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Character Profiles > Ringo Brown Sam Clark

Ringo Brown 2007-
Lived: 30 Ramsay Street
Parents: Graham and Prudence [Prue] Brown
Siblings: Johnny, George [Frazer], Paul and Pauline
Occupation: Student, Delivery Boy

The youngest of four children of Beatles-obsessed Prue Brown, happy-go-lucky Ringo grew up looking up to his carefree older brother, George. George left home, and changed his name to Frazer Yeats, when Ringo was just ten and Ringo later left home to go to boarding school. When Ringo was sixteen, he learnt from his other brother, Johnny, that George had been spotted, in Erinsborough, and set out to track him down. After watching his brother coming and going from a house in Ramsay Street, and being mistaken for a prowler by Zeke Kinski, Ringo went to see a shocked Frazer, who explained that he’d come to Erinsborough to try and win the heart of Johnny’s ex-fiancee, Rosetta Cammeniti and marry into her influential family, but had found himself really falling for her. Although Ringo had never met Rosie, his name was a dead giveaway and so he pretended to be called Rick Yeats. Frazer was grateful and allowed his brother to stay until the holidays were over.

It wasn’t long before Frazer and Rosie’s housemate, Pepper Steiger, worked out what had been going on and warned Frazer to tell Rosie the truth, or she would. Ringo, meanwhile, had convinced Frazer to let him stay on and had enrolled at Erinsborough High, where he quickly developed a crush on Zeke’s sister, Rachel. Finding himself tongue-tied around her, he sent her a mysterious Valentine’s card, and, when she was impressed, he sent another note, arranging to meet up at the General Store. However, when Rachel realised who was behind the messages, she thought it was all a joke and refused to accept that Ringo was her secret admirer. Ringo turned to another friend, Lolly Allen, for advice but found himself counselling her when she admitted that her stepmother, Sandy, had been abusing her. Ringo encouraged Lolly to speak up and confront Sandy, but it ended badly when Sandy fell into the pool and hit her head. When Rachel and Ringo went outside to find Lolly, they rushed to help, with Lolly eventually performing CPR and saving Sandy’s life. Afterwards, Rachel was impressed by the way he hadn’t jumped into the pool but had pulled her out from the side. She leaned in for a kiss, but Ringo ran off, clearly upset and later admitted to Lolly that he had a fear of water.

Lolly encouraged Ringo to own up to Rachel, as she would find it endearing and the plan worked, with Rachel offering to help him overcome his fear, even admitting that she had a similar phobia of spiders. After their first lesson, with Ringo holding his head underwater in the kitchen sink, the pair finally shared their first kiss, but Ringo took things too far by going in for a grope. Rachel ran off, but Lolly was again on hand with advice and as Ringo mentioned the spider phobia, Lolly concocted a plan. Ringo later met up with Rachel and begged her for another chance, explaining that, as they kissed, he’d spotted a spider on the back of her leg and had been grabbing it when it bit him. Although Rachel didn’t believe a word of it, particularly as she realised that the spider bite had been drawn with a marker pen, she accepted Ringo’s apology. Soon after finally becoming a couple, Rachel and Ringo’s relationship was put on hold, when Rachel’s ex-boyfriend Stingray Timmins died suddenly, and she asked for some time alone to grieve for him.

Whilst separated from Rachel, Ringo’s friendship with Lolly grew and, after Frazer was involved in an accident at the racetrack and left paralysed, he decided that Ringo should move back home with the family. Ringo was desperate to stay and, claiming that she didn’t want Ringo and Rachel to be apart, Lolly set up a tent at the allotments for him to stay in, later giving him the key to the General Store so he could sleep in there. As Rachel watched Ringo and Lolly spending all of their time together, she grew concerned that her sometimes boyfriend was about to be stolen away. Ringo assured her that it wasn’t true, and Lolly suggested making her dinner to prove it. That evening ended badly when Rachel realised that there was fish in the meal and, being allergic to seafood, was quick to blame Lolly, accusing her rival of sabotage. But Rachel was forced to eat her words when Rosetta admitted that she’d added fish sauce, thinking she was helping. Before long, Ringo and Rachel were a couple once again and, as a school project, were paired up to look after an egg, which Ringo amusingly christened Benedict.

