Tanya Louise Turner (also Laslett and Frederico) is a fictional character on the ITV drama Footballers' Wives, and also briefly appeared on the drama Bad Girls. Tanya is portrayed by English actress Zöe Lucker and is one of only two characters credited in every series from the pilot episode to the series cancellation after series 5, along with Jackie Pascoe, played by Gillian Taylforth. Her role within the series changed frequently; throughout some storylines she is considered to be an antagonist whereas in others she is the main protagonist.
The character is well known for her ruthless, cold and calculating behaviour. She is intelligent and independent and has been married three times, with each marriage resulting in her husband's death. American magazine TV Guide said "You'd have to go all the way back to Dynastys Alexis Colby to find a saucier British TV import than Tanya Turner".
Tanya was voted tenth in Virgin Media's Top 10 TV criminals poll, for her involvement in the death of her second husband, Frank Laslett and for her frequent use of cocaine.
Fictional character biography
Series One
Tanya was originally married to the womanising captain of Earls Park Football Club, Jason Turner (Cristian Solimeno). Their relationship was stormy yet very strong even though Tanya knew of Jason's extramarital flings. He slept with his team-mate Ian Walmsley's (Nathan Constance) young sister-in-law, Marie Minshall (Micaiah Dring), who was Jason's biggest fan. He considered leaving Tanya for her after several bust-ups, but came to his senses and dumped the girl he used for sex.
In episode one, Jason and Tanya discovered that the club's chairman, Frank Laslett (John Forgeham), had lied to them and secretly signed Italian midfielder Salvatore Biagi (Daniel Schutzmann), whom he planned to replace Jason as captain. Tanya lost her temper and attacked Frank after the event, causing him to hit his head on the side of his car, putting him in a coma. Tanya and Jason fled the scene, leaving Frank for dead, though he was found unconscious the next morning.
Months followed with a terrified guilty Tanya in pieces and spending every day and night in constant fear of Frank waking up. Visiting Frank religiously in hospital in fear of her guilt being made public, Tanya discovered nurse Jeanette Dunkley (Julie Legrand) raping a comatose Frank. In exchange for her silence, Jeanette agreed to convince Frank's ex-wife and son that Frank would never recover and it would be best to turn off the life-support machine. As everyone gathered to say goodbye to him, Tanya was stunned when Frank's hand twitched and he opened his eyes. Luckily for her, he remembered nothing about the incident that nearly cost his life and she had told Janette that they were having an affair which throw him off guard when Janette told him that she knew as he had no recollection of this either. She then paid Jeanette to disappear. This also gave her the chance to get Frank to reinstate Jason as team captain, although he lost it to Ian after some bad performances.
After begging for Tanya's forgiveness for being a useless husband, Jason got back up to his old tricks and seduced Jackie Pascoe (Gillian Taylforth), mother of his teammate Kyle (Gary Lucy), who was about twice his age. She fell pregnant but an uninterested Jason told her to abort the baby, however she couldn't bring herself to do so (unknown to Jason), and when her daughter-in-law, Chardonnay (Susie Amy), discovered that she wasn't pregnant as previously believed, she decided to take on Jackie's child as her own to avoid humiliation.
Whilst Tanya led Frank to believe he was in a secret relationship with her, Jason stormed in and started shouting, which brought back Frank's chilling memories of the night of his "accident".
Series Two
Series 2 began with Tanya and her husband Jason in court, accused of Frank's attempted murder, but she lied her way out of it and there was no evidence as the nurse, Jeanette, has "vanished" into thin air. In the end, it was her word against Frank's and the case collapsed but Frank was determined to get his revenge.
Furthermore, the Pascoes came home after Jackie secretly gave birth to Jason's son, Patrick "Paddy", in Florida, USA.