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 Whitney Dean Whitney Dean (also Carter) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", played by Shona McGarty. The character is the ward of long-running character Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), and was introduced on 1 April 2008 when Palmer returned to the series after a six-year absence. Whitney is described by executive producer Diederick Santer as both an equal to, and younger version of Bianca, and is the oldest of Bianca's four children. Her storylines have revolved around her fractured family life, her sexual abuse by Bianca's partner Tony King (Chris Coghill), her sexual exploitation by Rob Grayson