Charlie Cotton

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EastEnders character

Charlie Cotton
Portrayed by	Christopher Hancock
Duration	1986–1991
Date of death	9 July 1991
Marital status	Deceased
Occupation	Lorry Driver
Family	Nick, Ashley

Charlie Cotton was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was played by Christopher Hancock.

[edit] History

He first appeared in the soap in 1986 as the long absent husband of Dot Cotton and father of Nick Cotton. He had deserted Dot after two years of marriage when she was pregnant with Nick. He was known as a shifty and manipulative conman having conned Dot into believing he has come back for good and changed his ways and then disappearing as soon as he had some of her money. He then had an affair with her half-sister Rose and even had children with her away from Walford.

In 1987 he met his son Nick for the first time coincidentally on Dot's doorstep at the same time trying to con her once again. Charlie and Nick hated each other and both tried to get rid of each other so they could get the opportunity to con Dot. Charlie discovered Nick had cheated some of his friends out of money and had been involved in some house burgalaries, and that is why he was hiding at Dot's house.

He used this to try and get rid of him by teaming with Graham Clark who was an old friend of Nick and wanted to get back at him for going to prison for Nick's crime. Graham forced Nick to leave Walford and before Nick left he revealed to Dot that Charlie grassed him to the people who were looking for him. Dot got angry and told Charlie to leave too.

In 1989 it was revealed Charlie had a bigamous marriage to a woman called Joan who turned up in Walford looking for him and met Dot instead. Eventually Charlie also turned up and found his 'double life' had been exposed. It was revealed he had changed his name to Tommy when he married Joan.

In 1990 when he turned up to con Dot out of her bingo money he found that his son Nick was already plotting to steal her winnings by poisoning her, but Nick soon backed out with the persuasion of Charlie. Unfortunately just when Charlie was trying to tell Dot that Nick was going to poison her and he stopped him, Dot told him to leave once again not believing that Nick would do such a thing.

In July 1991 Dot received news that Charlie had died in a lorry accident but his death was not shown on-screen.

However, in October 2000 he returned briefly as a ghost in his son Nick's dream in a special spin-off episode The Return of Nick Cotton. He warned Nick that something terrible was about to happen.