Keith TaylorTemplate:Infobox characterTee Taylor is a character from Tracy Beaker Returns and The Dumping Ground, played by Mia McKenna-Bruce. She is the younger sister of Johnny Taylor and the older sister to Hope Taylor.
Biography
Background
Tee and Johnny lived with their mother and her boyfriend, Keith. Keith was abusive and harmed the children while their mother stood by without defending the children, leaving Johnny to have to look after Tee whenever Keith turned violent. Even when Keith was not being abusive, Johnny still had to look out for Tee. On a trip to the beach, Johnny buried Tee in the sand and was left to dig her out as their mum was too busy with Keith. As a result, Tee nearly drowned. The siblings also had to keep their home neat and tidy as Keith would use that as an excuse to abuse the family. This would later have an effect on the children who would do chores at the Dumping Ground to "feel normal".
Tee was taken into care with her brother when she was 5 and Johnny was 7, after a neighbour reported the family to social services. On first being brought to the Dumping Ground, Tee often cried believing that her mother did not love her. They were taken into care late 2006/early 2007.
Tracy Beaker Returns
Season 1
In the first season, Johnny is shown dominating over Tee. For instance, in New Life's Eve, Carmen asks Tee is she can move in with her. Tee agrees to it, but is then stopped by Johnny. On other occasions, Johnny would rope Tee in to a scheme to get himself fostered, including, in Bad Luck Boy, serving biscuits and tea to potential Toby's foster parents.
On some occasions, Johnny's dominance over Tee would tie in to his plans to get them fostered. In By The Book, Johnny forced Tee to do everyone elses' chores with him, first under the belief that potential foster parents would see how many gold stars they had in their files and even continuing to force Tee to do it after learning that potential foster parents would not see the files. Tracy later talked to Tee in her bedroom, telling her that she could do whatever she wanted. To that end, fed up with Johnny making demands of her, Tee decided to climb the large tree in the house's back garden, only to fall out of it. Luckily, she was saved after Toby shoved a beanbag under the tree to break her fall. After this incident, Johnny resolved to be less dominant over Tee.
In Family Values, Johnny told Tee that they should not try to be fostered together, having fallen under the impression that children on their own are fostered more easily (after a conversation he had with Mike). Tee got annoyed by this and started pretending that she was not called Tee and that Johnny was not her brother. Johnny eventually apologised to Tee for this and they make up with each other.
In Sisters, Tee overheard Gina talking to Mike about keeping pets. She then showed Sapphire that she has been saving money to buy a pet sheep, which she dubbed "Baaronica Bellamy Sapphybum The First" (Sapphybum in honour of Sapph purchasing the sheep for her, as Tee did not look like an adult). Tee soon discovered that it was difficult to keep a pet, especially when Baaronica developed an appetite and decided later that night that she no longer wanted to keep her.
In Moving On, Tee ended up stuck between Lily and Johnny, the former wanting Tee to not do Tracy's interview on care kids, the latter wanting her to do Tracy's interview in the hopes potential foster parents will notice them. She decided to steal Tracy's laptop thinking that it would stop Tracy from leaving, which half the house had become upset over. However, this only caused an argument between Tracy, Liam and Sapphire. This prompted Tee to bring Tracy the laptop, explaining why she stole it, asking Tracy to not tell anyone else it was her who was responsible and then if she could do Tracy's interview.
Season 2
At the start of season 2, Tee joined the others in the protest to keep Elm Tree House open. Unfortunately, due to Lily falling off the roof, Elm Tree House was temporarily closed, which led to Tee and Johnny temporarily ending up with a couple. On returning to Elm Tree, Tracy asked Tee and Johnny to come up with a plan to make Mike look good, who in turn roped in Harry. Johnny's plan was for Harry to get stuck down a hole, but when Harry refused due to the hole's stench, Tee volunteered to go down. Johnny, however, nixed this on the grounds that the adults would only care about little kids.
In Elektra, Tee was one of the first members of Elektra's Secret Elm Tree Army (SETA). Elektra later made everyone perform an initiation test to become an "official member" of Elektra's army. Elektra wanted Tee to cut off a lock of Gina's hair, but as Elektra did not specifically tell her to cut Gina's hair, Tee brought Elektra one of Gina's hair extensions. She was sanctioned with the others, afterward.
