Who is Susan Twist?

First appearance – Episode 1355 (7th January 1994)

Last appearance – Episode 1719 (26th April 1996)

Storylines in 1994

In March 1994, Eddie and Rosie Banks became the new owners of Number 9. They had been interested in the Jordaches’ (Number 10) but were persuaded by Sinbad to buy the house next door instead. They obviously knew nothing of the body under the patio…for now.

Factory worker Eddie’s proudest possessions were his Harley-Davidson motorbike and the coveted ‘Bully’ which he won three years earlier on the TV darts game show ‘Bullseye’. They actually won a speedboat, but sold it to buy the bike of Eddie’s dreams. He and his traffic warden wife Rosie had met when they were both in the Territorial Army. They had two sons, the eldest Carl, had walked out on the army and his wife to flirt with Margaret Clemence. The romance was nipped in the bud when Carl’s wife Sarah turned up with their baby daughter Rebecca. Margaret hadn’t known he was married and Eddie and Rosie hadn’t known he was a deserter. Carl was led away by two policemen and subsequently kicked out of the army.

Soon, the family were receiving ominous threats, hate mail, phone calls. On one occasion during a lingerie party, hosted by Rosie in a bid to get to the know the neighbours, a brick ends up through the window. Maybe the residents objected to having a traffic warden living on the Close?

Eddie and Rosie were living in fear. The cause was their younger son Lee. He had spent the previous two years in a young offenders’ institution after being convicted of joyriding, an incident which had left a young girl in a wheelchair for life. The Banks had been forced to move from their previous address, the strain having been so great that they actually split up for six months. They had been hoping to make a fresh start in Brookside Close but the girl’s family, the Kershaws, who had vowed that Lee would never rest in peace, had tracked them down.

Lee found it difficult to adjust to family life. He knew he was a target. The crunch came when he was snatched on his way home from Brookside Comprehensive. A van dumped him on the Close, trussed up in a wheelchair with the word ‘joyrider’ marked on his head. Eddie and Rosie whisked him indoors while the neighbours looked on in amazement. Even by Brookside standards, this was pretty unusual behaviour. Something had to be done. Led by Rosie and her larger-than-life sister Mo, the Banks went round to have it out once and for all with the Kershaws. After a bout of jostling and spitting and a broken arm and cracked ribs for Mick Johnson (who had gone along for the ride) a truce of sorts was reached between the two fathers.

As if they hadn’t enough on their plate, the Banks were also paid a visit by friendly neighbourhood burglar, Jimmy Corkhill, desperate for cash to feed his drug addiction. Returning home unexpectedly, Eddie caught him in the act. Jimmy’s time was up.

In the summer, Carl moved out of the barracks and back into number 9 with Sarah and Rebecca. But he was only doing it to please his parents – he knew that he had married too young. He carried on seeing other girls, particularly Jacqui Dixon, but when threatened by wife Sarah that he could lose his daughter Rebecca for good, he tried harder to settle down. However his mum Rosie started to fall out with Sarah, and, by trying to take Rebecca away from her, forced Sarah to leave and go back to her parents in Reading. Eddie pushed Carl into finding a job to keep up maintenance payments for their grand-daughter. Carl responded by pinching Sinbad’s window round and chamois leather. Window wars ensued until Sinbad took steps – well, actually Carl’s ladders leaving him hanging onto a window for dear life. With Sarah filing for divorce, Carl decides the window-cleaning round is the perfect opportunity to bed bored housewives but he makes a mistake of boasting about it to Mike Dixon who feels it is his duty to inform his sister Jacqui. When Jacqui finds out she drenches Carl with the contents of his own bucket.

Eddie, a strong trade unionist, had a fight of his own when he found himself up against his new Personnel Manager, Marianne Dwyer, Mick’s fiancee. The company, Litrotech, wanted more cuts than Jack the Ripper. Marianne was the girl to do it. Eddie is voted out as shop steward in favour of his mate Joey Woods who decides a strike is order. When Carl hears that there’s some temporary work on offer, he applies and gets the job. Unfortunately this meant crossing the picket line which left Eddie ashamed that his own son is a scab. Following the strike and Marianne’s resgination, an armed robbery takes place at Litrotech which Eddie stumbles across and is hit in the face by the butt of a shotgun. The only description the police have is the gun-toting villain was local and black and a description that happens to fit Mick Johnson (spoilers: it’s not him!)

