Jessica Harris is a fictional character from the British soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Jennifer Biddall. The character made her first appearance on 3 October 2005. Biddall decided to leave the serial in December 2007, Jessica last appeared on 31 December 2007, and Biddall has since admitted she doesn't want to return to the serial permanently. Jessica's notable storylines include affairs, being unlucky in love, gambling and a carbon monoxide plot.

Casting

In 2005, Jessica was created by executive producer David Hanson and actress Jennifer Biddall was cast into the role.[1] Biddall made her first appearance as Jessica during the episode broadcast on 3 October 2005.[2]

Development

"Confident and headstrong, Jessica likes to be noticed. Seemingly able to succeed at everything she turns her hand to, Jessica has always made sure she gets what she wants - including her boyfriend Mark who she met when she was 15."[3]

— Hollyoaks.com on Jessica

During an interview with the BBC, Biddall spoke about Jessica, she described her as: "She's a new university student studying Marketing and Advertising. She's confident, outgoing, she wants to be the life and soul and she's had a long term boyfriend since she was 15. She's part of the perfect couple and she's hoping to stay with him, so we'll see how that one pans out."[1] Jessica only sees status as an attractive quality in males, commenting on this Biddall adds: "My character tends to go for the ones who have a bit of a status. So I think she quite likes Lee, who's the student president, there's a bit of an interest there. But she might have a few surprises up her sleeve and she might not necessarily go for the guy you'd expect her to."[1]

BBC America describe her as "The spoiled little rich girl always has Daddy on the line if she breaks a nail."[4] They also say it isn't wise to "call her a snob" because she "just used to the finer things in life."[4] They also state that "she's not beyond working for her keep, or fraternizing with the plebes. Quite the contrary, she quite fancies people who are different from her. For instance, she's had a romance with the quite-offbeat, usually penniless Gilly Roach. However, she does have a boyfriend from home named Mark."[4] A writer from E4.com described her as having an extremely turbulent love life.[5]

In 2007, Jessica was involved in a high-profile storyline in which she held a house party in which she has a boiler illegally fixed.[6] It resulted in a carbon monoxide leak, which it was then revealed had helped save a viewers life who was going through exactly the same ordeal at the time of viewing. The viewer stated, "The only respite I had in the middle of all my pain was Hollyoaks. I can’t believe I owe my life to it."[6]

In 2007, it was revealed that Biddall had quit the serial in order to pursue other projects.[7] Executive producer Bryan Kirkwood stated that "Biddall is in the pipeline to be leaving at the end of the year. She steps rather too readily into Zoe's shoes when Darren starts on his winning streak and they form a Bonnie and Clyde partnership which is very funny but she leaves in a dramatic twist in the New Year episode."[7] Biddall later said she wouldn't consider a permanent return to Hollyoaks.[8]

Storylines

When Jessica arrives she will not part from her mobile phone linking with her ex-boyfriend Mark Jury (Ash Newman) but they become estranged. When Mark arrives at the college Jessica retrieves a letter she sent him breaking up with him in favour of romancing Gilly Roach (Anthony Quinlan). They remain together until the letter is found revealing the truth. Mark and Gilly battle for her affections while she is in hospital with meningitis but she struggles to decide between them, so she tries to date both of them. She later breaks-up with both Mark and Gilly because she feels she is being unfair to them. She and Olivia Johnson (Rochelle Gadd) protest about being unfairly fired from the restaurant, Il Gnosh, and stage a nude protest.

Jessica is upset when Olivia dies in a fire at The Dog in the Pond pub. Her new flatmate Kris Fisher (Gerard McCarthy), who had convinced Olivia to stand up for herself, taunts and insults Jessica and accuses her of not being a good friend to Olivia. Kris also reads Olivia's diary which contains negative opinions Olivia had about Jessica. She competes with Will Hackett (Oliver Farnworth) for the position of Editor of HCC's newspaper. She gains the position by using Russ Owen's (Stuart Manning) social anthropology research on the class differences between the Owen and McQueen families as her article.

Jessica endures a difficult relationship with Kris. To make Jessica jealous, he kisses a man and she responds by kissing Elliot Bevan (Garnon Davies). Jessica and Kris get locked in a bathroom together and acknowledge their attraction. They nearly kiss before Will unlocks the door. They later argue which leads to them kissing and having sex. Jessica fears she has contracted HIV after being lead to believe by Will that Kris is HIV positive. Jessica has an HIV test which comes back negative. Kris also receives a HIV negative result but cannot forgive Jessica's judgemental reaction.

Jessica discovers that her father, Clive is bankrupt, which ends her glamorous lifestyle and plunges her into the harsh realities of being a low-income student. She has sex with Kris's brother Malachy Fisher (Glen Wallace), to make Kris jealous and get back at him for sleeping with Nathan. Jessica also helps Kris tell Malachy about his cross-dressing and bisexuality, which leaves him disgusted. Jessica and Kris have sex again and she is supportive when Kris reveals he feels only able to offer a casual sexual relationship. Kris leaves the village for a while. Elliot informs Jessica about Freeganism when she is cannot afford to buy food, however rather than taking food waste from the Ashworth's shop she takes food from the storeroom.

