tanya franks played max branning's fourth wife in eastenders.
who plays max branning's fourth wife in eastenders?
tanya franks
abi and steven's baby is conceived during their affair, while steven is in a relationship with her mother's sister, lauren branning (jacqueline jossa). shortly afterwards, steven dies after being injured in a fire caused by abi's father max branning (jake wood). the baby is delivered via caesarean section after her mother becomes brainstem dead following a fall with lauren from the roof of the queen victoria public house. she is held by max after being born. max and lauren visit her and discuss naming her. max later visits her in the hospital and takes a photograph of her, but is told that she is not strong enough to go to her mother's funeral. her mother's uncle, jack branning (scott maslen), visits the hospital after her mother's grandmother, cora cross (ann mitchell), suggests that max would kidnap the baby as punishment for being banned from the funeral. jack arrives at the hospital and finds the incubator is empty. he presumes that max has taken her, although max returns with her and explains that he has registered her birth, naming her abi in memory of her mother, and that he wants to do things right. after max returns to walford after a break away, he and his new wife, abi's great-aunt rainie branning (tanya franks), visit abi, who is being cared for by cora, and vows to get her back. max and rainie meet with abi's social worker, calvin hoskins (colin tierney), and use jack's house to convince him they are suitable to raise abi and after the meeting, rainie and max row about rainie potentially ruining max's plan to raise abi. abi's social worker visits max and rainie again to discuss their marriage, which could be considered unstable due to the short time they have been married, about max's contemplated suicide, though max insists he is stronger and promised to bring up abi. max and rainie are asked for three references and although jack agrees to be the family referee, other residents are unwilling to support max, but max's former daughter-in-law stacey fowler (lacey turner) and her husband martin fowler (james bye) agree to be referees. cora visits rainie and max and offers rainie the chance to leave max, relocate to exeter, run a tearoom and be part of abi's upbringing with her and abi's maternal grandmother, tanya cross (jo joyner). rainie accepts the offer for £30,000, but contacts calvin and when social services visit, max and rainie inform them of cora's bribe.
list of eastenders characters (2017)
the branning family were introduced as an extension to the established jackson family consisting of carol jackson (lindsay coulson), her children bianca jackson (patsy palmer), robbie jackson (dean gaffney), sonia fowler (natalie cassidy) and billie jackson (devon anderson), her husband alan jackson (howard antony) and his grandmother blossom jackson (mona hammond). carol's father jim branning, played by john bardon, had appeared in the show in 1996 as a guest character and was reintroduced in 1999 as a regular by matthew robinson. three other of jim's children, april branning (debbie arnold), derek branning (terence beesley) and sue branning (julie christian-young) also appeared in 1995 and 1996, as well as his first wife reenie branning (joy graham), who died off screen in 1999, allowing jim to move in with his grandchildren. jim was paired romantically with dot cotton (june brown), and the couple married on screen in february 2002. the family was extended in 2005 with the arrival of jim's grandson bradley branning (charlie clements), in january 2006. bradley's arrival prompted a series of complaints from residents in the hertfordshire town of tring, where bradley had allegedly lived before he moved to east london, as they thought their town had been portrayed as "snobbish". the bbc responded by saying that tring was chosen following a storyline conference in the town, where the production team enjoyed their stay, saying that bradley was not a snob but was portrayed as a character who led a sheltered life because his father left him when he was young. in 2006, scriptwriters decided to pair bradley with the character stacey slater, played by lacey turner. meanwhile, actor jake wood was introduced as bradley's estranged father max branning, along with his second wife tanya branning (jo joyner) and their two daughters lauren branning (madeline duggan from 2006 to 2010, jacqueline jossa since 2010) and abi branning (lorna fitzgerald). max, a serial womaniser, had left bradley with his mother rachel branning, played by sukie smith in 2006 and pooky quesnel from 2007 onwards, after an affair with tanya, and had not seen his son for several years. max arrived with a mistress, gemma clewes (natalie j. robb), who was warned off by bradley. scott maslen was announced as the latest member of the branning clan, jim's youngest son jack branning, in july 2007. minor appearances followed from jack's ex-wife selina branning and daughter penny branning (mia mckenna-bruce). sue, renamed suzy, was reintroduced in 2008 played by maggie o'neill, though she departed later that year. bardon suffered a stroke in 2007, and a storyline was written in which jim tended to a sick carol, and suffered a stroke while he was there. dot and jim remained together, with jim making sporadic appearances throughout 2008 and 2009 to visit dot, and bardon made a more permanent return to the show in late 2009, which lasted until 2011.
branning family