After this, Tee and Johnny went on a weekend visit with the Watson family in the hopes that they would be fostered. However, the siblings were told by Tracy that the Watsons did not want to foster them. Tee believed it was because she had taken something Hannah (their potential foster sister) had lent her and Tee had not returned believing that they were going to live with the Watsons anyway. Both Tee and Johnny eventually found out that the Watsons in fact wanted to foster Tee, but not Johnny. Johnny convinced Tee to be fostered on her own as it would allow her to escape from living in care. However, the Watsons started foisting changes on Tee including sending her to the same school as Hannah and telling Johnny to not telephone Tee. Being out of contact with Johnny made Tee unhappy and after a heartfelt conversation at a bowling alley, Tee returned to live at the Dumping Ground.
Season 3
One night during a power cut, Tee found a series of riddles hidden in numerous places of the Dumping Ground. This eventually led to her discovering a time capsule that Tracy had buried when she still lived at the DG.
When Tracy split the Dumping Ground residents into pairs to make them look after an egg for a day (to see if they were responsible enough to own a new computer), Tee ended up in a pair with Frank, who had become her friend by this point. Tee named their egg "Eggbert", made the egg wear a small knitted hat and put him in a pram. Unfortunately, the pram ended up being knocked down some steps and Eggbert cracked.
When the Dumping Ground residents went on holiday to a farmhouse, Tee prematurely ended it after leaving a gate open, consequently leading to a group sheep following her and entering the farmhouse. On discovering that Tee was responsible for the chaos, the other Dumping Ground residents gave her the cold shoulder. She later tried to make amends by finding a holiday and ended up learning from Carmen that she and Lily are going to go to the campsite where Lily's dad was staying. They swore her into secrecy, claiming that a real friend would keep a secret, but Tee was convinced otherwise after a conversation with Gus that being a friend means not allowing your friends to get into danger. Tee followed the girls to the coach station but was unable to talk them out of it before the coach left. However, she demanded to be let off the coach and ended up encountering the owner of a stately manor whom after shutting the gate to a sheep pen and learning what lengths Tee went to to look after her friends, gave the DG residents a holiday at half price.
When Mike received an MBE, Tee was one of the residents elected to go to Buckingham Palace with Mike. Ultimately, she did not go in the end.
The Dumping Ground
Season 1
Prior to Mike leaving for a holiday, Tee wanted to go with Carmen to an unsupervised party with Year 7s. After Gina suffered concussion, they intended to lie to the relief care worker that Gina had allowed them to go, and later intended to go anyway after Faith shooed out the relief care worker. After the madness that occured the rest of that day, the girls instead decided on a "girl's night in".
Whilst home alone, the kids raided the petty cash to buy themselves various gifts. Tee spent £50 to sponsor a panda named "Shi Shi". Later that episode, Johnny shared some food with Tee that he had bought with money that he had not given up when the kids were collecting money for a big shop. Unfortunately, this was discovered by Jody, leading to the other DG residents seizing Johnny's money. The following day, Tee and Johnny were locked in the coal bunker as the latter refused to co-operate with Elektra and the former wanted to side with her brother. However, this was a ruse; Tee secretly recorded what was happening and forwarded it to Gina. On Gina's return, Tee, like the other kids, had her allowance halted until the petty cash and Johnny's savings were paid back and all agreed to not mention the events of being home alone to Mike.
When Jody brought a large box of gifts to the Dumping Ground, Tee worried that the gifts were stolen goods. When Jody eventually told everyone to return the items, Tee secretly took a tablet computer, leading to Jody being wrongly blamed by Kingsley for stealing it and consequently locked in her room. When Jody returned to the Dumping Ground, Tee apologised to Jody, but Jody said that if Tee had not done it, she would still be stuck in her house.
When Gina brought her mother (Hattie) to the Dumping Ground, Tee befriended her, believing her to be an absent minded old lady. When Tee overheard Mike telling Gina to put Hattie in a home and Gina refusing to do this, Tee stood up for Gina's viewpoint, on the basis that it was wrong for someone to put one of their own family members in a care home. Tee later rescinded this view on learning that Hattie was suffering from Alzheimer's and thus needed care in a home.
When Mo first came to the Dumping Ground and had trouble settling him, Tee befriended and stood up for him. An example of this was when the kids shouted at Mo for taking their belongings and building an "ant theme park", Tee told them to stop. This led to Mo wanting to do things with Tee and eventually declare her "his best friend", much to the amusement of the other residents and to Tee's ire. After reaching the end of her tether with Mo, Tee knocked down his scarecrow, which ended up collapsing on top of Mo. However, Mo forgave Tee and gave her his granny's pearls.
