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143-574: Nick Cotton is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders played by John Altman on a semi-regular basis from the soap's debut episode on 19 February 1985. Altman has stated that his initial exit was due to producer Julia Smith demanding he was written out after he opposed a decision to make his character gay. After Smith's departure, the character made numerous brief or more protracted stints until his onscreen death in February 2015, which

286-443: A "soap opera", it doesn't need to be long-running. , but some authors define the word in a way that excludes short-running serial dramas from their definition of "soap opera". BBC Radio 's The Archers , first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running existing television soap is Coronation Street , which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960. According to Albert Moran, one of

429-601: A 40-year-plus run, were cancelled in 2011. All My Children aired its network finale in September 2011, with One Life to Live following suit in January 2012. Both All My Children and One Life to Live were briefly revived online in 2013, before being cancelled again that same year. In 2019, production of Days of Our Lives was put on "indefinite hiatus" and all of the cast's contracts were terminated, raising concerns within soap publications that cancellation would ensue, though

572-646: A 72-year run (including radio). As the World Turns aired its final episode on September 17, 2010, after a 54-year run. As the World Turns was the last of 20 soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble, the soap and consumer goods company from which the genre got its name. As the World Turns and Guiding Light were also among the last of the soaps that originated from New York City. All My Children , another New York–based soap, moved its production out to Los Angeles in an effort to reduce costs and raise sagging ratings; however, both it and One Life to Live , each with

715-578: A barman in London's pubs and clubs to create the dynamic pairing of Den and Angie Watts , the owners of the Queen Victoria public house. Holland worked on EastEnders for four years, initially as script-editor and going on to script many episodes himself. After four years, Holland and Smith decided to leave EastEnders together in 1989 following a dispute with BBC bosses as to whether the character of Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham ) could return to

858-484: A bi-weekly half-hour serial, with the further possibility of the show being aired all year round. In 1983, the BBC approached Holland and Smith to produce a new programme for their channel, a bi-weekly soap-opera that would rival the long-established ITV favourites, Coronation Street , Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm . The BBC wanted this new serial to reflect 'London, today!' and together, Smith and Holland came up with

1001-778: A brief cameo appearance as a ghost almost a decade after his character was killed off. The episode paved the way for Nick's subsequent return to Walford, where he reignited an old feud with Mark Fowler after he discovered Nick was supplying his younger brother Martin Fowler ( James Alexandrou ) with ecstasy . On New Year's Day 2001, Mark spikes Nick's drink and lures him to the top of the viaduct in Bridge Street and watches as an intoxicated Nick falls, severely crippling himself. Following this, Nick orders Ashley to set fire to Mark's house but he cannot go through with it and leaves Walford after Nick disowns him. Following this, Nick temporarily departs to

1144-524: A car accident which later kills Emma Summerhayes ( Anna Acton ), while Ronnie is left in a coma. Yvonne discovers that Nick cut the brakes of the car but he convinces her to frame Phil by planting the oily rag in his coat pocket. Yvonne tells Charlie what Nick has done but he does not believe her until he catches Nick with some of the money Ronnie used to bribe him. Then Nick implicates Yvonne in Ronnie's accident so Charlie tells them both to leave. Dot hides Nick in

1287-416: A child at 14 years old. Nick threatens to reveal this to Kathy's husband, Pete ( Peter Dean ) unless she gives him regular payments. Kathy soon tells Pete the truth, resulting in him giving Nick a beating in the middle of the street. Following this, Den warns Nick to leave the square for good, with the exception of visiting Dot occasionally, or he will face fatal consequences. Nick appears briefly throughout

1430-455: A cliffhanger featuring Clyde Tavernier ( Steven Woodcock ) in the gardens standing over Eddie's body and holding a knife, which Nick witnessed from his bedroom window. Nick tells the police what he saw, leading to Clyde going on the run with the help of Michelle Fowler ( Susan Tully ). Joe Wallace (Jason Rush) eventually came forward, saying he saw Nick out on the square on the night of Eddie's murder, having escaped his room and climbed down

1573-400: A dead body, but hey, even if you do, he or she can always come back to play the evil identical twin. Marlena Laird in 1992, during her time as a line producer and director for General Hospital . Romance , secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines. In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and

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1716-422: A drain pipe. Nick confesses to Dot that he was responsible but insists that it was an accident. Nick is subsequently arrested and charged with Eddie's murder and he stands trial in January 1993. A week's worth of episodes were devoted to the trial, and were all written by Tony Jordan . To present the story of Nick's trial, the programme-makers themselves had to review the evidence and watch the episodes leading up to

