EastEnders (Mark Thrippleton); wheeler-dealer Vince Johnson (Hepburn Graham) and Laurie Bates (Gary Powell), who became Pete Beale's (Peter Dean) sparring partner. The majority of "EastEnders" characters are working-class. Middle-class characters do occasionally become regulars, but have been less successful and rarely become long-term characters. In the main, middle-class characters exist as villains, such as James Wilmott-Brown, May Wright, Stella Crawford and Yusef Khan, or are used to promote positive liberal influences, such as Colin Russell or Rachel Kominski. "EastEnders" has always featured a culturally diverse cast which has included black, Asian, Turkish, Polish and Latvian characters. "The expansion of minority representation
Paul Coker (EastEnders) Paul Coker (EastEnders) Paul Coker is a character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", played by Jonny Labey. He first appeared in episode 5077 of the show, originally broadcast in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2015. Paul, a gay character, is the grandson of established characters Les Coker (Roger Sloman) and Pam Coker (Lin Blakley) and boyfriend of Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid). The character's final appearance is in episode 5347, shown on 8 September 2016, following the character's death after an off-screen homophobic incident on 18 July 2016. Kissing scenes between Paul and Ben received a mixed reaction from