charlie puts an advertisement in a lonely hearts column and becomes a member of an internet dating website, meeting and falling for brenda boyle (carmel cryan), a salvation army member from clacton. however, their romance begins to fizzle out. after not seeing each other for several weeks, brenda ends the relationship, telling charlie that she and her brother are moving to madeira. not wishing to end the relationship, charlie gets approval from stacey and mo to go with her. he returns not long after with a russian woman named orlenda (mary tamm). mo is suspicious of her and follows her around. on seeing her with another man, mo takes a photo to show charlie. charlie confronts orlenda who admits that she was using charlie for his money and he asks her to leave. when stacey stops taking medication for her bipolar disorder, charlie insists that she has to start again as she almost lost her baby lily. charlie asks dot branning (june brown) to speak to stacey as he believes that lily's father is stacey's deceased husband bradley (charlie clements), dot's step-grandson. dot then reveals that lily is not bradley's. charlie asks stacey why she has not told the truth and begs her to take her pills, trying to force one into her mouth. stacey says she has already taken them and charlie apologises, then walks out of the house in tears. he spends the night at patrick trueman's (rudolph walker) house, and invites patrick and jim branning (john bardon) for drinks. later, sam mitchell (danniella westbrook) asks charlie to take her to the hospital because she is worried her baby richard is unwell, however after driving part way, charlie tells her the symptoms are normal. as he turns around, he reverses into some boxes in front of a van, and is then stopped by a police officer (laurence mitchell). the next day, mo opens a letter for charlie and learns was caught driving over the limit. they argue as he could lose his driving licence, and charlie later apologises to stacey for forcing her to take her pills.