1859-489: A field full of groaning, recently-impaled victims before galloping home to bathe in the blood of the fallen, Nick Cotton merely looks like he might, at a push, dispute the price of a dented tin of custard with a supermarket checkout girl while you wait behind him, wondering when he last washed his hair." The Times 's Fiona McCade satirised the character when Altman appeared on the children's TV show Balamory , advising parents to: "be prepared to cover your little ones' eyes as

2002-463: A fixture of American daytime television in the early 1950s, joined by game shows , sitcom reruns and talk shows. In 1988, H. Wesley Kenney , who at the time served as the executive producer of General Hospital , said to The New York Times : I think people like stories that continue so they can relate to these people. They become like a family, and the viewer becomes emotionally involved. There seem to be two attitudes by viewers. One, that

2145-511: A funeral. Once Tylo reprised her character in 2005, a retcon explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma. Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials. Such story events often take place off-screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown. This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict without complex movements, multiple takes, and post-production editing. When episodes were broadcast live, post-production work

2288-415: A good job." As the plot unfolded, Dot tried to curtail Nick's addiction by locking him in his room and forcing him to go cold turkey with the help of Pete. During this period, The Queen Victoria 's landlord Eddie Royle ( Michael Melia ) was murdered. The murder was the key storyline of the show during the autumn of 1991. The episode in which Eddie was murdered was written by Tony McHale ; it finished with

2431-513: A heroin addict". As Nick was only intended to be a semi-regular character, Julia Smith was not involved in his casting and the actor John Altman was chosen by the directors. However, she requested he was axed, after he refused to portray Nick having a gay relationship with Lofty Holloway ( Tom Watt ) because he thought it was out of character. Nick has been described by EastEnders ' executive producer Diederick Santer as "the show's premier villain". An EastEnders Revealed documentary chronicling

2574-431: A heroin overdose the previous week. One of the police officers who breaks the news to Dot is Nick's son Charlie Cotton ( Declan Bennett ). Charlie explains that he was conceived from a brief marriage Nick had with his mother Yvonne ( Pauline McLynn ) back in the 1980s. During the funeral, Charlie and undertaker Les Coker ( Roger Sloman ) prevent Dot from looking in the coffin. Dot is suspicious and invites Yvonne to tell

2717-498: A jewellery shop and Charlie convinced him to fake his death. Dot agrees to hide Nick until they can raise enough money for him to leave. During this time, Dot is once again manipulated by Nick and starts to become happy that he is there, believing she can finally have a mother-son relationship with him. Fed up being stuck in Dot's house, Nick decides to go outside but is spotted by Ian Beale ( Adam Woodyatt ), who tells Phil and Sharon that Nick

2860-413: A lie, and the baby turned out to be Hazel's niece. Although Nick was only a semi-regular character, his intermittent appearances were always scripted to make a big impact on the show, as well as all the characters involved in his storylines. He reappeared and left several times during the first few years of the show, causing maximum havoc every time, and it wasn't long before the tabloids had begun to brand

3003-432: A married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large. The first program generally considered to be a "soap opera" or daytime serial by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams , which premiered on WGN radio Chicago, on October 20, 1930. It was regularly broadcast in a daytime time slot, where most listeners would be housewives; thus,

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3146-476: A message from Nick, confirming he'd done it. "After a five year break, I'm very pleased and much looking forward to returning to EastEnders. With the promise of some hard-hitting and gritty storylines, I'm sure the residents of Albert Square will be none too pleased to see Nick Cotton back on the streets of Walford. I'm also looking forward to working alongside Declan Bennett and Pauline McLynn and of course, being reunited and working once again with my 'dear old Ma,'

3289-566: A number of soap actors were also accomplished stage actors who performed live theater during breaks from their soap roles. In the 1960s and 1970s, new serials such as General Hospital , Days of our Lives , and The Young and the Restless were produced in Los Angeles . Their success made the West Coast a viable alternative to New York-produced soap operas, which were becoming more costly to perform. By

3432-425: A particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. "Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'" These elements may be found across

3575-521: A radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television in June 1952. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s, during which creator Irna Phillips was involved in a dispute with Procter & Gamble , Guiding Light was heard or seen nearly every weekday from 1937 to 2009, making it the longest story ever told in a broadcast medium. Originally serials were broadcast as 15-minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956, As

