Bear Sylvester

First Appearance: 18 November 2019 ('Barley, Hops, Yeast and Water') - (21x08)

Last Appearance: Current Character

Other names: Rupert Sylvester

Occupation- Business Manager

Portrayer: Dex Lee

Series Appearances: 21 22 23 24

## About

**Bear Sylvester**, portrayed by Dex Lee, first appeared on 18 November 2019.[17] He attends an interview for the role of Practice Manager after the departure of Becky Clarke (Ali Bastian), and despite his lack of experience in a management role, he gets the job.[18] His first initiative is to be addressed as a Business Manager, which Zara Carmichael (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh) disapproves of.[19] When Karen Hollins (Jan Pearson) finds out Bear is working heavy overtime, she informs Daniel Granger (Matthew Chambers), who tells Bear to work his set hours. However, Bear continues to secretly work through the night. Bear helps Daniel achieve his goal of getting an electric car for the doctors at The Mill.[20] When Al Haskey (Ian Midlane) notices that Bear struggles with spelling names of the employees, he suggests that Bear may have a learning disability. He goes for a test, where he discovers that he has dyslexia. He tells Zara and Daniel, who support him by giving him dyslexia-friendly tools to aid his work, which means he can stop working through the night.

When Jimmi Clay (Adrian Lewis Morgan) is arrested, everybody at The Mill show support for him, with the exception of Bear. The staff notice, and begin to turn against him, and Daniel asks Bear if he has an issue with Jimmi. Bear reveals that when he was 15, he and his pregnant girlfriend, Sharmaine Conway (India Semper-Hughes), were treated by Jimmi. Jimmi told Sharmaine about abortion, and despite Bear wanting her to keep the baby, she terminated the pregnancy. Despite this, Bear insists that he would never attempt to imprison Jimmi. When Bear visits a coffee shop, he accidentally takes the phone of Sasha Leeson (Lucy Polgar), and she takes his. He asks Valerie Pitman (Sarah Moyle) for help when Zara demands the expenditure accounts, which are on his phone. Sasha's boyfriend Hayden Cracknell (Jack Hartley) blackmails Bear, asking for £2000, otherwise confidential information about The Mill will be posted online. Bear later discovers Hayden is abusing Sasha, and reports him to the police.

For Valentine's Day, Bear gifts Ayesha Lee (Laura Rollins) an expensive bracelet, and confused by the gesture, she follows him. Ayesha finds him transporting boxes to a lockup at night, and informs Daniel and Zara about what she saw. They look into the accounts and when they find £34,000 extra profit in the accounts, they question Bear on the newfound money. He reveals that he has been ordering lubricant through The Mill, selling it onto sex shops for a profit, and transferring the money into The Mill's account to help with the low NHS funding. Valerie discovers that Bear has taken dancing classes, and in need of a dance partner for a charity ball, she recruits him. Ayesha learns the routine too, and when she fills in for Valerie, Bear and Ayesha almost kiss, but are interrupted. When Bear is babysitting niece Joy for his cousin, Doro Kitson (Kellie Shirley) and Charlie Knight (Alexander Cobb) enter the house, startling Bear. He makes his way downstairs, but assuming the house is Doro's, Charlie calls the police. Bear confronts them, and Charlie hits Bear over the head with a vase, knocking him unconscious. The police arrive, and it transpires that the house used to belong to Doro, and that she mistakenly went there, drunk. PC Jac Heyward (Samantha Hopkins) asks Bear if he wants to press charges, but he declines. Bear assists Ayesha with starting a campaign to persuade [[BAME not to opt-out of organ donation, titled #DontOptOut. They enlist Sid, Jimmi and Shak Hanif (Sunjay Midda) to help, and the group film an advertisement for social media. After the #DontOptOut campaign is featured in a newspaper, the group celebrate its success with a drink at The Icon, and when Jimmi and Shak leave, Ayesha and Bear are left alone, where they discuss starting another campaign in the future. Ayesha returns home with Bear, where the pair sleep together. Due to the success of the campaign, Ayesha is offered another job. Bear is hurt that Ayesha kept it a secret from him, despite them beginning a new relationship. She tells Bear that the job comes with a one-year contract, and that he could hire a temporary nurse in case she wants to return, to which Bear feels that she is using him. Valerie invites him to Ayesha's leaving party, but he does not attend.

Its revealed that Bear's birth name is Rupert when his mother calls him it after her surgery, Rupert is not his real name as he reveals to Sid that he changed it.