Season 2
When May-Li held a competition over who could write the best short story (which she would then send off to be judged), Tee attempted to write a short story for a competition about a girl called Sheena who was in care and had superpowers. She ultimately lost out to Bailey.
When Johnny decided that he wanted to join the army, Tee opposed him, fearing for his life as a soldier. She was later convinced by Faith to support Johnny and later even went as far as to accompany Johnny to their parents' house to have his consent form signed.
Weeks later, Tee received a letter from her mother, telling her that she had left Keith and was now living with her new baby sister, Hope. On receiving the letter, Tee was willing to give her mother a chance and even made a return visit to the refuge to see her mother and new sister. On her second visit, on seeing that Hope had been left alone, Tee kidnapped Hope and took her to the park, then told Johnny of her plan to put her into foster care and then have Hope live with them when they moved out of the Dumping Ground. Tee's plan was rumbled by Johnny but she was able to reconcile with their mother.
Season 3
After an open day at the Dumping Ground was held, the wallets of the visitors (and the money inside the wallets) went missing and one of them was found in the tank in the toilet ensuite to Johnny's temporary bedroom. As the other young people were discussing why Johnny would have stolen the money, Tee noticed Mo begin to say something, only to be stopped by Ryan.
Tee later spoke to Mo in his bedroom, where he admitted that he had found the stolen wallets in the bin and had shown them to Ryan. The pair went to the bins to retrieve the wallets, only to find they were not there.
Tee confronted Ryan about this, but feigned innocence (it was he who had moved the wallets from the bin). This led to Tee spying on Ryan, where he led Maude, a guest from the open day (who had stolen the wallets to begin with) to the attic (where Ryan had moved the wallets). Tee followed Ryan in secret and recorded his conversation with Maude. However, Mo followed Tee and sneezed, prompting Ryan to tell Maude to turn herself in.
Prior to the episode Now You See Me, Tee had entered a contest at Carmen's prompting. However, her work of art was rubbished by Kazima, who said that what Tee had produced was not art, going on to say that what Tee had created had come from following Carmen and not through her own direction. Kazima offered to introduce Tee to a friend of her's named Roscoe, who was a grafitti artist. Tee agreed to this and the others went to meet Roscoe.
After meeting Roscoe, Tee decided to help him with his artwork, which led to them vandalising a wall. She also learnt that Roscoe's mother had fallen ill and his father had walked out on them. However, Roscoe knew the building where his father worked and that he also had found a new wife and had step kids. Tee and Roscoe both went to his father's workplace where they vandalised a wall in the car park. Unfortunately for them, security were called. Roscoe scarpered, but the security guard decided to show Tee leniency and allowed her to escape.
Tee returned safely to Ashdene Ridge and shouted at Roscoe (who Kazima had invited over after Tee rang her to tell her what had happened). She later felt bad about this and returned to the car park to finish vandalising the wall with a message for Roscoe's father to contact Roscoe with the phone number to Ashdene Ridge. Mike ended up being informed of what had happened and subsequently punished Tee by making her return to the car park the following day.
Appearance
Tee has darkest blonde hair, nearly brown, normally in a ponytail, and has brown eyes and always looks a little perplexed (when she gets upset she has a small frown). In Tracy Beaker Returns and season 1 of The Dumping Ground, she often wore a blue long or short sleaved t-shirt with a little logo on, sometimes a cardigan with stars on and jeans or baggy trousers or leggings with lace up shoes.
Personality
Tee is a kind and friendly person. Everyone likes Tee because she is cheerful, bubbly and always has a big smile on her face but when she gets upset she has a big frown on her face.
Relationships
In Tracy Beaker Returns, Tee was often dominated by Johnny who would rope her into doing what he said, but this stops after the first season. Later The Dumping Ground she seems very protective over Johnny, having spent years in care with him. She is also friends with Lily and Carmen and began spending more time with her after Lily left for a new town.
Tee befriended Mo not long after he arrived, which led to him pestering Tee to do things with him before he was told that he could not force Tee to do anything she did not. Mo declared Tee his best friend, but aside from telling her to cheer up because it was "Recycling Day" in Hope he appears to have stopped hanging around her. However, in The Dumping Ground series 3, she and Mo try and find out if Ryan stole the purses in Grand Theft DG.
Tee also became friends with Floss in season 2 of The Dumping Ground and looked out for her when Nerys and Douggie Duffy had become interested in adopting Floss, even coming with her on a visit to the couple.
Trivia
- Many people think her full name is "Theresa".
Gallery
See: Tee Taylor/Gallery