3718-510: A series of daily prime time soaps from 2006 to 2007, which aired on newly created sister network MyNetworkTV , but the experiment was largely a failure after disappointing ratings). Due to the masses of episodes produced for a series, release of soap operas to DVD (a popular venue for distribution of current and vintage television series) is considered impractical. With the exception of occasional specials, daytime soap operas are notable by their absence from DVD release schedules (an exception being

3861-406: A series of events whereby Nick, in a bid to escape once his plan has been exposed, holds various members of the community hostage in the café and an accidental fire is started after Heather Trott ( Cheryl Fergison ) pushes Nick into the chip pan. The hostages manage to escape due to a fight between Nick and Ryan Malloy ( Neil McDermott ), who was one of the hostages. This results in an explosion at

4004-520: A short time from 1979 to 1980). More than half of the serials had expanded to one-hour episodes by 1980. As of 2012, three of the four U.S. serials air one-hour episodes each weekday; only The Bold and the Beautiful airs 30-minute episodes. Soap operas were originally broadcast live from the studio, creating what many at the time regarded as a feeling similar to that of a stage play. As nearly all soap operas were originated at that time from New York City ,

4147-477: A single missing episode) was rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 1990s. After The Edge of Night 's 1984 cancellation, reruns of the show's final five years were shown late nights on USA Network from 1985 to 1989. On January 20, 2000, a digital cable and satellite network dedicated to the genre, Soapnet , began re-airing soaps that originally aired on ABC, NBC and CBS. Newer broadcast networks since

4290-462: A soap opera will generally switch between several concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent to each other. Episodes may feature some of the show's storylines, but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of

4433-479: A spinal unit in February 2001. After three months away, he returned in May 2001; he was able to walk, but still needed crutches. This comeback was going to be even shorter than his previous one, and followed by a much longer absence from the show. Determined to continue the feud with Mark, Nick starts making threats to Mark's pregnant girlfriend Lisa Shaw ( Lucy Benjamin ) and soon causes the death of Ashley after sabotaging

Nick Cotton - Misplaced Pages Continue

4576-634: A squat, and that she was an alcoholic who had recently died, leaving him with custody of Dotty. Altman explained: "Nick needed something, because I think if he didn't have little Dotty, for him to walk through that door, she would just have treated him as a complete outcast." The actor described other changes to his character since his last appearance, detailing how he had become a plumber, begun dressing more smartly, stopped gelling his hair back and no longer wore an earring. Although suspicious to begin with, Dot accepted them both into her home, believing that Nick truly had changed this time. Asked whether Nick really

4719-401: A week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely conclude all their storylines at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development . Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger , and the season finale (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for

4862-411: A woman called Hazel (Virginia Fiol), and has a young daughter; Nick had avoided telling her beforehand due to his and Dot's strained relationship. Hazel tracked Dot down in May 1989 and visited her with the child, Dorothy Nicola; Dot was so pleased they visited that she pulled out of attending a Brownie march with Mo Butcher ( Edna Doré ) and Marge Green ( Pat Coombs ). This was later revealed to be

5005-478: Is alive. Phil goes round to Dot's house to attack Nick but is stopped by Ronnie. Ronnie tries to bribe Nick to leave by stealing £100,000 of Phil's money but he returns for Charlie and Ronnie's wedding. Having overheard Ronnie and Phil talking about killing him to get rid of him once and for all, Nick decides to cut the brakes on Ronnie's car. After she goes into labour at the wedding reception, Ronnie, Charlie and her sister Roxy Mitchell ( Rita Simons ) are involved in

5148-566: Is best known as the writer and co-creator (with Julia Smith ) of the BBC soap opera EastEnders . Holland was born in Shoeburyness , Essex , England, the oldest of three children, to John and Pat Holland. His younger twin brothers were Allan and Bryn. As a military family, Holland moved around with the postings assigned to his father and spent time in Aldershot , Gravesend and Chelmsford . Holland began his career as an actor, appearing in

5291-400: Is dying of AIDS , caused by his heroin addiction, which she disbelieves at first but is later convinced. Nick reveals that he is planning an armed robbery to pay for his medication. Not wanting Nick to go through with it, Dot decides to arrange the money for Nick. Dot later visits Mark Fowler ( Todd Carty ) and asks if he has heard of the drugs in question, which Mark denies. Dot then looks up

5434-408: Is left in Dot's care despite Nick explaining to his mother that Dotty is evil. In January 2014, Dot's lodger Poppy Meadow ( Rachel Bright ) receives a phone call from Nick, who wants to speak to Dot. After being told by Sharon Rickman ( Letitia Dean ) that Nick is bad news, she refuses to let him talk to her. Two months later, Dot is told by the police that Nick has died of respiratory failure from

