User:Bluebolt94/Ava Hartman

Ava Hartman (née Anderton) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Clare Perkins. Ava is the daughter of Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell) and half-sister of Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner) and Rainie Cross (Tanya Franks). Ava first appears on 20 November 2012.

Storylines
In July 2012, Cora tells Tanya that Ava was born in 1964 but was taken away by the medical staff while Cora was sleeping and they told her that Ava had died. In fact Cora was forced to put Ava up for adoption. In November, Cora tells her partner Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) that Ava is alive, and Patrick tells Tanya. Tanya tracks Ava down, and discovers she in the deputy headmistress of a school just 18 minutes away. Tanya and Patrick visit the school, where Tanya is shocked to see Ava is mixed-race, and tells her she is moving to the area. Ava gives them a tour of the school but Tanya runs out, leaving her purse behind. Tanya agrees to say nothing to Cora and not see Ava again, and she and Patrick drive away before Ava can return the purse. Ava returns the purse the next day and Cora invites Ava in. Cora is shocked when Ava reveals her name. Ava learns the truth, and has a long talk with Cora, telling her she had thought about finding her before but decided the past was best left in the past, and nothing has changed, so leaves. A few weeks later, Cora visits Ava and gives her a bracelet that was given to Cora by Ava's father, along with a Christmas card. Ava later brings Cora a card in return, and wears the bracelet. Later, Tanya's daughter Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald) befriends Dexter Hartman (Khali Best), and invites him to dinner with her family. Ava gatecrashes and berates Tanya for meddling. Tanya is clueless, and it is then revealed that Dexter is Ava's son. Ava is angry with Dexter for not speaking to her about what he was doing. Ava then gets a job at a school in Walford.

Ava helps out when Bianca Butcher's (Patsy Palmer) son Liam Butcher (James Forde) is involved with a gang that Dexter used to be a member of. They gang trash Ava and Dexter's home, and they move to Albert Square. Ava does not want to have anything to do with Cora, but Dexter urges her to, and she starts a friendship with Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick), who has a romantic interest in her. Their date is interrupted by Ava's ex-husband and Dexter's father, Sam James (Cornell S John). Ava resents him because he claimed to have gone out to buy milk but did not return for 20 years, and both Ava and Dexter want Sam to leave. However, Ava slowly realises she still has romantic feelings for Sam and they have sex. Sam then refuses to leave Albert Square because of the 'amazing time' they had.

Casting and departure
Perkins' casting as Ava was officially confirmed on 4 September 2012, when it was announced that viewers would discover that Ava was still alive. Perkins said of her casting, "I am delighted to be joining the show but to be working alongside Ann Mitchell makes it a dream come true. I have admired Ann's work for many years, and both she and Jo (Joyner) have been a real pleasure to work with. I'm now looking forward to see what the writers have in store for Ava". Of Ava's arrival, Mitchell said "It's going to be mayhem. The implications will be huge. The family will want answers, and I'm sure we won't be seeing the back of Ava." Perkins' official credits list her as currently (September 2012) filming a regular role in EastEnders.

It was announced on 24 September 2013 that Perkins is to leave EastEnders alongside Cornell S John, concluding their storyline. Viewers see Sam tell Ava and Dexter that he is seriously ill and needs a kidney transplant and Dexter makes the decision to donate a kidney to Sam. An insider said "The conclusion of the Sam storyline was planned many months ago. Since taking over last month, new executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins is continuing the story as it was originally mapped out." Khali Best will remain in the show as Dexter despite the departure of Ava and Sam. Perkins will leave the show in late 2013.

Storyline devevelopment
Since viewers discovered that Cora had a baby in the 1960s who she claimed was dead, speculation started about the fact that Ava could still be alive. Initial rumours suggested that Ava was actually Sharon Rickman (Letitia Dean), who had recently returned to the series, though this turned out to be untrue. An insider from EastEnders told Inside Soap that finding out that Ava is alive would "be the most explosive moment of Cora's whole life", adding that it would be both "the most wonderful and yet the most terrible thing that could happen" because although Cora has her daughter back, she has not been able to get to know her until now. The insider said that Cora and Ava must both come to terms with this fact, and speculated that Ava may have been taken away from Cora by the nurses because her father was black and "racial prejudice [was] prevalent in the 1960s", calling it "an unimaginable cruelty to inflict on them both." Mitchell revealed the reasons for Ava being taken away: "The baby's father was black and he left Cora before he knew she was pregnant. She was 18 and unmarried, and at that time, having a baby in her situation was a social stigma. She was made to feel enormous shame by her parents, who forced her to give the baby up for adoption." She said Cora did not tell anyone, "partly through an enormous sense of guilt, and to keep things as safe and uncomplicated as they could be."