THATCH CLOSE CHARACTER PROFILES

NAME: DEIRDRE MARGARET FISHER

AGE: 68

SEX: TRANSEXUAL

MARTIAL STATUS: SINGLE

68 year old Deirdre Fisher is an alcoholic and a misery. She loves all the gossip that goes on around Thatch Close and resents Tanya who lives with her. It is rumored that Tanya’s mother abandoned Tanya on Deirdre’s doorstep as a baby for Deirdre to look after her. Deirdre often takes her frustration at being lumbered with bringing up a child by imprisoning the girl in her attic. It’s not long before poor Tanya finds out the horrible truth behind Deirdre’s big secret and the lies she’s kept hidden for years.

Back in the forties Derrick Malcolm Fisher had been through a terrible upbringing. His father was a drug addict and a drunk and beat his mother up at various stages throughout his childhood. As a way of escapism Derrick would dress up in women’s clothes and pretend to be a new person, a powerful woman that would never allow any man too close and would never let any man hurt her. Derrick never told anyone about his fascination of dressing as a woman. He was often beaten up at school and was called a girl by the other boys. He wanted to confide in his mother about a lot of things he wasn’t clear about, but she rapidly became too ill and mentally unstable and was finally taken to a mental institution when Derrick finished school at the age of 16. Around the same time his father had found him dressed as a woman in his bedroom and threw him out, leaving Derrick homeless.

Derrick changed his name to Deirdre Margaret Fisher by deed poll when she found a new home in Thatch Close. She was one of the first to move into the close, when the new houses were originally built on old farm land. This was Deirdre’s new start to life and so she wanted to start to live her new life as a real woman. She hoped it would put the past as Derrick behind him. Deirdre grew her hair long and had come across a Japanese surgeon that offered Deirdre his own back street breast implants. It wasn’t heard of back then only with the rich and famous and Deirdre thought it was the perfect opportunity to really say goodbye to the awful life she once had. She had to sleep with him a few times before he delivered the goods, but after that there was no going back and she planned to one day get her penis chopped off and complete the job.

Ten years drifted by and Deirdre was no happier in life and felt bitter over her past, she began to drink heavily to take away the pain from her past. She had been lucky with the outcome from her breast implants but it hadn’t killed off any of her demons she still had lurking inside. She had a few relationships with men and at this stage of her life she was experimenting with different wigs and different styles of clothing, so much so that it confused the men. They eventually began to realize that she had been lying to them and was once a man. Deirdre that to go through the shame each time and she knew it wouldn’t work. She was disgusted in herself, having the top part completed but still having a penis. Deirdre had been living in Thatch Close for over ten years.

The neighbors would laugh and make fun of her. They were judgmental over the way she looked and the different outfits she wore. They saw Deirdre as a drag queen or circus act. Often she would not come out of the house and have her curtains drawn every day and her depression was getting worse.

One day she found a young girl hiding in her garden shed for shelter. Her name was May and Deirdre took her under her wing and wanted to protect her. May was 18 and Deirdre always wanted someone to look after her at the same age so it felt right after her awful upbringing. She put her up in the house and as time went on, although May tried to find work and a flat, she had a drug addiction and couldn’t cope. But for the first time Deirdre was able to open up about her terrible past to someone that really meant something to her.

But her happiness was short lived. May soon got pregnant by her boyfriend who sold her out to his mates as a prostitute and got her hooked on heroin. Deirdre had various visits from the police and the more Deirdre tried to imprison May to protect her, the more she would rebel. What really hurt her was when the neighbors spread a vicious lie that Deirdre was a pedophile. May left her baby girl on the doorstep for Deidre to look after. She felt she had failed as a mother and run away. Deirdre has always resented the child. She named her Tanya, a name Deirdre’s friend Dot had come up with one afternoon.

Nowadays Deirdre is ruthless and numb to her surroundings. She still drinks and tries to control Tanya’s life. She feels that she failed not only in her own childhood but with May’s too, so she has a lot of resentment towards Tanya. Deirdre also has an evil vendetta against everyone in Thatch Close and really stands her ground. Even though only a few people like Esta Wilson and Janet Bennett know all about her past. If Deirdre doesn’t seek out professional help or Janet and Esta try to intervene and help her make sense of her bitter over her past life, it may end in a disaster for poor Deirdre.

Written and Created by

Darren Carrington