5577-519: Is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor with the longest uninterrupted performance in a single role. A number of performers played roles for 20 years or longer, occasionally on more than one show. Rachel Ames played Audrey Hardy on both General Hospital and Port Charles from 1964 until 2007, and returned in 2009. Susan Lucci played Erica Kane in All My Children from

5720-598: Is not scheduled or because of last-minute deferrals of scheduled episodes to the following day because of breaking news coverage. ( Temporary production stoppages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic similarly resulted in CBS and ABC airing older reruns of The Young and the Restless , The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital during the Spring and Summer of 2020 in order to ration first-run episodes and, eventually, to fill airtime after

5863-424: Is not uncommon for a single character to be played by multiple actors. The key character of Mike Karr on The Edge of Night was played by three actors. Conversely, several actors have remained playing the same character for many years, or decades even. Helen Wagner played Hughes family matriarch Nancy Hughes on American soap As the World Turns from its April 2, 1956, debut through her death in May 2010. She

Nick Cotton - Misplaced Pages Continue

6006-464: Is revealed that Dotty (now played by Milly Zero ) is not his daughter and that her father is Nick's half-brother, Tom "Rocky" Cotton ( Brian Conley ). However, in 2022, it is revealed that this is a lie and that Nick is indeed Dotty's father. Altman revealed that producers were told to 'write him out' of the show after he opposed a decision to make his character gay . Nick Cotton has become one of EastEnders ' most renowned villains. His 'nastiness'

6149-538: Is shared by series story producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins , who has explained: "It's good to have an out and out villain. I think sometimes you can get a character and go 'Oh, they should have a good side as well, and maybe we should redeem them a little bit.' With Nick, it doesn't matter. You can go full pelt, foot-on-the-accelerator bad guy." John Altman has discussed the fact that he cannot remember his character ever once being nice, blaming Nick's unruliness on his father's absence during his childhood. Santer has discussed

6292-638: Is that of "an agent of chaos". It was also suggested that Nick's appearances on the show needed to be brief because the level of malevolence he portrays could not be sustained in a character over longer periods. Nick's most prominent relationship is with his mother Dot Cotton ( June Brown ). It is portrayed as complex, dysfunctional and somewhat cyclical, with Nick perpetually entering his mother's life, her forgiving him for past misdemeanours (including an attempt to kill her to steal her bingo winnings), then being let down when Nick's true intentions are revealed, often ending in his banishment, albeit temporarily, before

6435-414: Is the "one friend in [Nick's] life", while Treadwell-Collins has affirmed: "Dot's always going to forgive him. And that's the beauty of Nick and Dot." Concurring with this sentiment, Altman agreed: "No matter what he does, she'll forgive him. So did a lot of gangsters' mothers throughout history. Probably Al Capone 's mother thought he was a sweet lad, you know." The debut episode of EastEnders began with

6578-438: Is used as an "out and out villain ". It was suggested by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins that unlike other soap characters who behaved badly and required a more nuanced characterisation and redemption, it was possible to use Nick as a complete "bad guy". A television critic for The Guardian suggested that, for this reason, the character's dastardly motives were rarely questioned by viewers, as his primary function

6721-475: The "wonderfully dysfunctional mother-son relationship" Nick shares with his mother, Dot Cotton ( June Brown ), and her perpetual willingness to give Nick another chance, regardless of his history of wrongdoing. Santer explained: "There's that thing where you sort of dare to hope that someone's changed, which is really tragic. They've let you down a hundred times, and yet you still hope that the hundred and first time they'll have changed." Grantham has stated that Dot

6864-475: The 1966 Doctor Who serial The Savages and later Message for Posterity , a 1967 serial for The Wednesday Play . In the latter year, a play Holland had developed – The Isle is Full of Noises – was taken up by the BBC and produced by Thirty-Minute Theatre ; it was from there that Holland turned to script-writing. Through his agent, Holland landed a job as a writer and script editor on Z-Cars in 1970. It

7007-542: The 1970s, became one of the first older women on the American serials to enter the workforce. Guiding Light dealt with Bert Bauer ( Charita Bauer ) and her alcoholic husband Bill, and their endless marital troubles. When Bert's status shifted to caring mother and town matriarch, her children's marital troubles were showcased. Search for Tomorrow mostly told its story through the eyes of Joanne Gardner ( Mary Stuart ). Even when stories revolved around other characters, Joanne

