Richard Cole

Name: Richard Cole
First Appeared: 23rd July 1992
Last Appeared: 21st July 1994
Played by: Ian Reddington

Richard Cole burst onto the Walford scene in 1992 as the new market inspector, and he was anything but a welcome addition. Known for his corrupt ways, Richard pulled every trick in the book to make money, making him a much-disliked figure in the community. His reputation as a notorious womanizer didn’t help either. Richard had a brief fling with market trader Rachel Kominski and gave his friend Sanjay Kapoor a permanent market pitch, much to Rachel’s annoyance. His antics didn’t stop there; he had a fling with 17-year-old Bianca Jackson, and when he dumped her, she and her friend Natalie Price vandalized his flat.

Richard’s relationships were fraught with drama. He had a longer romance with Kathy Beale, which turned sour when Kathy discovered he was taking cash bribes and allowing a mobile hot dog van to compete with her café. Richard retaliated by spreading nasty rumours about Kathy, who was then dating Phil Mitchell, calling her a ‘slut’ and mocking Phil and his brother Grant. The Mitchell brothers didn’t take kindly to this, and Phil frogmarched Richard into the toilets to teach him a lesson, only for Grant to break it up. Richard’s list of enemies grew as he reported Alan Jackson for benefit fraud, caused Arthur Fowler to lose his market sweeper job, and evicted Mandy Salter and Aidan Brosnan from a bedsit, leaving Aidan homeless and suicidal.

Richard’s main rival was Kathy’s son Ian Beale. He delighted in winding Ian up, flirting with his wife Cindy and spreading rumours that he was the father of her unborn twins. This caused chaos in the Beale marriage, but Richard didn’t stop there. In March 1994, he let it slip to the police that Frank Butcher was bankrupt, prompting an investigation into Frank’s car lot arson. The Mitchell brothers warned Richard against ‘grassing on mates,’ but he didn’t heed their advice and continued his antics, orchestrating the closure of Ian’s catering business and spreading rumours about Phil.

Ian eventually got his revenge by exposing Richard’s dodgy past. He tricked Richard into posing for a photo, which he used as evidence to show Richard’s former colleague Neil Bradley, who Richard had betrayed years earlier. Ian publicly confronted Richard about his corruption, leading Richard to resign as market inspector and leave Walford for good. Despite his quick exit, Neil arrived, furious to find Richard gone and vowing to hunt him down.