Charlie Cotton
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Charlie Cotton is a fictional character from the
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soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
''
EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
'', played by Christopher Hancock. Charlie is a recurring character, introduced in March 1986 as the estranged husband of established character
Dot Cotton Dorothy "Dot" Cotton (also Branning) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', portrayed by June Brown. In a special episode entitled ''EastEnders: Dot's Story'' (2003) a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in f ...
(
June Brown June Muriel Brown (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside ...
). He appears in stints until producers made the decision to kill the character off-screen in 1991 in order to aid development of characters connected to him. June Brown, who plays Dot, was openly against the killing of Charlie. Charlie appears one last time in the October 2000 spin-off, ''
Return of Nick Cotton Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...
'', as an apparition, warning his son
Nick Nick may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nick (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Désirée Nick, German actress and writer Places * Nick, Hungary, a village * Nick, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland, a ...
( John Altman) to change his ways.


Creation and development

Charlie Cotton, the husband of
Dot Cotton Dorothy "Dot" Cotton (also Branning) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', portrayed by June Brown. In a special episode entitled ''EastEnders: Dot's Story'' (2003) a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in f ...
(
June Brown June Muriel Brown (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside ...
), is a semi-regular character who comes and goes throughout his duration in the show; he joined in 1986, 13 months after the soap's launch. Depicted as bigamous and a conman, Charlie typically reappears in the show whenever he needs money or temporary accommodation and, because of Dot's Christian ideals regarding forgiveness, Charlie is always permitted to return. According to Christopher Hancock, Charlie is "a truly revolting character, a loser" and the character has been described as a "despicable small-time villain ..lazy and pathetic". Author Kate Lock has described Charlie as a "sly, shifty, weaselly man". In order to become the character of Charlie, Hancock wore stick-on
sideburns Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term ''sideburns'' is a 19th-century corruption of the original ''burnsides'', named ...
. Producers decided to kill Charlie off in 1991; Charlie died off-screen after having a motor accident in his lorry. The decision to kill Charlie was taken in order to reintroduce Charlie's son,
Nick Nick may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nick (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Désirée Nick, German actress and writer Places * Nick, Hungary, a village * Nick, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland, a ...
( John Altman). Nick had been involved in a storyline that saw him attempt to poison Dot in 1990, and producers felt that in order for Dot to allow Nick back into her life again, something major had to occur in her narrative, that being the death of her husband. Storyline editor, Andrew Holden, has discussed this in the ''EastEnders Handbook'' publication in 1991: "We wanted to bring Nick Cotton back and we also wanted to push Dot forward and change her life. But the problem was how? The last time we saw Nick he was attempting to kill his mother. Dot isn't a fool so we knew getting them back together was like a three card trick. How do we get out of this? So we made
ick Ick or ICK may refer to: * Ick, a character in the children's television show It's a Big Big World * Islamic Community of Kosova, a religious organization in Kosovo *''Ichthyophthirius multifiliis'', a single-celled parasite. Also known as Ich * ...
a heroin addict. That made him vulnerable, in a mess and needing his mother to get money for him. We then had to kill Charlie because I figured that only in a state of shock and uncertainty about her belief in God would Dot contemplate forgiving Nick and attempting to reform him. She decides to believe that she can make a decent human being of Nick. She feels it's her last chance. As a widow Dot enters new territory. Dot's snobbery is based on ludicrous misconceptions, one of which is that she is better than er friendEthel because she has a husband. She is going to have a lot of scope ..Dot's life is going to change." Actress June Brown was opposed to the killing of Charlie and she attempted to get the programme makers to change their minds. She comments, "I was very unhappy to learn that Charlie would be killed off. I would have preferred if they'd left the door open for him to possibly return one day. I went to see the writers and put this forward. I suggested that there could be some uncertainty about the body. Charlie may have picked up a hitch-hiker and he was the one who died. John Altman, who plays Nick, was also sorry about Charlie. We weren't thinking just about Christopher Hancock, who played Charlie so well, it was that we liked the character and it seemed a waste. But I was too late, I couldn't change their minds. In the past I have talked things through and I was listened to". The episode Dot is told about Charlie's death, written by Linda Dearsley, aired on 11 July 1991, and was dominated by Dot's reaction to Charlie's death and her trip to identify his body. It is selected by writer Colin Brake as one of 1991's episodes of the year. The character appears one last time, brought back as an apparition/ghost, in a dream sequence experienced by Nick in 2000. The episode is entitled ''EastEnders: Return of Nick Cotton''. Christopher Hancock, the actor who portrayed Charlie, died four years later.


