Whitney Dean
| Whitney Dean | |||||||||||||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Shona McGarty | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2008– | ||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 3552 1 April 2008 |
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| Introduced by | Diederick Santer | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spin-off appearances |
Last Tango in Walford (2010) EastEnders: E20 (2010) "East Street" (2010) |
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| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||
| Other names | Whitney Carter | ||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Taxicab controller Market trader Teaching assistant Waitress Barmaid |
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| Family | Beale/Branning/Carter |
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| Father | Nathan Dean |
| Mother | Debra Dean |
| Adoptive mother | Bianca Jackson |
| Stepfather | Ricky Butcher |
| Half-brothers |
Ryan Malloy Liam Butcher (adoptive) Morgan Butcher (adoptive) |
| Half-sisters |
Natasha Butcher (adoptive) Tiffany Butcher (adoptive) |
| Husband | Lee Carter (2016–) |
| Nieces | Lily Branning |
Whitney Carter (also Dean) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shona McGarty. The character is the adoptive daughter of long-running character Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), and was introduced in April 2008 when Palmer returned to the series after a six-year absence. Whitney is described by executive producer Diederick Santer as both an equal to, and younger version of Bianca, and is the oldest of Bianca's four children. Her storylines have revolved around her fractured family life, her sexual abuse by Bianca's partner Tony King (Chris Coghill), her sexual exploitation by Rob Grayson (Jody Latham), her marriage to Lee Carter (Danny-Boy Hatchard) and miscarrying his baby, and also surviving a bus crash. McGarty was temporarily written out of EastEnders for four weeks in July 2012 because of her repeated lateness to work.
The child sexual abuse storyline marks the first time the subject matter has been broached in a UK soap opera, and was researched and developed with advice and approval from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The inappropriate nature of Tony and Whitney's relationship resulted in over 200 complaints being made to the BBC and television regulatory body Ofcom by members of the public, with the storyline deemed "horrifying" by the Daily Mail's Lizzie Smith, and "one of the darkest and most disturbing storylines EastEnders has ever attempted" by the Daily Mirror's Beth Neil. The NSPCC however have praised the storyline for "helping to raise awareness of the hidden nature of sexual abuse". The storyline also gained EastEnders a Royal Television Society Programme Award in March 2009 in the Soap and Continuing Drama category.
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