EastEnders Wiki

NOTE: Please do not add content from the BBC iPlayer's early episodes until it has been aired on television, as it is intrusive to our readers who may not have seen the episode on iPlayer. Repeated intentional offences of this rule could lead to a ban, Many thanks the EastEnders Wiki admin team.

READ MORE

EastEnders Wiki
Register
Advertisement
EastEnders Wiki

Stanley "Stan" Reginald Carter, the ex-husband of Sylvie Carter, ex-fiance of Cora Cross, father to Shirley Carter and Tina Carter, grandfather to Mick Carter, Dean Wicks, Jimbo Wicks, Carly Wicks and Zsa Zsa Carter and great-grandfather to Frankie Carter, Lee Carter, Nancy Carter, Johnny Carter, Jade Green, Jimmy Wicks and Baby Carter, was the steel at the heart of the Carter family.

Backstory[]

Stanley Reginald Carter is Canning Town born and bred, born there in 1937. His grandfather Reginald William Carter was in WW1. In the early to mid 1950's Stan was called up for National Service. When Stan was fighting in Malaysia during National Service he used to bury the bodies of his fellow soldiers. Stan Carter left the army by 1961 and met Sylvie Smith in Soho and they married in 1962. He likes telling anyone who’ll listen that he learnt everything he knows at the school of hard knocks; life is tough and a man gets on with it. Stan is an arch manipulator, he’ll lie and cheat to get what he wants, taking down anyone who stands in his way. And although he might be wary of Shirley and Mick, he knows where their weak spots lie and will do anything he can to get them back under his control.

Storylines[]

Mick Carter visits Stan with Shirley Carter and Tina Carter as he is in desperate need of money. Stan forces Shirley, who he has been estranged from him the longest, to accept the money, and their angst is revealed to have started when Stan's drinking meant a young Mick and Tina went into care.

Stan gives Shirley Deano's mobile number, saying that he is now going by the name of Dean. A few weeks later, Shirley learns from her aunt Babe Smith that Dean has been staying with Stan. Shirley visits him, expecting to see Dean but Stan tells her that Dean went away a few days ago. A few weeks later, Mick receives news that Stan has been involved in an accident and broken his ankle. He visits him in hospital and Tina brings him to the pub, where they agree to stick it out for three weeks.

After Mick's wife Linda Carter forbids Stan to smoke in the house, he secretly smokes out of the window whilst the family is out, accidentally causing a small fire when the cigarette is not stubbed out properly. He is rescued by his great-grandson Lee Carter who the rest of the family believed was still serving in Afghanistan. It is revealed Lee has been staying with Stan for a week. After Mick believes Stan has been wetting the bed, a furious Stan demands to be taken back home. Whilst there, he is visited by Dean, who is in trouble with the law for handling stolen goods. When the police arrive, Stan takes the blame and is arrested. Mick later collects him and returns him to Walford.

Stan later flirts with Cora Cross, and offers her a loan when he learns that she is struggling for money. When Nancy Cartersuffers an epileptic fit, Stan and Shirley unite to help her and successfully deal with the issue. Wanting to reconcile with Shirley further, Stan calls Dean to The Vic. However, the reunion does not go well and Mick ends up punching Dean when he turns nasty with Shirley. Shirley blames Stan for the situation and threatens to throw him out, but he tells her if she does that he will reveal that it was her, not Shirley's mother Sylvie, that tried to drown Mick when he was very young.

When the Carters decide to re-paint the exterior of The Vic, Tina tells Mick that she can remember when they were decorating and when Mick nearly drowned in a bath, and that their mother Sylvie was not present. Mick believes that Stan was the culprit who tried to drown him, and orders him to leave The Vic immediately. Mick later violently grabs him and taunts him with drowning in the bath, although Shirley stops with the truth. Stan helps Linda allow her son, Johnny Carter, some independence after he reveals he is gay. Stan grows closer to Cora when he holds her a late birthday celebration as everyone forgets the date.

He refuses to believe Mick is guilty of soliciting a prostitute when he arrested for the crime, despite his plea in court. Cora reveals the offence to the whole pub, and distances herself from Stan. He is suspicious and realises when speaking to Cora's granddaughter Lauren Branning that Cora knows the prostitute involved. Cora apologises to the Carters when her daughter Rainie Cross, the prostitute, confesses that she lied about Mick.

Babe becomes suspicious when Stan frequently vanishes off the square. She follows him to the hospital, where she discovers he has terminal prostate cancer. She urges him to tell his family, but he insists he wants to deal with it alone. However, an upset Babe reveals the cancer at Lee's 22nd birthday celebrations. He is angry with her and tries to lie his way out of the truth, but later confesses that this Christmas is likely to be his last. Cora is very upset to realise the truth as well, as her husband died of cancer several years ago.

Stan confronts Babe and reveals he knows she is hiding Shirley; this leads Mick and Dean to bring her back to Walford. Christmas lunch is unsettled when Stan's ex-wife Sylvie Carter visits. Cora storms off upset and the day is later upset when Shirley admits that she is Mick's mother. Stan throws Babe out and urges Mick and Tina to carry on as normal, but he is left reeling when Mick tells him that Dean has raped Linda. After he collapses in the Square, Stan tells Tina and Mick he would like them to help him end his life. Although Mick furiously refuses, Tina eventually agrees, but Mick stops her before she can. This causes Mick and Stan to fallout. Stan tries to arrange a trip to the dogs for the Carters, but they are concerned for his health. Before they can leave, he loses feeling in his legs and is rushed to hospital, where he tells them he does not want them to visit and wants the money he loaned Shirley and Dean for Blades' back. He learns that he will never be able to walk again due to his cancerous tumour pushing on his spine. Babe and Cora visit him, and he proposes to Cora, which upsets Babe as she reveals she never stopped loving him. Cora accepts after Babe gives her her blessing, delighting Stan.

Stan returns home temporarily, but is sent into a hospice against his own will as his health continues to deteriorate. On Good Friday 2015, Dean returns to Albert Square alongside his father Buster Briggs, insisting on visiting Stan at the hospital before he flees the country. Shirley calls the police to stop Dean leaving, and he is arrested for breaking his bail conditions, which saddens Stan. The following week, Stan attempts to bring his family together by asking Mick to make amends with Shirley, but although he tries, she refuses to show up at Stan and Cora's wedding ceremony. The ceremony is interrupted when Stan appears to be in pain, and the nurses give him pain relief. He promises Cora that they will marry the next day and she sleeps over in his room. Shirley also shows up there to be with him in the middle of the night, having had a change of heart after hearing of Jim Branning's death.

Stan's health rapidly deteriorates over the night, and the Carters and Cora keep a bedside vigil by his side. When Mick and Shirley argue, Stan advises them to make peace for his sake. Mick leaves while Shirley stays with Stan. Shirley reminisces the times she had with Mick when he was young. Stan hints to Shirley that she should put her family problems to rest, before dying peacefully.

In September 2015, Stan ashes were poured into a dug trench on Ramsgate beach and the tide took him back out to sea.

Gallery[]

Advertisement