Rose Kelly (Waterloo Road)

Rosie "Rose" Kelly is a fictional character in the BBC television drama series Waterloo Road. She is portrayed by Elaine Symons.

Series 4
Rose was born in east London to Irish parents, and grew up on a rundown council estate where she gave birth to her first child (Marley) at the age of 16 and her son (Earl) to the same man who fathered Marley.

Within five years, she had three more children, Sambuca Kelly by Reynold Kelly, a violent man who drove her to alcoholism. She then went on to have two more sons, (Denzil and Prince).

She antagonised Candice Smilie in the adult education courses at Waterloo Road, but after working together in the school caneteen they formed a very close friendship. Even Rachel, wants to reach out to her family and her kids who have been taken into foster care amid fears of over their welfare due to her alcoholism. Her kids do not believe in her, but Rachel thinks she has the potential to go far.

She regained custody of her children in the episode that aired on 25 February 2009, but on the same day Earl fatally shot his girlfriend Maxine Barlow, putting the family future under new doubt as he was swiftly tracked down and gave himself up to the police as a murderer.

The motive behind Earl shooting Maxine was that she had dumped him after speaking to a homeless girl who claimed that Earl was the father of their three-day-old baby. If true, this would make Rose a grandmother when only in her early thirties. Rose was later reuninted with her son Denzil who had been wrongfully imprisoned for possesstion of Earl's gun.

Later in the series, Tom Clarkson spotted potential in Rose, and encouraged her to join in some of his English classes. Tom also urged Rose to attend Alcoholics Anonymous classes to make her children proud, which she did. However, when Tom loaned her money which she needed for Marley, his partner Davina falsely thought them to be having an affair. When Tom told Davina about Rose's AA meetings, Rose slapped Tom, but later apologised. Unable to trust him, Davina left Tom. Rose sat an English exam, and later learned that she had passed, earning the first qualification in her life.

Rose and Candice later bought poor quality meat for the school canteen, and when students fell ill, Eddie Lawson warned them they could face jailtime for doing this. However, it was later found that the food poisoning was actually Phillip Ryan putting laxitives in cakes he had made, and environmental health reported that they simply needed to keep the kitchen cleaner. Rose and Tom shared a kiss in the final when Waterloo Road won the choir competition.

Series 5
In Series 5 Tom Clarkson found out that he had a son, which distracted him more and more from his and Rose's relationship. Max Tyler called Sambuca Kelly vermin, and Rose asked Tom to talk to him about it, but Tyler indirectly threatened his job, so Tom had to back down. After this Rose started to recognise their drifting apart and broke up with Tom, saying that he could 'call it a break' if he liked. In episode 10 they are seen arriving together to school and sitting together in the school end of term talent show, but it is unclear what has happened to their relationship.