Nick Cotton

Nick Cotton was the twenty-fourth character invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Nick was not part of Holland's and Smith's original vision for EastEnders, and his creation came about as an afterthought. The first episode of the series was to include the death of an elderly resident, Reg Cox, who had been brutally attacked in his home, and left to die. During the first writers' meeting, where the writers were introduced to the intended characters and early scripts, each independently wanted to know which character had killed Reg. However, Holland and Smith had never intended for the murderer to be unveiled. They had no idea who had killed Reg Cox, and they had felt that "the who" was not important. The fact that he was dead following an attack was the important issue, and Reg's murder was not intended to be solved, it was only there to tell the audience, from the outset, that Walford was a rough and tough place. The writers opposed this. They accused Holland of throwing away a great opportunity and suggested that a murder hunt would provide an array of dramatic possibilities that would captivate the audience. After deciding that all of the twenty-three original characters were incapable of committing the crime, Holland decided to invent an entirely new character, in the form of Nick Cotton. The original character outline for Nick read: "His image is exclusively macho. Vanishes for weeks on end. Mum doesn't ask questions... Unlike Den, Nick is a real crook. Worms his way into people's confidentiality and homes. From then on, lives on his wits. Waiting for the moment to strike; to nick the cash and disappear...Usually chooses his victims who, for one reason or another, are frightened to report him...Nick's a heroin addict". As Nick was only intended to be a semi-regular character, Julia Smith was not involved in his casting and the actor John Altman was chosen by the directors. ==Development and storylines==

Nick has been described by EastEnders' executive producer Diederick Santer as "the show's premier villain". An EastEnders Revealed documentary chronicling the character's time on the show deemed him a liar, a thief and a murderer who "thrived on the pain and the misery of those near to him". Santer has explained that Nick was established as a "kind of spitting, snarling beast right from the outset", with the end of the first episode seeing Nick granted EastEnders' first drum roll ending as he punched through the glass door window of The Queen Victoria pub after a fight with Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih). Upon her return, Dot explained that Nick had been arrested yet again off-screen for drugs possession, and that Zoe and Ashley had moved away, tired of his criminal acts. Shortly after her return, she was informed by police that Nick had escaped prison with his cellmate, Damion Spinks. Damion comes looking for Dot, telling her that Nick cheated him out of money. He keeps her hostage overnight and soon leaves after finding her money. The following day, the police reveal that Damion is in intensive care, put there by Nick. John Altman reprised his role as Nick after a five-year absence in March 1998. Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) discovers Nick spying on Dot's house late at night and after telling him to stay away, Nick warns Nigel that he will be back. Nick returns a few weeks later, after Dot discovers him hiding in her house. Nick tells Dot that he is dying of AIDS, caused by his heroin addiction, which she disbelieves at first but is later convinced. Nick reveals that he is planning an armed robbery to pay for his medication. Not wanting Nick to go through with it, Dot decides to arrange the money for Nick. Dot later visits Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) and asks if he has heard of the drugs in question, which Mark denies. Dot then looks up the drug on Clare Bates' (Gemma Bissix) computer and discovers that the drugs are simply sleeping pills. Realising Nick has been lying about his illness all along, Dot calls the police before confronting him, having him rearrested and sent back to prison. In October 2000, a special 'soap-bubble' titled Return of Nick Cotton aired. The episode centred on Nick's release from prison, his reconciliation with his son, and even featured Nick's father Charlie, making a brief cameo appearance as a ghost almost a decade after his character was killed off. The episode paved the way for Nick's subsequent return to Walford, where he reignited an old feud with Mark Fowler after he discovered Nick was supplying his younger brother Martin Fowler (James Alexandrou) with ecstasy. On New Year's Day 2001, Mark spikes Nick's drink and lures him to the top of the viaduct in Bridge Street and watches as an intoxicated Nick falls, severely crippling himself. Following this, Nick orders Ashley to set fire to Mark's house but he cannot go through with it and leaves Walford after Nick disowns him. Following this, Nick temporarily departs to a spinal unit in February 2001. gets his revenge on Nick After three months away, he returned in May 2001; he was able to walk, but still needed crutches. This comeback was going to be even shorter than his previous one, and followed by a much longer absence from the show. Determined to continue the feud with Mark, Nick starts making threats to Mark's pregnant girlfriend Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin) and soon