Jay Brown
Jay Brown | |||||||||||||
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File:Jay brown EE.jpg | |||||||||||||
Duration | 2006, 2007— | ||||||||||||
First appearance | 14 December 2006 | ||||||||||||
Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||
Created by | Kate Harwood | ||||||||||||
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James "Jay" Brown is a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is played by Jamie Borthwick.
Background
Jay is the grandson of Bert Atkinson and Evie Brown. His mother, Karen, died in 2004 of breast cancer. He was first mentioned on 5 December 2006, when a dying Evie told Bert that he had a grandson.
Storylines
Jay was first seen after Evie's funeral, which he did not attend. On 5 February 2007, Evie's friend Beryl took Jay to live with Bert, as it was what Evie wanted. Bert reluctantly took Jay in. Jay stole from the local shop and the market. He was intrigued about his grandfather's criminal past, and persistently questioned him about it. He warned Jay not to make the same mistakes that he did and that being in prison certainly wasn't as 'cool' as Jay thought he was for having the a criminal past. They moved into 15a Turpin Road together, and Bert decided to get a residency order so Jay could live with him permanently. Jay charmed social worker Derek Evans, who saw no problem with his welfare.
Jay was unhappy about attending Walford High School. Bert did not want to look after Jay in the half term break, so he asked Peter Beale to look after him. They broke into Pauline Fowler's house but were caught by Yolande who called the police. On Jay's first day at Walford High School, he went without food for the day as Bert believed school dinners were free. Ian later accused Jay of stealing food from a customer's plate at his café. Bert later caught Jay with cigarettes.
Jay later kidnapped Gus Smith's dog, Wellard, demanding £50 and a games console as ransom. He tried to befriend a gang of boys who teased him when Yolande mothered him in the café. He tried to impress them by calling Yolande a "black cow" in the street. Yolande later asked Bert to make Jay apologise, but he refused, instead mooning Bert outside the shop. A man walked up to Bert and introduced himself as Jay's father Jase.
Not long after Jase arrived, Jay discovered that Bert had left the Square, leaving Jay and Jase to bond. Jay continued getting into trouble, vandalising the The Queen Victoria public house (the Vic). In November 2007, Jay discovered the reason Jase had been to prison, and was upset with his father.
In January 2008, Jay became involved with a gang of older boys, the E20 crew, led by Tegs. Jay helped them shoplift, and they gave him a knife, which was found by Jase's girlfriend Dawn Swann the next day. The gang terrorised Dot Branning every time they saw her. Jay stole Dot's keys and the gang broke into her house, letting out one of her birds and smashing a vase. The gang escaped through the back door but when Dot returned, Jay was left in the house hiding beside her sofa. He realised he had done wrong, stood up and helped to try to find the bird that had escaped through a window. Later, the gang ordered Jay to throw a brick through Dot's window. He refused. and was rejected membership of the gang. Tegs called him a coward, so Jay stood up to him and they left him alone. Later, Tegs joined him in a park and a violent fight broke out. They soon laughed it off and they started to kick a ball to each other. The rest of the gang then arrived and forced Tegs to choose between them or Jay. He chose the gang and walked off, stabbing Jay in the leg as he left.
A Matter of weeks later, Ian Beale evicted Jase and Jay from the flat and they moved in with Jase's new girlfriend, Dawn Swann and her family, The Millers.
On February 25, While walking back to the Millers' from the chippy, Tegs' mother,Tina ambushed Jay and threatened him out of testifying against her son at the trial later in the week.
Several days later Dawn set up a meeting with Tina at Millers', which resulted in Dawn scaring Tina off. The following day, Jay attended the trial with Dawn by his side and gave evidence and Tegs was sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders Institute.
On 12 May 2008, Jay vandalised the garden wall of the Masood's after Shabnam Masood had an argument with his dad's girlfriend Dawn, belittling the Miller and Dyer families by calling them "simple" and stating that they had "no future prospects". Shabnam's mother Zainab Masood discovered Jay's graffiti "Shabnam is a hore" to her horror and went round to the Miller household to complain. At that point Jay sneaked out the house and an argument erupted between the adults over whether or not Jay was responsible. However later on whilst cleaning up Dawn found the spray can that Jay had used and, together with Jase, they confronted him. Jay protested that he was defending both families and whilst Dawn forgave him, Jase was much harsher with his son and sent him round to the Masood household to apologise and also made him clean the graffiti from the wall. Jay's punishment wasn't over though, as Jase mades him clean the house. While doing so, he finds a lads magazine with pictures of half-naked women in Darren's bedroom and interrupts Darren's meal with Libby in order to give her the magazine. That leaves Libby feeling angry at Darren.
On May 23, Jay asked Darren Miller, Dawn's brother if he could borrow his MP3 player, but he said no. Later, Jay overheard Darren and Libby Fox talking about sleeping together soon. So, on May 26, Jay ruined Darren's chances of sleeping with Libby which caused Darren to lose his temper with Jay and they began arguing. Luckily, Dawn came home and stops the argument before it gets worse.
In June 2008, Jay, Jase and the Millers' were offered temporary accommodation at the Masood's following an explosion and a fire caused by May Wright during a hostage situation involving herself, Dawn, Mickey and Dawn's daughter Summer. Several weeks later, they moved into a B&B and eventually 89b George Street.
On July 28 2008, Jay and his dad, Jase, planned to flee Walford after his dad's past came back to haunt him. However, Dawn stopped them from leaving by setting a date for her and Jase's wedding.
On the 26th of August 2008, Terry and his gang held Jay at the flat to get revenge on Jase. Jay then rang his father's mobile but then Terry hung it up triggering Jase to know that Jay was back at the flat with Terry and his men. As Dawn quickly went in she heard something coming from the main room. She ignored it and left not knowing Jay was being silenced in there. After hearing that his father is dead, he breaks down at his father's deathbed. Jase's death leaves Jay an orphan as his mother Karen has also died.