order again, eventually becoming engaged to Melanie. However tragedy struck hours after their wedding in January 1999 when Melanie and her entire family were killed in a gas explosion that tore through the boat on which the wedding reception was being held. Roy, who had earlier disembarked the boat to get a hangover cure for Jamie Hart (Michael Cole), was the only member of the wedding party to have survived the blast. He became mentally unbalanced after this loss; adopting army dress, killing and adopting a pigeon he named "Pete," shaved his head and later kidnapped and attempted to murder Claire Toomey (Tina Hall) which he should have been arrested and spent time in prison for. He eventually got his life in order again and started romances with Claire, Maria Simons (Annie Miles) and Sara Warrington (Beth Cordingly). He later opened an internet cafe business on Stanley Street in Charnham, and started a new romance with Nikki Warrington (Rebecca Blake) after her engagement ended. They were later married, and had a child. Ironically, Roy himself died in a fire whilst trying to rescue Nikki; a fire caused by an arson attack which destroyed his internet cafe business in 2003. At the time he left the series he was the second to last remaining original cast member. At that time he was the only character in the series to have appeared continuously since its debut. The other original character at that time, Claire Toomey (Tina Hall), had taken a long break from the series. Reception A Soaplife reporter described him as a quiet businessman with a coloured history. They added "to look at him now, you'd never guess Roy Farmer had such a chequered past." References Family Affairs characters Fictional drug dealers Television characters introduced in 1997 Fictional criminals in soap operas Male characters in television