Even as a teenage boy, Dean, or Deano as he preferred then, was showing signs of being messed up. The first time he went out on the Square he spiked Stacey Slater’s drink to ‘lighten her up.’ So, to most of us, Dean was always going to go down a…

A hard worker and a doting mother, there is nothing more important to Karen Taylor than her children, and rightly so! They’re a close knit clan and no matter what Keanu, Keegan, Bernie, Chatham or Riley did, she was always fair, but firm when it came to discipline.

If there was anybody who deserved a happy ending in Walford, it was Whitney Dean. The adopted daughter of Bianca Jackson, Whitney had been through the ringer before she even got to the Square. Her dad had died, and Bianca’s other half Tony King, serving time in prison for beating…

You have a tendency to hear Bianca Jackson before you see her – and it’s handy to keep a pair of ear plugs handy if you’re either a) not on her side, b) in her way or c) named Ricky.

Over the past 40 years many characters have found a home in Walford. Here’s a look back, in order of their first names.