Joan Hooley

Joan Hooley (born 13 November 1936) is a British actress. She is best known for playing the role of Josie McFarlane in BBC's EastEnders. Still, she has also appeared in other television programmes, since the mid-1950s. Since 2015, she has appeared in ITV's Off Their Rockers.

Career Hooley first appeared on television in the 1950s. She was cast in the ITV hospital soap opera Emergency Ward 10 and appeared in the series in 1964. She played Dr Louise Mahler, who embarked on an interracial relationship with a white doctor, Giles Farmer (played by John White), which included what was long-thought to have been the first interracial kiss on television. A love scene between the two characters was rewritten because it was considered "a little too suggestive". She has commented, "I suddenly found myself in the papers under the headline: 'Black and White TV Kiss Banned'. It was very upsetting and it hit my self-esteem. My part suddenly evaporated and Dr Mahler was sent back to Africa on a holiday where she was bitten by a snake and died. What an exit!"

She made her final appearance in episodes transmitted in February 2000. Since leaving the serial, Hooley has publicly accused EastEnders and the BBC of racism and tokenism, for giving her character no significant storylines, and using her like a prop. In 2000 she commented, "It was very demeaning and a form of insidious racism. That is a very strong phrase to use against the BBC and EastEnders but I feel very badly about how they handled my character. They were just fulfilling a duty to have a black face in the show." known for his portrayal of Charles Dickens in his one-man Dickens show. They met and became a couple in 1993, and remained together until Harris' death of cancer in 2004.