7150-455: The 1990s and 2000s incorporated supernatural and science fiction elements into their storylines in an attempt to boost their ratings. One of the main characters on the earlier soap opera Dark Shadows was Barnabas Collins , a vampire, and One Life to Live featured an angel named Virgil. Both shows featured characters who traveled to and from the past. In 1995, Days of our Lives featured a storyline in which fan favorite character Marlena Evans

7293-634: The Square after attempting to mug Ethel Skinner ( Gretchen Franklin ), and in April it was reported that he had been arrested. After Nick's mother, Dot, was introduced to the cast in July, she informed the audience that Nick had managed to get off on probation, and the following month, he returned to Albert Square . Upon his return, he broke into Dr. Harold Legg 's ( Leonard Fenton ) surgery and came across Kathy Beale 's ( Gillian Taylforth ) medical records, discovering she had

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7436-476: The Square!" June Brown revealed that she had been asking producers to bring Altman back to the soap for six or seven years, as the two of them shared such a good working relationship. After spending time in Walsall , Cotton returned; walking normally again, he was accompanied by his seven-year-old daughter, Dotty ( Molly Conlin ). He explained that he had met Dotty's mother Sandy Gibson (Caroline Pegg) while living in

7579-399: The U.S. since the 2000s. As of September 2022, only four daytime soap operas – General Hospital , Days of Our Lives , The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful – are still in production with three airing on two broadcast networks and one on streaming, down from a total of 12 soaps broadcast during the 1990–91 season and a high of 19 in the 1969–70 season. This marks

7722-452: The World Turns and The Edge of Night , both produced by Procter & Gamble Productions , debuted as the first half-hour soap operas on the CBS television network. All soap operas broadcast half-hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. With increased popularity in the 1970s, most soap operas had expanded to an hour in length by the end of the decade ( Another World even expanded to 90 minutes for

7865-639: The bad boy of soap strides into the colourful, fictional paradise, no doubt goosing Miss Hoolie, upsetting PC Plum and making Josie jump. I also fear for the safety of Archie, the chubby, cheerful posh boy who wears a pink kilt and lives alone in a big pink castle. With Nick in town, he doesn't stand a chance." John Altman was nominated for " Villain of the Year " at the 2015 British Soap Awards , but lost out to Hollyoaks actor, Jeremy Sheffield , who portrays Patrick Blake . Soap opera According to some dictionaries, for something to be adequately described as

8008-469: The barrel store of The Queen Victoria public house , where he beats him up and ties him to a chair. Phil gave Billy the opportunity to scare Nick off and end this, however, Billy let him go and told Jay the truth himself. The plot with his own daughter to kill his beloved mother climaxes on-screen in June 2009: Nick's plan goes awry after Dotty has a change of heart and ultimately rescues her grandmother from being poisoned, instead drugging Nick. This leads to

8151-452: The brakes on Mark's motorbike, only for Ashley to steal and crash it. Following Ashley's death, Dot overhears an argument between Nick and Mark and realises that Nick had tampered with the brakes on Mark's motorbike. After Ashley's funeral, Dot banishes Nick from her life and tells him to leave and never return, as she would never be able to forgive him. In September 2004, Dot wrote a card to Nick letting him know that she had kidney cancer on

8294-461: The café with Nick and Bradley Branning inside. The storyline marked Altman's departure from the show once again. His departing episode was scripted as a cliffhanger , as it was not revealed whether Nick had survived the explosion at the end of the episode. However, in the following episode, on 4 June 2009, Nick is shown to survive the explosion and Bradley is hospitalised with injuries to his eye. Nick departs after once again being disowned by Dot. Dotty

8437-401: The cast and crew ventured to Jamaica to tape a love consummation storyline between the characters of Garth and Kathy. During the 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the evening drama series that were gaining high ratings, daytime serials began to incorporate action and adventure storylines, more big-business intrigue, and an increased emphasis on youthful romance. One of the most popular couples

8580-433: The cast and storylines are rotated across the week's episodes so that each cast member will appear in some but not all episodes. UK and Australian soap operas move through storylines at a faster rate than daytime serials, making them closer to U.S. evening soap operas in this regard. American daytime soap operas feature stylistic elements that set them apart from other shows: Soap opera ratings have significantly fallen in

8723-421: The character "Nasty Nick". Altman has commented: "I think they keep bringing Nick back because he's one of the characters on British TV that people just love to hate". This dislike of the character by the public was shared by the fictional residents of Walford , with Altman explaining: "Every time he comes back he gets shunned by one and all. It's like being the bad cowboy come riding into town - everybody puts down

