The Tempestuous Life of Ed Grundy

	Ed Grundy was born on 28 September 1984 to tenant farmer Eddie Grundy and his wife Clarrie. He grew up with elder brother William and grandfather Joe at Grange Farm, Ambridge. Here's a summary of his tempestuous life so far.
Barry Farrimond (Ed Grundy)

I fought the law
The Grundys have always adhered to their own peculiar moral code rather then the letter of the law. Ed's first notable transgression was in 1998 when, in partnership with William, he ran a scam selling badly embroidered cushion covers stolen from school craft lessons and passed off as Clarrie's handiwork.

But as William became more responsible in his pursuit of a gamekeeping career, Ed went in the opposite direction: killing half the farm's turkey flock by messing around with fireworks, stealing £50 from Caroline Pemberton's purse and then, under the influence of his friend Jazzer, getting into joyriding. Reckless races round the Ambridge lanes led to a nasty incident in which Alice Aldridge's pony Chandler was injured. Eventually William twigged what was going on and told Eddie and Clarrie.

Ed thought he'd got his revenge when in 2001 he "borrowed" his brother's car to take Emma Carter home from a music festival. But when a deer ran out in front they crashed and Ed had to pull Emma from the burning vehicle. He served a community punishment order of 120 hours and was banned from driving for a year.

He clearly didn't learn his lesson and in 2003 was caught breaking into a garage. Partner in crime Jazzer got away, but Ed faced prosecution with the real chance of a custodial sentence. In the end he served a hundred hours of community punishment and a twelve month community rehabilitation order.

His parents hoped that the thinking skills course which was part of the rehabilitation would help Ed put his life back on track, and they were pleased when he managed to save enough to buy an old Ford Escort, borrowing space in a barn at Bridge Farm to do it up. But he and Jazzer also converted the barn's loft into a growing area for cannabis plants, thinking they were going to make a tidy penny. When Tony discovered the "plot" he was good enough not to involve the police, instead forcing the miscreants to shred every plant. But Ed was yet again in disgrace.

Lost in music
Taking after his father, Ed showed musical talent from an early age. Before his voice broke, he sang an impressive solo at the 1995 church carol concert and the following year Clarrie was touched by his duet with Eddie on the Boyzone ballad Father and Son, which won Ed second prize in his age group at the Ambridge talent contest. But in 2000 he put ballads behind him when he received an electric guitar for his 16th birthday. He soon formed the rock band Dross with Fallon Rogers (guitar), Jazzer (initially on drums and later vocals) and Jazzer's brother Stu (bass). They started to play gigs around the local area and seemed set on a promising course. But Jazzer's increasing drug use, leading to an overdose of ketamine, meant he had to be sacked from the band. The final straw was when a solo entry from Fallon beat Dross in a 2003 Radio Borsetshire music competition. Aside from a one-off acrimonious reunion in 2005, that was the end of Ed's hopes of musical stardom.

Bend me, shape me
It's arguable that Ed might have made a better fist of his teenage years if he had not suffered the terrible upheaval that followed his father's bankruptcy in 2000. Forced to leave their beloved if ramshackle Grange Farm, which they had farmed for generations, the Grundys found themselves in the alien environment of a fifth-floor two-bedroom flat in the inappropriately named Meadow Rise, Borchester. Refusing to share a bedroom with his grandfather, Ed spent as much time away from the angst-ridden flat as he could, and was increasingly under the malign influence of school friend Jack (Jazzer) McCreary. Even when resourceful Eddie managed to move the family back to Ambridge, in an illegally-sited caravan, Ed preferred the dubious comforts of an improvised "bender". Eddie eventually found them a rented house, Keeper's Cottage, but the disruption had pitched a bombshell through Ed's key GCSE year. Never that keen on school, the lad simply didn't turn up for his exams.

Oliver's army
It was when he should have been sitting his GCSEs that Ed started to hang around his old home, Grange Farm, offering advice and occasional help to its new owner Oliver Sterling. Initially unaware of Ed's dodgy reputation, Oliver saw potential in the lad, and offered him regular work with his small herd of beef cattle. Despite his other difficulties, Ed proved to be a natural stockman. Oliver's confidence grew in him to the extent that when he and partner Caroline Pemberton (they are now married) went on holiday in 2003, they let Ed look after the farmhouse. A few months later Oliver gave Ed a Simmenthal heifer, which was to be the start of Ed's own breeding herd. Oliver has believed in Ed even when others haven't, finding him additional work helping at the hunt kennels when the huntsman Carl had a heart attack, and offering him the bolthole of a temporary job on a farm in Hungary in 2004 when Ed needed to escape the trauma of seeing brother Will marry the girl Ed loved.

In early 2006, Oliver conceived an industry-defying plan to replace his beef cattle with a small Guernsey dairy herd, supplying Mike Tucker's milk round. One of the major purposes was to provide a full-time job with prospects for his protégé but Ed's disappearance in May threw the whole undertaking into question.

Love hurts
Ed and Emma Carter first had a brief flirtation in 2001, but she soon started going out with Will. Paradoxically, Ed's bravery in saving Emma from a mugging, or worse, in Borchester, and in dragging her out of the car after the accident on the way home from the music festival started to pull Emma towards Ed. However, Will fought to regain the woman he loved and to Ed's disgust Emma resumed the relationship with Will.

Ed, Emma and Will's love triangle - photo-story style

On Emma's birthday in July 2003, Will proposed after a wonderfully romantic day and she accepted. But as the wedding approached, the strain on Ed grew and Emma found it harder to deny the attraction between them. Eventually, drunk after her hen night, she slept with Ed only to reject him the following morning. Tormented Ed fled for Hungary as the ill-fated wedding went ahead on 27 August 2004, Emma knowing she was pregnant but believing it to be by Ed.

When Ed eventually returned from his European travels in November, Emma was shocked to see him accompanied by a vivacious American girlfriend, Beth. It only increased her desire for the man she secretly believed to be the father of her growing child, and she couldn't bear the prospect of losing Ed, who planned to go to the USA with Beth. However, it was Ed's turn to be gutted when Beth made it clear she would be returning home alone.

By chance, Ed happened to be on hand when Emma went into labour and he was the one who took her to hospital, although Will quickly shouldered him aside as he arrived in time for the delivery of George Edward Grundy on 7 April 2005. The frustrations of being a young mum married to a hard-working gamekeeper soon started to tell on Emma, who felt isolated in their cosy little cottage. Occasional stolen moments and unofficial driving lessons with Ed provided some relief, until fears that Will would discover their time together forced Emma to curtail them. Ed could only think that leaving the country - this time on a working holiday in Australia - would dull the pain.

Ed's 21st birthday party on 22 Sep 2005 was also to celebrate his leaving for Australia. But the prospect of losing Ed again and being condemned to a life of domesticity with stolid Will was too much for Emma, who told Ed - and devastated Will - that Ed was George's father.

While Emma and Ed started a hand-to-mouth existence in a caravan near her parents' house, Will started divorce proceedings - and insisted on a DNA test, which actually proved that Emma was wrong. Despite not being George's biological father, Ed professed his love for the child and he and Emma plotted a secret flit to France. But Will scuppered their plans, and the bitterness increased as George became a totem in the struggle between the three young adults.

In May 2006, while the brothers came to blows, George pulled a CD rack on top of himself. Although he wasn't seriously injured, the shock forced Emma into a momentous decision. She would move back in with her parents. Ed was welcome neither there, nor at Keeper's Cottage, as Eddie could not forgive him for the damage he had done to William's life.

Effectively homeless and believing that Emma had rejected him, Ed was last seen, by Jazzer, on 6 May.

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