Reg Cox

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EastEnders character

Reg Cox
Portrayed by	Johnnie Clayton
Duration	1985
Appeared on	19 February 1985
Book appearances	Home Fires Burning, Swings and Roundabouts
Date of birth	1926
Date of death	21 February 1985
Status	Deceased
Occupation	Retired
Alternate image(s)

Reg in Civvy Street, played by Marc Tufano.

Reg Cox was a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Johnnie Clayton in the opening episode.

1 Character creation and development
2 Storylines
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Character creation and development

The first episode of EastEnders on 19 February 1985 centred upon the death of pensioner Reg Cox. According to scriptwriter Colin Brake, the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, wanted to start the serial "with a bang, throwing the audience into the middle of life in [the fictional setting of] Walford". The Reg Cox storyline was deemed as a good starting point, allowing various members of the community to be involved with or comment on the circumstances of the old man's murder.^[1]

In the first ever scene of the programme, the characters of Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher), and Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih) were shown breaking down the door of Reg's flat. In Holland and Smith's book, The Inside Story, the authors have outlined their original interpretation of the scene: "[EastEnders] starts with a bang, as a size ten boot kicks down the door that's locked from the inside. The tiny, dirty and foul-smelling council-flat behind the battered door belongs to Reg Cox (known locally as "the-old-boy", and a cantankerous bastard at the best of times) who hasn't been seen around [Albert Square] for days ... Once the door's down, three men rush into the gloomy main-room [...] They find the old boy sitting in his favourite armchair beside the gas fire (which isn't on) — and he's very nearly dead [...] By the end of the episode the old boy will have been removed from the square and taken to Intensive Care, and the entire community will be rife with gossip, which spreads round the houses like the plague. Via the gossip we're able to piece together the events leading up to the the discovery of Reg"^[2]

[edit] Storylines

Reg lived alone at 23b Albert Square. On the morning of February 19, 1985 (the first episode of EastEnders), Naima Jeffery, who ran the shop on Bridge Street, became concerned about Reg after he had failed to make his daily milk purchase for the past three days and her husband, Saeed, mentioned this to Den Watts, publican of the pub next door.

Den and Arthur Fowler roused Ali Osman, who lived downstairs from Reg, to let them into the house and the three of them kicked in the door to Reg's room when he failed to answer their knocking.

Den spoke the opening lines of the first episode, "Stinks in here, dunnit?", as they found Reg slumped unconscious in his armchair. Den ran to get Dr. Legg and called for an ambulance. In the second episode (21 February 1985), they would learn that Reg had been severely beaten and died from injuries which had gone unnoticed when he was found. It was eventually revealed that Nick Cotton had killed him when stealing his war medals.

Reg, who was 59 years old when he died, was not a popular figure in Albert Square. He was referred to as a 'cantankerous old git' by Arthur, called a 'miserable so and so' by Ethel Skinner and a 'nasty old man' by his downstairs neighbour, Sue Osman. But despite this, Lou Beale caused havoc around the Square, accusing Sue of neglect for allowing him to lie dying in his flat for days, without checking up on him.

The character also appeared in the Christmas special EastEnders: Civvy Street, set during World War II, shown on 22 December 1988. He was played by Marc Tufano. He had gone AWOL and sold dodgy gear during the second world war.