Jessica's financial situation worsens and bailiffs seize her belongings. Jessica tries to find money and Tony refuses to give her job back, OB offers her a job as MOBS, dressing as a Strawberry. A passer-by offers her a job surveying property for resale at a high mark-up. Jessica feels guilty about conning people, however desperate for money, she scams items for Jack and Frankie and then spend the money on clothing. Frankie is angry when she discovers the truth and throws Jessica out of her pub.

Clive returns and offered to repay her debts, claiming have his money back. He is still bankrupt and wants to use Jessica to seduce a potential business partner. However he is arrested before he secures the deal. Jessica is upset and refuses to visit Clive in prison, until Zak Ramsey (Kent Riley) convinces her. Clive claims he and Jessica are alike and tells her about a hidden sum of £1000. He berates her and states she will spend it on herself rather than repaying her debts. Jessica defies his opinions and gives the money to Darren as repayment for conning him.

Jessica's boiler breaks and she asks Danny Valentine (David Judge) to fix it for the housewarming party for John Paul McQueen (James Sutton). The boiler remains faulty and carbon monoxide leaks. The smoke alarm goes off as a warning but Zak ignores it. The carbon monoxide makes everybody at the party feel ill. During this party Kris and Jessica danced together and shared a brief moment before it was ruined by Darren, Jessica said that she has missed him and they had been emailing each other over summer. Jessica was terrified she would be sued, but the school sent her a letter claiming all responsibility. When John Paul moved into the halls, Jessica gave him Elliot's room and lied to him that he had to pay her money she would then give to the school. This went on for some weeks until Elliot returned to find his belongings clumsily thrown into another room, some of them broken. He locked himself in her room for hours and hours as a protest, only to leave when he had to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, John Paul moved back home.

When Zoe asked Jessica to place some money on a horse Jessica decided after much debating to treat herself with the money and lie to Zoe and say the horse lost, Zoe already found out the horse won and came to collect her money from an empty-handed Jessica. The tension between them ended in a fist fight when Jessica got drunk at the Freshers' ball, spilt a drink on Zoe's new dress and ripped it.

On Friday 23 November, Jessica slept with Zoe's boyfriend Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson), after the pair had some luck at a casino, which led to them sleeping together on the pool table in The Dog in The Pond with money scattered around them. Two days after their steamy encounter on the pool table Jessica and Darren slept together again but both regretted it. Kris then found out and Jessica and Kris had a confrontation where Kris worked about Jessica and Darren's affair and Darren and Jessica going to the casino behind Zoe's back and the whole conversation was recorded on the radio. Zoe and the whole of Hollyoaks heard it and this led to Zoe moving out of the student flats. Zoe then got revenge by writing crude insults on Jessica's door and throwing her clothes all around the village. Jessica got her own back by editing Zoe's instructional video for Evissa salon to make it seem as if Carmel McQueen (Gemma Merna) was prostituting herself.

When Darren arranged a poker game with Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas) in the loft, Jessica came with him. The stakes got very high and Darren offered Warren his half of The Dog in The Pond - he promptly lost it to Warren. A couple of days later whilst walking through the village, Darren and Jessica followed a drunk Louise Summers (Roxanne McKee) home, so Darren can confront Warren. They walk in to find Louise passed out on the bed. Jessica and Darren see Evissa's takings on the bedside table and decide to steal the money. The following day, Jessica and Darren went to the casino with Evissa's takings and won £200,000. Jessica asked Darren what they would spend their money on, and Darren revealed that he was going use the money to buy The Dog in The Pond back from Warren. He also revealed that he planned to get back together with Zoe, much to the shock of Jessica. On New Year's Eve, Darren and Warren had a showdown and when Warren asked for the money on the stroke of midnight, Darren was shocked to discover that all of his money was gone. As Darren frantically searched for the money, Jessica departed Hollyoaks village for good - £200,000 richer.

Reception

Sam Warner from Digital Spy reported that viewers remembered the character when Biddall gueststarred in rival soap opera EastEnders in 2022.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Walder, Will (13 October 2005). "Interview: Hollyoaks' Jessica". bbc.co.uk. (BBC). Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  2. ^ "What happens when?". Inside Soap. No. 39. (Hachette Filipacchi UK). 1–7 October 2005. p. 21.
  3. ^ "Jessica Harris played by Jennifer Biddal". Hollyoaks.com. (Conker Media). Archived from the original on 31 December 2005. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  4. ^ a b c "Hollyoakspace - Jessica Harris - Jennifer Biddall". BBC America. (BBC Worldwide). 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  5. ^ "Jessica Harris (played by Jennifer Biddall)". E4. (Channel 4 Television Corporation). 2010. Archived from the original on 2012-04-21. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  6. ^ a b Fletcher, Alex (25 October 2007). "'Hollyoaks' story saves woman's life". Digital Spy. (Hachette Filipacchi UK). Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  7. ^ a b Green, Kris (11 October 2007). "Exclusive: Two 'Hollyoaks' departures revealed". Digital Spy. (Hachette Filipacchi UK). Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  8. ^ Harkin, John (27 April 2009). "Jennifer Biddall talks about Hollyoaks return". Click Liverpool. (Click Creative Ltd). Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  9. ^ Warner, Sam (13 October 2022). "EastEnders fans spot former Hollyoaks star in Alfie Moon storyline". Digital Spy. Hearst Communications. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
Allikas: Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Harris_(Hollyoaks)
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