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
EastEnders in popular culture Other Way" by The Streets, and Tippa Irie's 'Complain Neighbour' "EastEnders" is referred to in John Godber's play "Teechers". The drama students, Gail, Salty and Hobby, say that they have acted out a part of "EastEnders", quoting "Hello, Arfur... All right, my love". When "Emmerdale" actor Nick Miles (who plays Jimmy King) starred in a play at the Edinburgh Festival called "Meeting Joe Strummer", his character was from Walford. Miles said in an interview that his character was originally going to be from the village of Emmerdale, but it was changed to Walford for fun. During the 1990s, whilst on