Though Lolly left Erinsborough soon after, someone else quickly took her place as the third wheel in Ringo and Rachel’s relationship. When Ringo started working as a delivery boy for Celestial Fruits, the company run by his housemate, and Rosie’s sister, Carmella, he grew close to his new boss, happy to have finally found someone who was willing to listen to his opinions and treat him like an adult. As Ringo helped Carmella to overcome an addiction to anti-depressants by pretending their truck had broken down in the middle of nowhere, making her go cold turkey all night, Rachel grew increasingly jealous of all the time they were spending together. Things got worse as Ringo admitted that he was actually 17 and had been kept down a year at school, and both Lolly and Carmella had known about it, and Ringo found himself counselling Carmella, whose relationship with Oliver Barnes was falling apart. With many people believing that Ringo had a secret crush on Carmella, he was forced to deny it and stop working with her, and ended up angrily grabbing the keys to the fruit truck and speeding off, losing control and narrowly avoiding running down neighbours Susan and Karl Kennedy outside the garage. After an emergency blood transfusion from Frazer, he recovered in hospital and Ringo admitted to Rachel that he was finding her controlling behaviour difficult to deal with. She admitted that, having grown up without her mum around, she’d always had to be bossy to get her dad and brother to do anything, but would do her best to change. Further drama came along for Ringo as he left hospital to find that Frazer and their mum, Prue, had been doing some talking and repaired some of the damage from the past, with the revelation that there had been a fourth Brown brother, Paul, who had drowned aged 13 months and it had been the reason why their parents had put up emotional barriers.

Meanwhile, Ringo and Carmella were thrown back together when asked to dance together at Rosie and Frazer’s wedding reception. But Carmella found herself hitting a brick wall as Ringo refused to try, telling her that the members of the Brown family simply didn’t dance. Out in the country, as Ringo helped Carmella to secure a deal with a sexist organic farmer, they found themselves alone in the middle of nowhere, and she decided that it was the perfect time for a dance lesson. But as the pair got caught up in the moment, dancing to the music blasting out from the fruit truck’s stereo, they almost kissed and Carmella quickly backed off. Ringo promised that, in the wake of the near kiss, he would sort things out with Rachel. Carmella took this to mean that he was going to patch things up properly with her, but was stunned to hear that he’d split from his girlfriend. Ringo then enthusiastically told Carmella to meet him back at the field where they’d danced and set off. He waited and waited and grew upset, believing that he’d been completely stood up, when in fact Carmella was only feet away, watching him from the truck and trying to decide what to do.

Realising that she wasn’t going to show, Ringo returned home, where he went to Carmella’s room and confronted her. But as they talked, and again, almost kissed, they were interrupted by Rosie, who was desperately trying to finalise the wedding plans. She and Frazer were shocked to catch Ringo hiding under the bed and, accused of perving on his housemate and faced with the prospect of being sent back home, he lied that he had been putting Carmella’s washing in the room when he heard her coming and hid. Thankful that he had covered for her, Carmella told Rosie and Frazer that she didn’t want Ringo to be sent away and had no problem sharing a roof with him. The following evening, Rosie, Frazer and their wedding entourage gathered in a suite at Lassiter’s for a joint bucks’ and hens’ night, where Ringo and Carmella could hardly keep their eyes off each other. Once everyone else was asleep, Ringo crept out to the hotel pool, where he was soon joined by Carmella. Unable to resist the sexual tension between them any longer, she joined him, fully clothed, in the pool and they kissed. But Carmella was suddenly snapped out of the moment when Ringo mentioned that this would be his first sexual experience, and she promptly climbed out of the pool and walked away.

The next morning, Carmella did her best to avoid Ringo as the chaos of the wedding took hold but, at the reception, they were forced to dance together. Carmella quickly managed to break up the dance with a special performance of the famous Cammeniti 12-Step, but Ringo wasn’t about to give up on his pursuit of her. As many of the Ramsay Street gang were driven back home in a minibus, Ringo moved to the back seats to try and talk to Carmella, but their conversation came to a sudden stop when the van was involved in an accident. Trapped together, Ringo used what little strength he had left to tell Carmella that he was in love with her and, worried that he was slipping out of consciousness, Carmella lied that she loved him too. After being rescued, Ringo was rushed to hospital where he suffered a cardiac arrest and the medical staff decided to put him into an induced coma to allow his body to recover.

A week later, the doctors brought Ringo out of the coma and he woke up, not taking long to remember Carmella's admission of love. But Carmella had already confessed everything to Rosie and Frazer, who were putting pressure on her to be honest and admit that she had lied to Ringo in the heat of the moment. As days went by, and Carmella backed out of speaking to Ringo time and time again, he finally decided that he had to see her and walked out of the hospital, headed for Lassiter's, where Carmella was attending a farewell bash for Sky Mangel and Boyd Hoyland. In front of half of Erinsborough, Ringo confronted Carmella, asking her to tell everyone that she loved him. But Carmella had no option but to tell him the truth, breaking Ringo's heart and leaving him humiliated. When Prue gave her son the option of continuing his recovery at home, he took it, and Frazer, feeling like he'd let Ringo down, decided to go with them.

Only hours after returning home, Frazer was shocked to hear from Rosie that Carmella had been diagnosed as pregnant earlier that afternoon. With everyone believing that Ringo was the father, he stormed out of the house and hooked up with Gags McKenzie and some of his other old mates, who spent their evenings drinking alcohol and hanging around car parks. As Frazer tracked him down, a fight broke out between the two brothers, with Ringo breaking down and admitting that he wasn't a man, and he didn't need to face his responsibilities, as he and Carmella had done nothing more than share one kiss. This was the breakthrough that the brothers needed and over the next few days, Ringo came to realise that Frazer had been through a similar relationship with an older woman, when they bumped into barmaid Jacqui Burns. Frazer explained that his brief romance with Jacqui, a few years his senior, had been a contributing factor to him leaving Muttatang in the first place. Later that day, Frazer decided that he'd been away from new bride Rosie for long enough and prepared to leave, with Prue deciding that Ringo should go too, as he needed to learn some independence and Frazer was clearly doing a good job of looking after him.

Back in Erinsborough, Ringo managed to patch things up with Carmella and salvage a friendship with Rachel, not realising that she was still desperately in love with him. When she realised that he was struggling at school and had failed their health exam, she offered to study with him, pretending that she was the one struggling. Ringo soon saw through her plan and angrily told her that he didn't need to be her latest project and could cope fine on his own, but when he was asked by Susan to take the attendance register, he saw an opportunity to steal one of the papers for the upcoming English exam. Rachel and Zeke spotted him and told him how stupid he was being, so he gave the paper to Rachel to put back in Susan's bag.

Rachel did get the exam back in Susan's bag but Karl was suspicious and Rachel ended up making a false confession that she stole it - all in an attempt to save Ringo from possible expulsion. This meant Rachel was stopped from attending the advanced literature course so Ringo decide to do the right thing and owned up to his crime. His brother Frazer managed to save him from expulsion by promising a strong punishment at home, so Ringo ended up with a one week suspension. Ringo and Rachel were brought together again over the exam paper but Rachel became suspicious about the amount of time Ringo was spending with his teacher and housemate Pepper Steiger. Fearing he’d developed another infatuation with an older woman, Rachel left for the literature course without saying goodbye.

