The character originally appeared in Albert Square as the new boyfriend of local resident Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson), but it quickly transpired that Dan had previously had a relationship with her daughter Bianca (Patsy Palmer); he soon embarked on an affair with Bianca until her mother eventually found out about it and Carol thereupon exposed this to Bianca's husband Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) — which later resulted in the latter being written out of the programme alongside both Bianca and Carol. Soon afterwards, Dan established an intense feud with Ricky's stepbrother Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden); they started out as best-friends when Phil's brother Grant (Ross Kemp) left the square and even went into business partnership at The Queen Victoria public house, but ended up becoming archenemies after Phil conned Dan's ownership of the pub in retribution for Dan reporting Phil to the police about his motor scam with both Ricky's father Frank (Mike Reid) and his longtime companion Roy Evans (Tony Caunter). The ensuing rivalry between Dan and Phil continued to escalate in one of the show's greatest and most memorable storylines in soap history, Who Shot Phil?; wherein Dan becomes a prime suspect after Phil gets shot on the night their ex-lover Mel Healy (Tamzin Outhwaite) married the duo's fellow nemesis Steve Owen (Martin Kemp).