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8866-413: The character's time on the show deemed him a liar, a thief and a murderer who "thrived on the pain and the misery of those near to him". Co-star Charlie Clements ( Bradley Branning ) has stated: "You think of soap bad guys, Nick Cotton is definitely up there with the best of them", while Leslie Grantham ( Den Watts ) opined that "There is no redeeming feature about Nick Cotton whatsoever". This assessment

9009-515: The crime, Holland decided to invent an entirely new character, in the form of Nick Cotton. The original character outline for Nick read: "His image is exclusively macho. Vanishes for weeks on end. Mum doesn't ask questions... Unlike Den , Nick is a real crook. Worms his way into people's confidentiality and homes. From then on, lives on his wits. Waiting for the moment to strike; to nick the cash and disappear...Usually chooses his victims who, for one reason or another, are frightened to report him...Nick's

9152-400: The cycle repeats. Nick's eventual demise in 2015 pays homage to this relationship, with Dot – finally realising the extent of Nick's villainous behaviour and accepting his inability to change – ultimately deciding to allow Nick to die, rather than seeking medical assistance after he has a fatal reaction to heroin, her motive being to let Jesus decide whether Nick should live or die. Nick Cotton

9295-454: The daily episode format of its daytime counterparts) and Another Life (a soap that combined standard serial drama with religious overtones), during the 1980s. Fox, the fourth "major network" , carried a short-lived daytime soap Tribes in 1990. Yet, other than this and a couple of pilot attempts, Fox mainly stayed away from daytime soaps, and has not attempted them since their ascension to major-network status in 1994 (it did later attempt

9438-420: The day she was going to have her cancer operation at the hospital, the reason why Dot needed to reach out to him in a card, despite that Dot disowned him three years previous due to the fall out of his son Ashley's death, and also despite everything that happened between them both, it was because at a time like this, there were things that Dot wanted Nick to know, just in case if her cancer operation went wrong, Dot

9581-410: The death of Eddie. In the end, although it was clear that Nick was responsible for stabbing Eddie, it was not clear that it was murder, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Altman summarised: "Through having a really good defence and lying his head off once again, he got away with murder". Nick was written out of the show, along with Dot, when June Brown (who plays Dot) decided to depart from

9724-450: The defining features that make a television program a soap opera is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas: Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed,

9867-503: The demographic group for which soap opera advertisers pay the most. Those who might watch in workplace breakrooms are not counted, as Nielsen does not track television viewing outside the home. The rise of cable and the Internet has also provided new sources of entertainment during the day. The genre's decline has additionally been attributed to reality television displacing soap operas as TV's dominant form of melodrama. An early term for

10010-400: The derelict house next door and obtains heroin for Nick. Dot's lodger Fatboy ( Ricky Norwood ) finds out and urges her to stop so when she sees Nick she urges him to confess to the police about framing Phil for Ronnie's sake but he says he does not care about Ronnie, telling her he hopes she rots. Later, Dot finds Nick unconscious but he regains consciousness briefly and reveals to Dot that he

10153-451: The discovery of elderly resident Reg Cox (Johnnie Clayton) unconscious in his flat. Reg later dies and in later episodes it is revealed that he was murdered by Nick. Holland and Smith wanted to introduce the series in a dramatic fashion, and believed the Reg Cox storyline to be a good starting point, allowing various members of the community to be involved with or comment on the circumstances of

10296-474: The drug on Clare Bates ' ( Gemma Bissix ) computer and discovers that the drugs are simply sleeping pills. Realising Nick has been lying about his illness all along, Dot calls the police before confronting him, having him rearrested and sent back to prison. In October 2000, a special 'soap-bubble' titled Return of Nick Cotton aired. The episode centred on Nick's release from prison, his reconciliation with his son, and even featured Nick's father Charlie, making

10439-442: The early 1970s, nearly all soap operas had transitioned to being taped. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night were the last to make the switch, in 1975. Port Charles used the practice of running 13-week " story arcs ," in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines did continue over more than one arc. According to the 2006 Preview issue of Soap Opera Digest , it

10582-419: The economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages. You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous. Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of

10725-410: The end of the day, or he will reveal to Dot that he is alive. Charlie asks Phil for a loan, he agrees but unbeknown to Charlie, he gives him a bag full of paper and when Charlie gives it to Nick he finds out there is no money. On Halloween night, Charlie reveals to Dot that Nick is alive, he goes to find him but while he is gone, Dot finds him in her house. Nick reveals that he was involved in a robbery at

10868-465: The exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location. As examples, EastEnders focuses on the tough and grim life in the East End of London; Coronation Street and its characters exhibit the stereotypical characteristic of "northern straight talking". If we want to blend an actor back into a show, there's always a way. You can generally find a way to twist and manipulate something. You rarely see

