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
Ben Mitchell (EastEnders) Ben Mitchell (EastEnders) Ben Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders". The role has been played by five different actors. Matthew Silver appeared as an infant Ben from 1996–1998, and Morgan Whittle played him as a toddler from 1999–2001. After a five-year absence from the series, Charlie Jones assumed the role of Ben in 2006. In May 2010, it was announced that the role was recast to Joshua Pascoe, who made his first appearance as Ben on 13 December 2010. Pascoe then took a break from "EastEnders" between 13 May 2011 and 9 September 2011. In