carol jackson, played by lindsey coulson, was introduced in 1993 as part of a new problem family. coulson decided to quit the role in 1997, but she returned temporarily in 1999 as part of a storyline that marked carol's daughter bianca's (patsy palmer exit. on 25 october 2009 it was confirmed that she would return along with other members of the jackson family, sonia (natalie cassidy), robbie (dean gaffney) and billie (devon anderson), on 15 february 2010, although her first appearance in 2010 is in "eastenders: last tango in walford", an episode released exclusively to dvd on 8 february 2010. 1994 was a historic year for "eastenders", as in april, a third weekly episode was introduced. due to the programme's increased frequency, a number of new characters were introduced to the regular cast in the latter part of 1993 and early 1994. among them were the jackson family: mother carol, her four children, bianca, robbie, sonia and billie, as well as carol's partner alan jackson (howard antony). though carol and alan are not initially married in the serial, and though alan is only the biological father of billie, the whole family took on alan's surname. the family was created by writer tony mchale. none of the actors cast as the jackson family were matched for appearance or screen compatibility. cassidy has commented, "it was all decided without doing that. i don't think it particularly mattered that none of us jackson kids looked like each other because all our characters had different dads!" carol was coulson's first major television role.