Earl Kelly is a former pupil of Waterloo Road he is the son of Rose Kelly and brother of Marley, Sambuca, Denzil and Prince.
He was portrayed by Reece Noi.
Series 4
Earl is first introduced in Series 4 Episode 1 with his family: mother Rose, older brother Marley, half-sister Sambuca, and half-brothers Denzil and Prince.
He is immediately portrayed as a hard-as-nails badboy when he opens his bag of belongings to show he has a handheld gun. He later throws a taxi driver against his car. Headteacher Rachel Mason and deputy head Eddie Lawson step in, by removing the taxi driver from the premises and threatening Earl into behaving.
Rachel instantly gives Earl a verbal warning about violence. He is placed in Steph Haydock's class. On his way to class, he passes by pupils Janeece Bryant and Maxine Barlow, whom he becomes interested in.
Earl makes a bad impression on Steph when he falls asleep in class. Steph wakes him up and scolds him for sleeping in class. He cheekily replies, "Sorry, Miss. I thought I was at home. I'll just have 10 more minutes" and places both of his feet on the table.
Steph sharply puts Earl in his place, ordering him to take out his pencil case. He obeys and unzips his backpack which reveals his handheld gun that he momentarily closes his fingers around. Afterwards, he gets started with his work much to his indignation and Steph's pleasure.
When Rose shows up at school one morning drunk, she tells her kids that she's taking them home despite it only being 11:00 in the morning. The pupils on the playground watch as Marley and Sambuca trying to reason with her. Marley eventually snaps at her to go home and sober up. Rose demands to see Earl, who is lurking out of the way. Marley spots Earl and calls his name as Rose walks away, but Earl ignores his family.
On his first day at Waterloo Road, Paul Langley and Bolton Smilie get on Earl's bad side when Paul purposefully knocks into him on the way to his first class.
Later on, Bolton shoves Paul, who accidentally lands on earl. Earl responds by shoving Paul against one of the the school lockers and tells Bolton not to mess with him. Teacher Tom Clarkson intervenes and sends Paul and Bolton away. Tom tries to reason with Earl, who proceeds to throw him against a locker. Tom pushes Earl off of him and Earl makes a gun gesture with his fingers, pressing them against Tom's head.
Tom's daughter, Chlo Grainger has set up her own hairdressing business in a caravan on the school grounds called Chlo's Cuts. Earl arrives and asks for his buzzcut-style hair to be trimmed. When Earl turns up to the caravan, Donte Charles turns him away. Janeece decides that Earl is a "little creep" while Maxine hides her interest for him.
At the end of the episode, Earl is on a rampage and holds a gun in his hand as he storms onto the playground. The police later swarm the playground and Earl convinces Denzil to take the gun, telling him that he would get a lighter jail sentence due to his age. Denzil is banged up and the Kellys are distraught about it.
During a house party at the Kellys, Earl and Maxine flirt with each other to Janeece's horror and disappointment. Earl offers Maxine drugs, but Maxine turns them down. The two of them end up sleeping together which Rose knows about it and approves of their relationship.
Earl's rivalry with Tom Clarkson intensifies as he begins killing pigeons and leaving their bodies on Tom's doorstep. In Series 4 Episode 5, he claims that the family's pet cat has been dropping the birds on Tom's doorstep, but Marley later tells Flick Mellor that his family doesn't own a cat.
During Drugs Awareness Day (which is run by Flick's dad, Ralph), Marley is set up with a positive drug test which gets him thrown out of school, but when it's revealed that his negative drug test was switched with the positive one by Ralph, Marley is allowed to stay in school.
Ralph resigns from his job as a school governor, but he bitterly reports Rose to Social Services which gets the Kelly kids placed into care; however, Earl runs away from his foster placement and stays in Maxine's bedroom without Steph's approval.
Earl and Maxine's relationship continues to be destructive. After they are caught by Tom having sex in a toilet cubicle, Steph forbids the two of them from seeing each other, but despite that, Maxine continues to see him.
In Series 4 Episode 8, Maxine learns that Earl's ex-girlfriend, Jade had a baby that he plans to sell which causes her to end their relationship; however, Earl breaks into Steph's home and pulls a loaded gun on Maxine. Janeece and Maxine try to wrestle the gun away from Earl, but he ultimately shoots Maxine in the stomach, killing her.
After realizing what he did, Earl flees the scene and is later discovered wandering on a nearby street. He is arrested for murdering Maxine and sentenced to life in prison.
Personality
Earl grew up in a dysfunctional family and never lived in one place for more than five minutes. He is shown to be violent and a psychopath, but he is fiercely protective of his family.
Trivia
- Reece Noi (who played Earl Kelly) also played the role of Noel Parkin in Series 2, who was shown dealing drugs to Maxine Barlow.
- Originally, Earl was supposed to make a guest appearance in Series 7 in Sambuca Kelly's final episode, but the scene was unable to be filmed due to Reece Noi filming "Game of Thrones" in Croatia at the time.
Quotes
- "Wherever here is. Looks like another dump to me." (first line)
- "No, I'm not having some poxy cabbie thinking we're some sorta charity case!"
- Earl: "And who are you?"
- Rachel: "I'm the head of this school, who the hell are you?"
- Earl: "Your worst nightmare."
- "Look with your eyes, not your hands." (after revealing his revolver to Bolton and Paul)
- "You what?!"
- "Is it true what they say about Davina? She likes 'em young?"
- "Max, I'm sorry. But I had to. You wasn't listening to me."
- "She didn't listen to me. I tried...but she didn't listen." (final line)