Ashley Cotton

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EastEnders character

Ashley Cotton
Portrayed by	Frankie Fitzgerald
Duration	1993, 2000–2001
Date of birth	1984
Date of death	14 June 2001
Marital status	Deceased
Occupation	Student
Family	Nick, Dot, Zoe, Charlie

Ashley Cotton was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, the son of Zoe and Nick Cotton and the grandson of Charlie and Dot Cotton. He was played by Rossi Higgins in 1993 and then by Frankie Fitzgerald in 2000.

[edit] History

He first appeared in the Square along with mother Zoe in 1993, at the age of nine. He met and became close to his grandma Dot and Dot with some persuasion left the square with him, Zoe and Nick to live in Gravesend. Dot left Gravesend and returned to the square in 1997 without Ashley or his parents and revealed Ashley and Zoe had moved off-screen to France to get away from Nick. Ashley returned by himself in 2000 to visit Dot for a few days. It was obvious he had taken after his father when he got up to mischief.

Then in October 2000 in a special spin-off episode Nick had been out of prison and visited Ashley and Zoe in France. Ashley wanted to come with Nick and return to Walford so they returned to the Square together the following month but Zoe was very reluctant.

Ashley was under the influence of his villainous father Nick and started taking drugs and got involved in robberies with Nick.

After a series of arguments with both sides of his family he drifted between each of his parents until a fateful summer evening in June 2001. He stole Mark Fowler's motorbike after an argument in the Queen Vic, without knowing that his father had cut the bike's brakes in hope of killing Mark.

Nick, Pauline Fowler and Dot shouted at Ashley to stop but he continued racing the bike until he came face-to-face with a pedestrian. Ashley swerved to avoid the pedestrian and braked sharply, but the motorbike flipped over a pavement and Ashley hit a shop window. 17-year-old Ashley died instantly and Nick was riddled with guilt. Dot later overheard an argument between Mark Fowler and Nick, discovering that Nick was responsible for Ashley's death. After Ashley's funeral, Dot confronted Nick, threw him out of the house and he has not been seen since.