Jim in Eastenders - apparently a wife beater!!

[ali_alic]

Very rarely watch EE but had to sit thru an episode at M-in-laws. Don't you hate it when EE re-invent characters? Maybe its because I don't watch it so there is no gentle build up for me, but Jim a wife beater?? What did the producers do, decide on a storyline then pull a name out of the hat. I know soaps are supposed to be larger than life but pleeeese.... just re-affirms to me why I don't watch it.

[violetblue]

The reason it sounds daft is that soap characters (including Jim) are usually one-dimensional, so it then becomes unrealistic to portray them as having other characteristics which don't fit this image. But it's a well-known fact that domestic violence is often perpetrated by people (note I include women here, though this is a minority) who you would least expect to be capable. In this respect, EE could be said to have got it right.

[chazza]

When Jim first came into EE he wasn't a very nice character - he was v racist and against his daughters relationship with a black man. He has mellowed over time but remembering this side of him, I don't think it is unbelievable

[ali_alic]

well I suppose its horses for courses. My expreience of DV (my father) brings up terrible memories of the "mental" abuse which came hand in hand with the physical side of things. The fact that my father had to control every aspect of everyone's life. The physical abuse in some ways was far less scarey than the mental abuse. I just don't see Jim as a "controller"