What Rachel didn’t know was that Ringo and Pepper had actually been trying to combat Ringo’s problems with food. Following the end of his relationship with Carmella, Ringo had become very body conscious; lifting weights, running and, most seriously, not eating properly. Pepper spotted the warning signs as she had had an eating disorder while she was at school. Ringo initially denied he had any kind of problem but Pepper finally got through to him and she got him eating again. But Ringo was ashamed and couldn’t bring himself to tell Rachel the truth and he would let Pepper tell Frazer and Rosie. When Pepper had to leave Erinsborough to be closer to her ill father, she was confident that Ringo was back to normal but she took the precaution of telling school counsellor Daniel “Fitzy” Fitzgerald what had been going on, and on the day she left she also told Rosie, but told her not to tell Frazer.

Rosie kept a close eye on Ringo’s eating and soon discovered he was using appetite suppressants. Frazer then became involved, as did Fitzy after Ringo nearly drowned during a swim trial. This led to a confrontation but Ringo remained obstinate, continuing to deny he needed professional counselling and even managing to eat a hearty meal in front of his brother and sister-in-law; but later, Frazer heard him vomiting in the garden. Frazer then got his mother involved in the situation. She frankly explained to Ringo that she’d already seen the death of one son and she wasn’t going to let it happen again. Ringo woke up to himself after this and agreed to get proper help from Fitzy. When his mother was offered a cruise holiday soon after, he signed a contract promising he would eat properly while she was away.

During Rachel’s absence, school bitch Jessica Wallace attempted to move in on Ringo. The pair were brought together when Ringo got hold of a cartoon Daniel Fitzgerald had done of the unpopular teacher Helen Carr, and Jess secretly photocopied it and covered the school halls with it. Daniel was forced to admit that he’d drawn it and as such was in danger of losing his job, so Ringo lied to Ms Carr saying he’d done it, which only earned him a detention. Jess also “owned up” so that she could spend the detention time with Ringo. They got on well but Jessica’s flirting got her nowhere as Ringo wouldn’t risk his relationship with Rachel.

Jessica later hatched a plot in which she kissed Ringo in the General Store and was photographed by her friend Taylah Jordan; they would then use the photo to break up Rachel and Ringo. However, the couple did briefly split after Ringo told Rachel about his eating disorder and she’d been upset that he couldn’t tell her about it. But within hours they were back together and Jessica spitefully sent Rachel the photo. Ringo was able to explain that Jess had been the instigator and Taylah took the blame for sending it, saying she felt they’d make a great couple. But Ringo and Rachel split soon after when Jess fell in at the swimming pool and lied that Rachel pushed her; Ringo lent Jess some dry clothes and Rachel decided that it was time to end things.

Jessica finally got close to Ringo when she got him to attend an illegal dance party along with friends Taylah, Zeke, Didge, Declan, Josh and Rachel who were all celebrating the end of the school year and the start of the Christmas holidays. Ringo and Jess danced the night away and they finally kissed but their happiness was short lived when the warehouse roof collapsed. The young couple were both trapped under rubble; although unable to see each other, they could hold hands and talk about places they would rather be. Jess began to slip away due to her injuries and confessed to Ringo how special he was to her. She also made Ringo promise to tell her mother that she was sorry for being a disappointment and that she loved her. When Daniel Fitzgerald, who was part of the rescue team, reached them, Jess had passed away.

Ringo struggled with the grief of losing Jessica but also the burden of having to pass the message on to her mother Evelyn Wallace. Eventually he plucked up the courage and arranged to meet her at the General Store. Evelyn was able to take some comfort in Jess’ final words and was pleased to meet Ringo after hearing so much about him. She passed on the Order Of Service for the funeral the next day.

On the day of the funeral, Ringo, Taylah and many other school friends had their own special gathering for Jess when they threw flowers at the jetty and Ringo ate a bag of fish and chips, as it had been something Jess had mentioned she’d like to do during her final moments.

Magic Moments
Episode 5133: Ringo's Arrival

Biography by Steve and David

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