11011-428: The first network daytime serial. The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations". Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in

11154-429: The first new daytime soap opera to premiere on a major broadcast network since Passions in 1999. As women increasingly worked outside of the home, daytime television viewing declined. New generations of potential viewers were not raised watching soap operas with their mothers, leaving the shows' long and complex storylines foreign to younger audiences. As viewers age, ratings continue to drop among young adult women,

11297-459: The first season. In 1991 Holland and Smith were hired by the BBC to produce Eldorado , loosely based around the lives of expats in Spain. Their new soap opera was launched in July 1992, but, plagued by a string of on- and off-screen problems, it received little of the success of EastEnders , and was axed a year later, in July 1993, despite a radical overhaul and improving ratings. In 2001 Holland

11440-511: The first soap opera since Generations to feature an African American cast. On April 12, 2024, CBS renewed The Talk for a 15th and final season, with the show concluding in December 2024. Three days later, on April 15, The Gates (now titled " Beyond the Gates ") was greenlit by CBS and is slated to premiere on February 24, 2025, likely to take the time slot of The Talk , meaning it will be

11583-530: The first time since 1953 that there have been only four soap operas airing on broadcast television . The Young and the Restless , the highest-rated soap opera from 1988 to the present, had fewer than 5 million daily viewers as of February 2012, a number exceeded by several non-scripted programs such as Judge Judy . Circulations of soap opera magazines have decreased and some have even ceased publication. Soapnet, which largely aired soap opera reruns, began to be phased out in 2012 and fully ceased operations

11726-495: The following year. The Daytime Emmy Awards , which honor soap operas and other daytime shows, moved from prime time network television to smaller cable channels in 2012, then failed to get any TV broadcast at all in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Several of the U.S.'s most established soaps ended between 2009 and 2012. The longest-running drama in television and radio history, Guiding Light , barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 and ended on September 18 of that year, after

11869-724: The gamut of soap operas, from EastEnders to Dallas . In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy. Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working-class environments. Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as

12012-413: The gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare. UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style. UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on

12155-527: The house to confront Nick, and forces him to leave, or else he will hand him over to the criminals he is hiding from. In 1988, Nick ends up doing prison time for drug offences in Dickens Hill Prison where, coincidentally, Den is being held for arson . It is during this period that the mystery of Reg's murder is finally solved when Nick confessed to Den that he had been responsible. In 1989, Dot learns, through off-screen visits to Nick, that he has married

12298-484: The idea of a programme set in a Victorian square within the East End of London , focusing on its close working-class families and eccentric Cockney inhabitants. Thus, EastEnders was born. Holland and Smith wanted the primary focus of EastEnders to be a large extended family, representative of the type most typically found in the East End of London. Holland was from a large London family himself, and in creating some of

12441-464: The idea that Jesus had finally spoken to Nick, that was all her Christmases coming at once! Nick knew that. It was sort of obvious that Nick could be saying 'Jesus walks with me' and then just go out and kick somebody or nick their wallet." With the help of a fake priest, Nick managed to convince his mother of his newfound faith and then began a slow campaign to control her eating habits and poison her in order to claim her money. The episode which culminated

12584-589: The last time Dot and Nick would be onscreen for several years until 1997, when June Brown was persuaded to reprise her role as Dot. Upon her return, Dot explained that Nick had been arrested yet again off-screen for drugs possession, and that Zoe and Ashley had moved away, tired of his criminal acts. Shortly after her return, she was informed by police that Nick had escaped prison with his cellmate, Damion Spinks. Damion comes looking for Dot, telling her that Nick cheated him out of money. He keeps her hostage overnight and soon leaves after finding her money. The following day,

12727-435: The late 1960s and into the 1970s. Exterior shots were slowly incorporated into the series The Edge of Night and Dark Shadows . Unlike many earlier serials that were set in fictional towns, The Best of Everything and Ryan's Hope were set in a real-world location, New York City. The first exotic location shoot was made by All My Children , to St. Croix in 1978. Many other soap operas planned lavish storylines after

12870-484: The late 1980s, such as Fox and cable television networks, have largely eschewed soap operas in their daytime schedules, instead running syndicated programming and reruns. No cable television outlet has produced its own daytime serial, although DirecTV 's The 101 Network took over existing serial Passions , continuing production for one season; while TBS and CBN Cable Network respectively aired their own soap operas, The Catlins (a primetime soap that utilized

13013-449: The loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximise advertising revenues. The article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives ,

