Created 18th January 2003
UPDATED 11th October 2003
CAROL & LORRAINE
NELSON
(1991-1993)
Thank you to Kaarina and Paul Berridge for the pictures on this page and to Paul
Berridge for forwarding on this profile.
The following is based on a profile from the book "The Emmerdale Family Album" (by Michael Heatly and Published by Boxtree Paperback - 30 June, 1995 ):-
One of Alan turner's first moves on taking charge of the Woolpack was to employ a new barmaid after a succession of part-timers like Caroline Bates and Elizabeth Feldmann had proved unsatisfactory. Carol Nelson didn't exactly conform to the new, sophisticated image Turner had in mind, but there was little doubt that her presence would ensure the Woolpack remained the centre of village gossip for the foreseeable future.
While Carol was keen to discover others' secrets. there was much about her that remained unknown. When Jack Sugdon suffered injuries in 1992 following an altercation with a pair of local youths, Carol brought her spiritual healing gifts into play, laying hands on him and immediately curing his disability.
She had been divorced from her husband for some time, and the arrival of their
offspring Lorraine on the scene in the summer of 1992 caused grief to mother
and daughter alike. The teenager seemed intent on falling into bad company:
casual overtures of a romantic nature made to Mlark Hughes and Archie Brooks
led to rumour and gossip, after which she suddenly disappeared, sending her
mother mad with worry. When she returned, at 2 a.m.. Lorraine revealed that
she had felt rejected since her parents' break-up and believed, wrongly,
that she had been the cause of the split. At around the same time. Carol
was persona non grata at the Woolpack for a period after she admitted making
an anonymous allegation to social services that Archie and Nick were negligent
in their upbringing of young Alice. Turner, the child's godfather, dismissed
her without debate while with the greatest of ironies, Lorraine was taken
on ss assistant to Lynn Whiteley, who was running the wine bar.
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Lorraine
Nelson
Played by Nicola
Strong |
Carol Nelson
Played by Philomena McDonagh |
Nicola Strong played
tearaway teenager Lorraine Nelson.
Arriving
in summer 1992, Lorraine seemed intent on falling into bad company
and displaying antisocial
behaviour. It turned out that her disturbed ways were caused by
the fact her father had bused her as a child.
Lorraine's attitued to life changed when she was offered a place
at art college. She left the village with her mother in November
1993, just avoiding
the Emmerdale air crash.
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At length Lorraine ran away again, but on her return contacted her one-time wine-bar boss with a view to taking up residence at Whiteleys Farm. While Carol immediately squealed her protests it became apparent that Lynn was to he the chosen confidante for a horrifying story. Lorraine's father Derek had, unknown to Carol, been molesting their daughter repeatedly over the years. Having discovered her father had a new relationship and another daughter, Lorraine feared the same thing might happen to the child, and to prevent this possibility chose to reveal her ordeal. This she did to Lynn: the subsequent revelation to Carol all but broke her, at which Alan Turner offered the hand of friendship and reinstated her behind the bar. A combination of sympathy and therapy didn't stop Lorraine blackmailing Michael Feldmann, her fellow lodger at Whitdey's, when she observed him breaking bail. But a combination of time, love and tenderness (plus social worker Beth Andersen) finally did the trick and she returned home.
Lorraine had used her artistic talents to illustrate a local scandal sheet, compiled by Mark Hughes and then-girlfriend Debbie Uuttershaw, which had been the talk of the village in the summer of 1993. Publication ceased abruptly after Shirley Foster and Alan Turner (the butt of many of the jokes) cooked up a spoof Hotten Courier story on the trio. This led to them breaking cover and enjoying a slap-up meal in the Woolpack wine bar, supposedly covered bv the paper, before being advised that they' d been rumbled.
The rehabilitation of Lorraine continued apace when she was offered a job at Emmerdale Farm clearing the way for a farm shop. Along the way, she helped Robert Sugden nurse an injured barn owl. Olly. She taught Robert how to draw the wild birds of the district, as well as putting her artistic talents to use by designing a poster to advertise a trip to Blackpool organised by Seth in memory of his late wife Meg.
The arrival on the Woolpack scene of Shirley Foster certainly cramped Carol's style: was there really room for two dominant females behind the bar? The answer, unfortunately, was no - especially with Ms Nelson's holier-than-thou opinion of Mis Fosters chequered past, the expression of which was the possible source of countless rumours. And with Lorraine's acceptance at art college following two 'A' grades, the travel costs for mother and daughter were going to be prohibitive. With untypical subtlety, Alan Turner managed to find an answer to both problems by persuading a fellow licensed victualler to offer her a live in job nearer her daughter's new place of study. So it was that the Nelsons dissappeared into the sunset, knowing ths horrors they would be avoiding with the Christmas aircrash just weeks away.