Storylines in 1995

As 1995 arrives, Sarah moves back into number 9 with Rebecca, much to the annoyance of Rosie. Eddie is puzzled by the sudden appearance of a large puddle in his back garden and reckons the water is coming from beneath the Jordaches’ patio. With Sinbad and Mandy on holiday in Ireland, Eddie starts to dig up the patio himself, but Beth discovers him, angrily throws him out and frantically shovels soil back into the hole. However Eddie is undeterred and announces that the Water Board are coming out the next day. Mandy, back from holiday, says they’ll have to move Trevor’s body, but when it comes to the crunch, she can’t go through with it. Instead the whole family go on the run – back to Ireland. This time it’s no holiday.

Meanwhile, Eddie mentions to Jimmy that Sinbad has got something stashed under the patio and they decide to retrieve it before the workmen do. As Eddie digs, he hits a plastic bag and recoils in horror when he finds it contains a human hand.

Rachel after finding out what really happened to her dad moves in next door with the Banks which gives Rosie an excuse to tell Sarah (who’s dating Mike Dixon) to move out. Sarah moves in with Mike, Jacqui and Katie but it doesn’t last long as once Mike realises Sarah has a kid, he goes off her.

Eddie gets swept up in a dodgy timeshare business, thinking a holiday in Kenya would make a great 40th birthday present for Rosie and hands over £1,000 but later discovers he’s being stitched up. Rosie’s party ends up in a shouting match when she spots Mandy and Beth and accuses them of being man-haters and murderers in front of everyone.

It’s a surprise to Rosie when she discovers she is pregnant. After being arrested at a prison protest for Mandy and Beth, she is in serious pain and is rushed to hospital for an emergency operation. She loses the baby and the doctor explains to Eddie that there is internal bleeding: it would be best for Rosie to have a hysterectomy. The whole trauma pushes Rosie and Eddie’s relationship apart so Rosie tries to rekindle it by ordering skimpy lingerie from a catalogue only to arrive home to find Eddie wearing it. Rosie is naturally upset, but then finds some fun in joining in with the Crosbies in new lottery syndicate. This however causes some arguments when the Banks get five winning numbers giving a £100,000 prize which the Crosbies expect a share of – only to find their stake money had accidentally not been paid in.

Carl and Sarah try to make another go of their marriage by moving into Number 5 but she insists they that sleep in separate rooms. Carl allows Jimmy Corkhill to keep his drug money in the loft but when he goes to retrieve it, Sarah catches him, thinking he’s a burglar and he is forced to explain the deal with Carl. This is the last straw and Sarah throws Carl out. Realising his marriage is dead and buries, he quickly accepts an offer of a job in Dubai and leaves the Close.

Certain she’s on a winning streak, Rosie and sister Mo go to bingo at every opportunity and start buying lots of scratch cards. It becomes an addiction for Rosie, which causes Eddie to confiscate her cash card so she can’t keep wasting money. At Christmas, their lottery money runs out which means all the presents have to be returned. Desperate to win the money back at bingo, Rosie steals from Grants (the restaurant) where she has got a part-time job. Lee, who is also now working there discovers her stash but gets branded a thief by Max Farnham.

Storylines in 1996

As 1996 begins, Rosie comes clean and admits she is the restaurant thief. This causes another row with Eddie who packs his bags and seeks comfort and ends up in bed with Carl’s ex-wife Sarah. Eddie tries to get Rosie to go to Gamblers Anonymous but she insists she doesn’t have a problem. It’s up to Lee, to try and get his parents back to together, but he has his own problems dating Katie who’s going through an eating disorder.

Sarah decides to leave Liverpool to get away from Eddie, who is still in love with her. Rosie and Eddie and eventually drawn back together though by the fight for compensation against the hospital over Rosie’s surgery, but are shocked to receive a letter from the bailiffs with a repossesion order telling them to quite the house in 14 days. A shamefaced Rosie admits she has been gambling away the mortgage money. The hospital makes a final offer of £25,000, enough to save the house, but, knowing that £50,000 would enable them to buy the house outright, Rosie can’t resist one last gamble. She blows the lot on the roulette wheel as a casino and the Banks are left homeless. They sell off their posssessions and seem set to split up, but in the end they leave the Close together in April 1996, prepared to give their marriage one last chance.

Text adapted from Brookside – Life in the Close and Total Brookside books.