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
Andy Hunter (EastEnders) when his character was murdered by Johnny. Leslie Grantham's final scenes as Den Watts were screened the same night as Andy's departure. Andy Hunter (EastEnders) Andy Hunter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", played by Michael Higgs. He first appears in the episode broadcast in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2003. The character was axed in November 2004 and is killed off in the episode shown on 18 February 2005. Andy is an employee of 'The Firm', of which he takes control after the murder of Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett) by Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman).