly talked her down by reminding her that she had never been known for passing tests. Later, Carmel boasted to Mercedes and Calvin that she had not only passed, but she was the top of the list. Mercedes bought Carmel and Calvin drinks at the Dog, having lost a bet with Calvin, but kept on insulting Carmel until Carmel ran out in tears. Calvin followed her, and she confided that she had been too scared to read the results. The next day, she got up the courage, and went into the station to see how she had done. She'd passed, and hugged Calvin as she squealed, "I'm a proper copper!"

"Engagement"

In late February 2008, Carmel officially became a PCSO. The day was a disaster, as Carmel saw a small jewellery box drop from Calvin's pocket and excitedly accepted his proposal, not realising the item in the box wasn't a ring. Not wanting to ruin Carmel's happiness, Calvin agreed to marry her. Unfortunately, Niall, to make Carmel feel pain, convinced Louise (Calvin had confided in Louise, who then confided in Niall) to tell Carmel the truth. A hurt Carmel broke up with Calvin. In the midst of this chaos, Myra was arrested for benefit fraud. Since Carmel had repeatedly asked Myra to stop claiming benefits she did not need, Jacqui and Mercedes blamed Carmel, not realising Niall had turned Myra in.

Later on, Calvin realized that he needed Carmel and to make it up to her, he proposed to her for real outside of 'The Dog' Carmel accepted and Calvin gave her a beautiful ring.

Wedding

Carmel and Calvin's wedding was on Tuesday 16 September, there were all sorts of problems, Carmel wakes up to find her fake tan has gone wrong, the electricity at the McQueens goes out so the bridesmaids hair is half straight and half curly and Carmel's dress is too tight, she can't walk in it so Carmel has to be roller skated down the aisle. When she arrives at the church Calvin isn't there and Carmel thinks Calvin has jilted her but Calvin has got caught up in a drugs raid at the Loft. Calvin does manage to escape without being searched. When he finally arrives at the church he and Carmel finally get married.

External links

* [http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/hollyoaks/cast/girls/carmelmcqueen Carmel McQueen] on the [http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/hollyoaks Hollyoaks website]

References