Victoria "Nana" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Hilda Braid. In a special episode, Kate Colgrave Pope played her as a 24-year-old in a flashback episode from 1944. She was introduced alongside her grandsons, Alfie (Shane Richie) and Spencer Moon (Chris Parker), and made her first appearance on 3 December 2002. She was introduced by executive producer Louise Berridge in 2002, and a decision was made to kill off the character in 2005 following the announced departures of her on-screen family, and made her last appearance on 16 December 2005.
Braid appeared in 210 episodes as Nana Moon. Her storylines included meeting Wilfred Atkins (Dudley Sutton), a fraudster who wanted to con her out of her possessions and fulfilling a list of things she wanted to do before she died. During later storylines, Nana's health began to fail and she developed dementia. Nancy Banks-Smith from The Guardian criticised the portrayal of dementia, but praised Braid's performance. Dek Hogan from Digital Spy said the dementia scenes were "a welcome change."
One of Nana's final storylines saw her visit Normandy with Alfie to see her late husband's William's (Dickon Tolson) grave. The episode featured a two-minute silence, flashbacks to Nana's backstory, and a guest appearance from the actor Trevor Peacock, who played Sid, a war veteran. The episode won "Best Single Episode" at the British Soap Awards in 2006. Braid's final scenes saw her character killed off, after dying of aortic aneurysm. The decision to kill off Nana was criticised by fans and critics, who did not see why she had to be written out of the series, just because Richie had announced his departure.
Storylines
Backstory
Victoria Montgomery married William Moon (Dickon Tolson), a soldier, during the Second World War. She was two months pregnant when he left to fight off the invasion of Europe. She gave birth to Alfred Moon on 18 April 1944. William died on 12 June 1944, killed in action. She remained faithful to William and never had sexual relations with any other man, opting to raise their son alone. After Alfred and his wife Cherry were killed in a car crash, she moved in with her two orphaned grandsons, Alfie (Shane Richie) and Spencer Moon (Christopher Parker), who call her Nana.
2002–2005
Moving to Walford with her grandchildren in 2002, Nana's family become worried when she starts to become overly forgetful. It is suspected that she has Alzheimer's disease, but it turns out to be water on the brain, which is operated on with no lasting cognitive effects. Nana meets a pensioner, Wilfred Atkins (Dudley Sutton), while on holiday at the seaside. They plan to marry, but on their wedding day Alfie exposes him as a fraud as he plans to flee with some of Victoria's possessions. She is devastated, and Wilfred leaves Walford having conned Pat Evans (Pam St. Clement) out of £30,000. In 2005, Nana is diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm, and takes the decision to die, as her chances of surviving an operation were low due to her age (84). She works on a wish list of things she wants to do before her death, such as getting arrested, playing poker, to have tea with the Queen and to visit her dead husband's grave in Normandy. Alfie takes her to France to fulfill one of her wishes on Armistice Day 2005. Nana lays flowers on William's grave and tells him she will see him very soon. Alfie's emotional state is badly affected by Nana's deteriorating health. As Christmas 2005 approached, the strain and stress on Alfie escalates. Still determined to do whatever his grandmother wishes, he tries to enjoy what he knew would be his final days with her. Per one of her wishes, Alfie buys Nana a battery-operated, dancing toy snowman and helps her decorate the Moon house for Christmas. As Nana and Alfie sit, watching the dancing snowman, the batteries run out. Alfie turns to his grandmother and is heartbroken to see that she has peacefully died on the sofa.
Creation and development
Nana was introduced in December 2002 as part of a new family of three introduced to the soap by producer Louise Berridge, the other two being her grandchildren Alfie Moon (Shane Ritchie) and Spencer Moon (Chris Parker). She was described as a "batty granny". Gavin Gaughan wrote Braid's obituary in The Guardian, and in it he described Nana as "vague, but always affectionate" and having "a wide smile and good-natured manner, her niche as a maternal Cockney was in the screen tradition inaugurated by Kathleen Harrison, which included Irene Handl and Patricia Hayes."