Storylines

Charlie deserted
Dot Cotton Dorothy "Dot" Cotton (also Branning) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', portrayed by June Brown. In a special episode entitled ''EastEnders: Dot's Story'' (2003) a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in f ...
(
June Brown June Muriel Brown (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside ...
) in the late 1950s after two years of marriage when she was expecting their son,
Nick Nick may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nick (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Désirée Nick, German actress and writer Places * Nick, Hungary, a village * Nick, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland, a ...
( John Altman). He then had an affair with her sister,
Rose Taylor A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...
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Polly Perkins Polly Perkins (born Gillian Nessie Arnold, 31 May 1943) is a British actress, singer and writer. Perkins rose to fame in the 1960s as a popstar, going on to regularly appear in theatre and cabaret throughout the UK. She is known for playing Ros ...
) and fathered another son,
Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...
(
Ricky Grover Ricky Grover is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for his role in ''EastEnders'' as Andrew Cotton as well as voicing Yangus in the ''Dragon Quest'' series. Early life Grover was born in West Ham, Essex. His mother was a hairdre ...
) with her. He returns to the Square in 1986 after nearly 30 years away and cons Dot into believing he has come back for good and changed his ways and then disappears as soon as he has some of her money. In 1987, he meets Nick (now in his late twenties) for the first time when they both coincidentally visit Dot. Charlie and Nick hate each other and both try to get rid of each other so they can con Dot. Charlie discovers Nick has cheated some of his friends out of money and has been involved in some house burglaries and that is why he is hiding at Dot's house. He uses this to try to get rid of him by teaming with Graham Clark ( Gary Webster), an old friend of Nick, and wants to get back at him for going to prison for Nick's crime. Graham forces Nick to leave Walford but before Nick leaves, he tells Dot that Charlie grassed him to the people who were looking for him. Dot gets angry and tells Charlie to leave too. Charlie resurfaces in 1989 after breaking his leg and imposes himself on Dot once again. During this time, he exposes
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's (Virginia Fiol) deception about being married to Nick and having his child, which devastates Dot who is enjoying being a grandmother.
Joan Leggett The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in 1989, by order of first appearance. Maxine Roberts Maxine Roberts, played by Ella Wilder, is the selfish sister of Carmel Roberts (Judith Jac ...
(Rhoda Lewis) comes looking for Charlie several weeks later and tells Dot about their bigamous marriage. Charlie's double life is exposed and it is revealed he had told Joan his name was Tommy. After being confronted by both women and humiliated in the pub, Charlie flees. He returns the next year to con Dot out of her bingo money and he finds that Nick is already plotting to steal her winnings by poisoning her, but Nick soon backs out with the persuasion of Charlie. Unfortunately just when Charlie is trying to tell Dot that Nick is going to poison her and he stops him, Dot tells him to leave once again, not believing that Nick would do such a thing. Nick then leaves the Square after saying goodbye to Dot and her and Charlie have one final drink in the Vic before he gets his things at the B&B and leaves the Square for good. In July 1991, Dot receives news that Charlie has died in a lorry accident but his death is not shown on-screen. However, in October 2000 he returns briefly as a ghost in Nick's dream in a special
spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
episode ''The Return of Nick Cotton''. He warns Nick that something terrible is about to happen. This proves somewhat prophetic as Nick's teenage son, Ashley (Frankie Fitzgerald), is killed in a motorcycle accident some months later. More than a decade later, Rose reveals to Dot she married Charlie and confirms he was the father of her son, Andrew, meaning Charlie was a
polygamist Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...
. Dot blames Rose for Charlie's disloyalty and initially refuses to speak to or acknowledge her, but Rose convinces Dot that Charlie was lying to both of them and he is not worth wasting her energy on. In 2021, it is revealed that Charlie has yet another son, Tom "Rocky" Cotton (
Brian Conley Brian Paul Conley (born 7 August 1961) is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Conley has been the host of '' The Brian Conley Show'', as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. In his 40+ ...
).


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton, Charlie EastEnders characters Fictional con artists Fictional truck drivers Television characters introduced in 1986 British male characters in soap operas