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
Whitney Dean Society Programme Awards 2008 for a panel to judge in the category Soap and Continuing Drama. "EastEnders" was presented with the award in March 2009, beating "Coronation Street" and "The Bill". Members of the judging panel described the submitted episodes as "the culmination of a particularly challenging and controversial storyline which the production team, writers and cast pulled off triumphantly." In August 2017, McGarty was longlisted for Best Actress and Sexiest Female at the Inside Soap Awards. She did not progress to the viewer-voted shortlist. Whitney Dean Whitney Dean (also Carter) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera