Dame Patricia Carmichael

[Dame Patricia]

Name: Dame Patricia Carmichael
Age: 50 (Born April 16th 1951)
Gender: Female - 15 points
Ethnicity: White British
Sexuality/Family: Heterosexual, married with 1 child - 0 points

Religion: Church of England - 0 points
Class: Upper Class - 0 points
Avatar: Anna Maxwell Martin
Discord Username: Dan

Education:
Grammar School - 0 points

University:
Bachelor's Degree - International Studies - 0 points
Master's Degree, International Relations - 5 Points

Career:

Actress turned High Profile TV presenter (35 Points)

TV extra for various TV shows over the years (mid 1970s until 1985)
Eastenders, recurring role (1985-1988)
This Morning (Daytime magazine show), guest presenter and stand-in host for Richard and Judy (1989 - 1992)
Breakfast with Patricia Carmichael (Daytime TV talk show), Host, Channel 4 (1993 - 1995)
Carmichael, (Evening Talk show) Host, BBC (1996-2000)

Aylesbury Parliamentary Candidate (2001)
Party: Conservative
Constituency: Aylesbury - elected at 50
Faction: Tory Reform Group

Honours:
Dame Commander of the British Empire - services to broadcasting - 1998- A-Team award


Bio to follow

[Barclay A.A. Stanley]

I am not sure that I can fathom an upper class woman with a Master's Degree in International Relations going on to become a Soap Opera star and then a Tory MP. As a result, I'm going to have to ask you to change something in your bio. Either have her be a dramatist (MFA in Dramatics, for example), or else change her career.

[Dame Patricia]

Amended to the following:

Bachelor's Degree - Performance Studies - 0 points
Master's Degree, Performing Arts - 5 Points

[Barclay A.A. Stanley]

Approved: 2 XP

[Dame Patricia]

Dame Patricia Carmichael was born on April 16th 1951 in Cowley, Oxfordshire. Dame Patricia’s Father, Norman was an Architect while her mother was a administrator for a local council.

Patricia attended a Grammar School in Oxford and went on to study Performing Arts at Oxford University, obtaining a masters. Following graduation, she appeared in TV dramas as an extra as well as a contestant on wheel of fortune.

Throughout the time she was at school and university she attended and was cast in amateur theatre performances. Patricia continued performing after university and It was here that Tony Holland, the co-creator of the BBC’s Eastenders spotted Patricia performing in an amateur performance of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. Tony spotted something in Patricia and she was offered a role on Eastenders. Patricia accepted and was cast as Linda Highcastle, a mysterious character who had recently moved to Walford.

Patricia’s contract on Eastenders was only for an initial three months however BBC bosses later offered her a five year contract as her character proved popular.

Patricia’s time on EastEnders as Linda was controversial. In an episode in 1986, the BBC received a number of complaints after Patricia’s character Linda Highcastle shared a passionate kiss with another female character, Tessa Parker. A number of the right wing press, including the Express newspaper begun a smear campaign branding EastEnders “filth” and called for Patricia and Joesephine Melville, the actress who played Tessa Parker to be sacked. The BBC ultimately stood by both actresses.

As Linda Highcastle, she very quickly became a lead character in the show. On Christmas Day in 1987 Linda had a run in with Pat Butcher in the Queen Vic after news resulting in a punch up in what TV critics called “one of the best fights in a British soap we’ve ever seen”. Linda and Pam were praised for their performance by elements of the media after the show was aired, with one paper saying “it was that realistic it almost seemed as if they really both hated each other in real life.” Linda also appeared to strike a very close friendship with the landlord of the Queen Vic Den Watts.

In 1987, ran into trouble with BBC executives after telling some friends in a bar in a bar that Pam St Clement who played Pat Butcher was a “fat nosey tart” and working with her was like “working with a deranged whoopie cushion”. The comments were overheard by an undercover journalist and Patricia apologised to Pam and BBC bosses.

Patricia’s character Linda was then appeared to be written off as she was involved in a car accident, apparently paralysed as a result. She took a 3 month hiatus in early 1998 but returned to Eastenders as it was revealed that Linda Highcastle was actually the head of the criminal organisation The Firm, with the car accident having been faked. Viewers were shocked to learn that Linda had actually been in “deep cover” for the last couple of years with the aim of getting close to Den Watts in order to recruit him and ultimately take over the Queen Vic as a Firm property. Den appeared to then work with Linda over the summer of 1988, burning down James Willmott Brown’s wine bar, organising the murder of Joanne Francis and a failed attempt to frame Frank Butcher for fraud.

Patricia’s last appearance on the show ended on a live episode of Christmas Day 1988 with Linda attempting to escape Walford and being arrested for the attempted murder of Den Watts and the conspiracy to murder of Joanne Francis.

Following her stint on EastEnders, Patricia returned to TV screens in 1989 until 1992 as a guest presenter of ITN’s show This Morning, working alongside Richard and Judy and standing in for them on Fridays as well as for 2 weeks in September alongside Nicky Campbell.
Patricia was then offered an opportunity to host her own Daytime TV talk show Breakfast with Patricia Carmichael in 1993 to compete with ITN’s this morning and the BBC. Patricia was nominated in 1995 for “Best TV presenter” at the newly created National Television Awards, losing to Richard and Judy.

In 1996 Patricia Carmichael left Channel 4 and returned to the BBC with her own evening talk show Carmichael. In the four years that Patricia hosted her show she interviewed leading UK politicians and famous world figures. She received critical acclaim following her interview with the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She also interviewed figures such as Nelson Mandela and Elton John. She won Best TV presenter for two years running in a row in 1997 and 1998 at the National Television Awards.

In 1998, she became a Dame Commander of the British Empire on the Queen’s birthday Honours list for services to broadcasting.

In 1999 she co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham alongside Terry Wogan. There was controversy as two countries away from announcing the winner, Dame Patricia (accidentally) called Iceland instead of Ireland to announce their votes, while Terry Wogan had said the opposite to UK viewers watching on BBC. At the same time a technical error meant the live feed shifted to Israel, who had already announced their votes and therefore announced them again. To ensure fairness in the competition the results had to be restarted from the very beginning, adding on another hour to running time of the Eurovision Song Contest. It later transpired that the error was not Dame Patricia’s fault and was a misprint on her card given to her by a staffer.

It was at the National Television Awards in 2000 that Patricia Carmichael began to realise that her career at the BBC was coming to an end. After presenting the award for Best Soap in 2000 at the National Television Awards she had a heated argument with a drunk BBC colleague Jonathan Ross on live national television in which they had to be separated by security. In what had later been played down as the BBC as a personality clash between Patricia Carmichael and Jonathan Ross, It was then reported Patricia Carmichael had demanded to BBC executives that she would tell all on her own TV show about what Jonathan Ross had done and threatened to quit the BBC, unless they sacked him.

In December 2000 Patricia Carmichael announced on her show that she would be leaving the BBC and her TV show to pursue a career in politics, standing for the Aylesbury constituency. She was elected at the 2001 election.