causes the death of Ashley after sabotaging the brakes on Mark's motorbike, only for Ashley to steal and crash it. Following Ashley's death, Dot overhears an argument between Nick and Mark and realises that Nick had tampered with the brakes on Mark's motorbike. After Ashley's funeral, Dot banishes Nick from her life and tells him to leave and never return, as she would never be able to forgive him. In September 2004, Dot wrote a card to Nick letting him know that she had kidney cancer on the day she was going to have her cancer operation at the hospital, the reason why Dot needed to reach out to him in a card, despite that Dot disowned him three years previous due to the fall out of his son Ashley's death, and also despite everything that happened between them both, it was because at a time like this, there were things that Dot wanted Nick to know, just in case if her cancer operation went wrong, Dot was letting Nick know that she was thinking of him, and didn't mean anything by not telling him about her cancer treatment before hand, which this eventually ended up leading up to Nick getting back in contact with Dot two years later, when he had his own cancer in 2006. However, Santer explained: "There will always be a way back to Dot for Nick", June Brown revealed that she had been asking producers to bring Altman back to the soap for six or seven years, as the two of them shared such a good working relationship. During Nick's brief stay in the square, he overheard Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) telling Dot how he let Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord) die and Nick blackmailed Billy by demanding regular payments or he would tell Jase's son Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) what Billy did. When Billy's cousin, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), found out about this, he led Nick into the barrel store of The Queen Victoria public house, where he beats him up and ties him to a chair. Phil gave Billy the opportunity to scare Nick off and end this, however, Billy let him go and told Jay the truth himself. The plot with his own daughter to kill his beloved mother climaxes on-screen in June 2009: Nick's plan goes awry after Dotty has a change of heart and ultimately rescues her grandmother from being poisoned, instead drugging Nick. This leads to a series of events whereby Nick, in a bid to escape once his plan has been exposed, holds various members of the community hostage in the café and an accidental fire is started after Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) pushes Nick into the chip pan. The hostages manage to escape due to a fight between Nick and Ryan Malloy (Neil McDermott), who was one of the hostages. This results in an explosion at the café with Nick and Bradley Branning inside. The storyline marked Altman's departure from the show once again. His departing episode was scripted as a cliffhanger, as it was not revealed whether Nick had survived the explosion at the end of the episode. However, in the following episode, on 4 June 2009, Nick is shown to survive the explosion and Bradley is hospitalised with injuries to his eye. Nick departs after once again being disowned by Dot. Dotty is left in Dot's care despite Nick explaining to his mother that Dotty is evil. In January 2014, Dot's lodger Poppy Meadow (Rachel Bright) receives a phone call from Nick, who wants to speak to Dot. After being told by Sharon Rickman (Letitia Dean) that Nick is bad news, she refuses to let him talk to her. Two months later, Dot is told by the police that Nick has died of respiratory failure from a heroin overdose the previous week. One of the police officers who breaks the news to Dot is Nick's son Charlie Cotton (Declan Bennett). Charlie explains that he was conceived from a brief marriage Nick had with his mother Yvonne (Pauline McLynn) back in the 1980s. During the funeral, Charlie and undertaker Les Coker (Roger Sloman) prevent Dot from looking in the coffin. Dot is suspicious and invites Yvonne to tell the truth and she assures Dot that Charlie is her grandson. A few weeks later, Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson) asks Charlie for advice, when he leaves his phone at her house, she answers a call and discovers that Nick is still alive. Following this, it is revealed that Charlie has been impersonating a police officer and is actually a caretaker at a care home where Yvonne works. Charlie leaves work to find his car windows have been smashed, with a message from Nick, confirming he'd done it. In October 2014, Nick re-appears in Albert Square, seven months after his faked death. Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins promised to deliver the "Ultimate Nasty Nick" storyline and it would be the Nick story to end all Nick stories. Charlie and his fiancé Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack) are horrified to find Nick in Dot's house. Nick blackmails them for £10,000 by the end of the day, or he will reveal to Dot that he is alive. Charlie asks Phil for a loan, he agrees but unbeknown to Charlie, he gives him a bag full of paper and when Charlie gives it to Nick he finds out there is no money. On Halloween night, Charlie reveals to Dot that Nick is alive, he goes to find him but while he is gone, Dot finds him in her house. Nick reveals that he was involved in a robbery at a jewellery shop and Charlie convinced him to fake his death. Dot agrees to hide Nick until they can raise enough money for him to leave. During this time, Dot is once again manipulated by Nick and starts to become happy that he is there, believing she can finally have a mother-son relationship with him. Fed up being stuck in Dot's house, Nick decides to go outside but is spotted by Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), who tells Phil and Sharon that Nick is alive. Phil goes round to Dot's house to attack Nick but is stopped by Ronnie. Ronnie tries to bribe Nick to leave by stealing £100,000 of Phil's money but he returns for Charlie and Ronnie's wedding. Having overheard Ronnie and Phil talking about killing him to get rid of him once and for all, Nick decides to cut the brakes on Ronnie's car. After she goes into labour at the wedding reception, Ronnie, Charlie and her sister Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) are involved in a car accident which later kills Emma Summerhayes (Anna Acton), while Ronnie is left in a coma. Yvonne discovers that Nick cut the brakes of the car but he convinces her to frame Phil by planting the oily rag in his coat pocket. Yvonne tells Charlie what Nick has done but he does not believe her until he catches Nick with some of the money Ronnie used to bribe him. Then Nick implicates Yvonne in Ronnie's accident so Charlie tells them both to leave. Dot hides Nick in the derelict house next door and obtains heroin for Nick. Dot's lodger Fatboy (Ricky Norwood) finds out and urges her to stop so when she sees Nick she urges him to confess to the police about framing Phil for Ronnie's sake but he says he does not care about Ronnie, telling her he hopes she rots. Later, Dot finds Nick unconscious but he regains consciousness briefly and reveals to Dot that he was responsible for Reg Cox's death in 1985. Dot decides not to call an ambulance and instead lets fate decide if Nick should survive. Dot accepts that she is to blame for Nick becoming a monster as she saw what he was turning into but turned a blind eye to it in the vain hope he'd change. In his final moments, Nick sincerely apologises for everything he put Dot through and asks for forgiveness. Dot refuses and tells him to ask Jesus instead, seconds before Nick dies in her arms, in the same location that Reg was discovered thirty years prior. Dot confesses to letting Nick die to Charlie who plans to get rid of Nick's body with Les Coker's help to save Dot from going to prison. In the live episode aired on 19 February 2015 to coincide with the show's 30th anniversary, the very first scene from the show's first episode was recreated. Stacey, Martin and Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) find Nick's body in the same way Den, Ali and Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) found Reg Cox thirty years earlier. Dot confesses to killing Nick and is taken away by police. His body is removed from the house the following day. Three months later, Dot receives 14 months in prison for Nick's manslaughter but she is later released after four months. Nick's funeral takes place in June 2015 with only Charlie, Roxy and his grandson, Matthew in attendance. In 2021, nearly eight years after Nick's death, it is revealed that Dotty (now played by Milly Zero) is not his daughter and that her father is Nick's half-brother, Tom "Rocky" Cotton (Brian Conley). However, in 2022, it is revealed that this is a lie and that Nick is indeed Dotty's father. Altman revealed that in the early/mid 80's, producers were told to 'write him out' of the show by executive producer and show creator Julia Smith after he opposed a decision to make his character gay along with fellow character Lofty Holloway. ==Reception==

Nick Cotton has become one of EastEnders' most renowned villains. His 'nastiness' was voted the 25th "Greatest Soap Moment" in a Five poll in 2004, and he has also been voted the 4th most villainous television character in a Channel 4 poll. The Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker has denied Nick's villainous characterisation, however, writing: "The man simply isn't menacing; he's half as terrifying as an Argos catalogue. Whereas [Coronation Street villain] Jez Quigley (Lee Boardman) looked as though he'd enjoy riding an onyx stallion through a field full of groaning, recently-impaled victims before galloping home to bathe in the blood of the fallen, Nick Cotton merely looks like he might, at a push, dispute the price of a dented tin of custard with a supermarket checkout girl while you wait behind him, wondering when he last washed his hair." The Times's Fiona McCade satirised the character when Altman appeared on the children's TV show Balamory, advising parents to: "be prepared to cover your little ones' eyes as the bad boy of soap strides into the colourful, fictional paradise, no doubt goosing Miss Hoolie, upsetting PC Plum and making Josie jump. I also fear for the safety of Archie, the chubby, cheerful posh boy who wears a pink kilt and lives alone in a big pink castle. With Nick in town, he doesn't stand a chance." In February 2025, Radio Times ranked Nick as the 6th best EastEnders villain, with Laura Denby calling him a "blight on the life" of Dot, and wrote that, as Nick was the show's first villain, "Altman's work certainly stands the test of time". John Altman was nominated for "Villain of the Year" at the 2015 British Soap Awards, but lost out to Hollyoaks actor, Jeremy Sheffield, who portrays Patrick Blake. ==See also==