Tess Roberts

"My world may be turning to shit, but yes, we have some bongos!"

- Tess Roberts.

Struggling actress Tess is Cat MacKenzie 's best friend and ex-flatmate who has an uncanny knack of falling for all the wrong sorts of women. Terribly sardonic, Tess' vulnerable side is buried under self-deprecating comments, sarcasm and anger.In contrast to her organised and tidy ex-flatmate Cat, Tess is scandalously messy and lives a chaotic life.

Sometimes lacking confidence, Tess is a sucker for women who treat her badly. Although she might rant to her friends when a girlfriend treats her badly, Tess generally ignores their advice, letting lovers off the hook whenever they feed her a sob story.

After a messy break-up with her last girlfriend Chloe, Tess gets involved with daytime TV presenter, Lou Foster, but it's typically turbulent and dramatic.

Personality
Since leaving drama school she's done a couple of acting jobs but has to make ends meet by doing odd jobs. She's struggling because things don't seem to be getting any better and she's at a stage in her life now where she's beginning to question whether she will ever get that big break.

Although pretty unlucky, professionally, Tess has really close friendships, primarily with Ed. She has a great sense of humour and finds a joke in most situations.

For some reason, she also seems to attract disaster – if something can go wrong for Tess, it generally will – it's because she often acts without thinking about the consequences!

It's difficult for Tess to find true love because she hasn't enough confidence in herself. She believes everyone else is better and she's unworthy so often gets treated badly. She's also got a good heart and is very trusting. This means that sometimes she doesn't see when girls are manipulating her. She attracts, and seems to be drawn to, the wrong sort.

Generally, her friends aren't that keen on the girls Tess brings home – especially Chloe, her long term ex-girlfriend who has treated her so badly over the years.

Relationships
"I do what most lesbians do, stare at women hungrily and pray somebody else will make the first move."

- Tess Roberts

Cat MacKenzie
"If she wanted some diesel dyke with a tattoo on her forehead she would have hardly gone for you, would she?"

- Tess Roberts on Cat MacKenzie and Sam Murray's budding relationship.

Cat and Tess seek advice and support from each other. Afterall, Tess was there for Cat when Frankie Alan left two years ago. They are polar opposites when it comes to organisation, though. Tess is messy and completely haphazard when Cat is the tidiest most organised person you've ever met. Ironically, they were flatmates for a while before Tess moved in with Frankie.  I always thought she had a nice bum, but I never checked it out you know

Chloe
"(Tess puts a ripped up photo of Chloe in the laundry basket) Cat MacKenzie: That's my laundry basket. Tess Roberts: Good! She could do with a wash, filthy trollop."

- Cat MacKenzie and Tess Roberts about Chloe.

Tess and Chloe were together for five years when they met at a m&d theme park, and it is implied that Chloe was very domineering over Tess. In Episode 1.1, Tess finds out that Chloe has put up a sexy Facebook profile picture that Tess took of her, which upsets Tess on the day of an important face cream audition. Tess and Ed MacKenzie break into her and Chloe's old house so she can take her red dress for the audition. However, while they are looking for it, Chloe comes home with new girlfriend Shauna and Tess persuades Ed to hide under Chloe's bed. Chloe and Shauna begin foreplay but Tess crawls out from under the bed as she does not want to listen and Shauna sees her. Chloe and Tess have a confrontation, in which Tess accuses Chloe of two-timing her with Shauna, but eventually Tess gets her red dress back and her and Ed are thrown out.

In Episode 1.5, Chloe asks to meet Tess for a drink and announces that her and Shauna are getting married. They have a fight and Chloe asks why, as an important person in her life, Tess cannot be happy for her.

Ed MacKenzie
 he's so loyal, if i was straight i'll move in with him, he taught me to play GTA one time

Tess makes Ed laugh more than anybody else, even when he is feeling at his lowest points. They share the same quirky, silly, childish sense of humour. They are a great double act. Her presence alone fills Ed with confidence.

Ed and Tess are very close but she has absolutely no idea that Ed is in love with her! It just doesn't enter her head, they are best friends and he's a boy.

If Ed ever told Tess his true feelings towards her, her world would implode. She trusts Ed more than anyone and for him to think about her in that way would mean he'd betrayed that trust.

Frankie Alan
 we're just mates alright, besides she's flirting with that fellow photographer

Frankie and Tess enjoy a more fun-fuelled but incredibly close friendship. They both love going out and they feed off each other's love of a debauched lifestyle. Tess gives as good as she gets when Frankie makes fun of her – she's not at all intimidated by her whereas others are. When Frankie tries to leave for New York without telling Tess, she is visibly upset.

Fin
[ checking out fin's knickers]  nice jeans

Despite spending a long time checking out Fin from her window, Tess is disappointed with her new girlfriend when they start dating. Unfortunately, Tess struggles with the role of footballer’s wife. There are a lot of things about Fin that don’t exactly float Tess’ boat. Sport for example. Tess is more likely to run away from a football than kick it. In the end, their differences were too much for Tess and recounts to Lexy Price that she broke up with Fin after a forced confrontation.

Lexy Price
"Tess so needs to rub one out over Lexy."

- Sadie Anderson.



Tess is attracted to Lexy because she is confident and really secure about who she is, she’s not vain, she’s into the arts, she likes country and western and she’s a really good laugh. They have a lot in common and get on really well. Tess is gorgeous and funny and knows how to cheer Lexy up just when she needs it. Lexy however, just sees her as a good friend. They bond when they conspire to evict Meg from the house after she behaves strangely and Tess falls further for Lexy when she defends her against Sam Murray. In Episode 2.5 at Ed's book launch, Lexy brings a jug of alcohol and science-fiction cut out up to the roof where Tess is. The situation looks promising for Tess until Hugh texts her and she has to leave but later that evening she comes home and finds Lexy has fallen asleep waiting for her on the sofa. When Tess pulls a blanket over her, Lexy sleepily touches her face and tells her that she is lovely. However, on Tess's opening night performance as Sonya in Uncle Vanya, Lexy leaves for a smoke break, tess said she's lovely when smokes and they make out, the following morning though Sam came knocking saying where she was

she checked out tess's bum once