13156-525: The matriarch of The Guiding Light , Bert Bauer, developed uterine cancer (as the actress, Charita Bauer , had been diagnosed with the same illness in real life). The storyline encouraged many women to get pap smears and the CBS mailroom in New York City received a then-record amount of fan mail wishing Bauer (both Bert and Charita) well. Nixon would go on to tell many socially relevant storylines on her soaps One Life to Live and All My Children in

13299-439: The most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels . Soap opera storylines weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story. Crimes such as kidnapping, assault (sometimes sexual), and even murder may go unpunished if

13442-530: The next few years and eventually meets his father, Charlie ( Christopher Hancock ) in October 1987 when they both coincidentally turn up to visit Dot. Nick and Charlie make it clear to each other that they don't want each other around. Charlie discovers that Nick is hiding from some criminals after he stole from them and also discovers Nick is hiding from Graham Clark ( Gary Webster ), an old friend of Nick's who went to prison for Nick's crimes. Charlie lets Graham into

13585-416: The old man's murder. Santer has explained that Nick was established as a "kind of spitting, snarling beast right from the outset", with the end of the first episode seeing Nick granted EastEnders' first drum roll ending as he punched through the glass door window of The Queen Victoria pub after a fight with Ali Osman ( Nejdet Salih ). After a few weeks of the police investigation, prime suspect Nick left

13728-421: The perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story. Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the "romantic quality" of criminal and/or oligarch life. In soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins (including the evil variety ) of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate

13871-456: The police reveal that Damion is in intensive care, put there by Nick. John Altman reprised his role as Nick after a five-year absence in March 1998. Nigel Bates ( Paul Bradley ) discovers Nick spying on Dot's house late at night and after telling him to stay away, Nick warns Nigel that he will be back. Nick returns a few weeks later, after Dot discovers him hiding in her house. Nick tells Dot that he

14014-478: The potential for change, that he can be a good boy. I think that she'll keep wishing that." The first steps towards reconciliation were made in 2006 when Jim Branning ( John Bardon ) received a phone call from Nick who was in a prison hospital with cancer. Jim and his grandson, Bradley ( Charlie Clements ) initially kept this a secret from Dot, but Bradley told his girlfriend, Stacey Slater ( Lacey Turner ), who let it slip to Dot. Dot went to visit Nick, but when he

14157-411: The programs ran out of new episodes to broadcast; Days of Our Lives , which produces its episodes roughly eight months ahead of their initial broadcast, did not resort to airing older episodes during this time as it had a larger first-run episode backlog.) Early episodes of Dark Shadows were rerun on PBS member stations in the early 1970s after the show's cancellation, and the entire series (except for

14300-601: The prosperous Brooks family with four daughters, and the working-class Foster family of a single working mother with three children. Its storylines explored realistic problems including cancer, mental illness, poverty, and infidelity. In contrast, Dark Shadows (1966–1971), Port Charles (1997–2003) and Passions (1999–2008) featured supernatural characters and dealt with fantasy and horror storylines. Their characters included vampires, witches, ghosts, goblins, and angels. The American soap opera Guiding Light (originally titled The Guiding Light until 1975) started as

14443-411: The reality TV genre was docu-soap . A precursor to reality TV, the televised 1994–95 O. J. Simpson murder case , both preempted and competed with an entire season of soaps, transforming viewing habits and leaving soap operas with 10 percent fewer viewers after the trial ended. Tony Holland Anthony John Holland (18 January 1940 – 28 November 2007) was a British screenwriter and actor. He

14586-432: The same location that Reg was discovered thirty years prior. Dot confesses to letting Nick die to Charlie who plans to get rid of Nick's body with Les Coker's help to save Dot from going to prison. In the live episode aired on 19 February 2015 to coincide with the show's 30th anniversary, the very first scene from the show's first episode was recreated. Stacey, Martin and Kush Kazemi ( Davood Ghadami ) find Nick's body in

14729-402: The same spot where Reg had died, exactly 30 years prior. He was conceived by the show's creators, Tony Holland and Julia Smith . A late inclusion to the original cast line-up, Nick was included based on writer feedback to Holland and Smith's original script, which centred on Cox's murder, whose killer they had not originally intended to reveal. Nick was created to be the assailant and to provide

14872-490: The same way Den, Ali and Arthur Fowler ( Bill Treacher ) found Reg Cox thirty years earlier. Dot confesses to killing Nick and is taken away by police. His body is removed from the house the following day. Three months later, Dot receives 14 months in prison for Nick's manslaughter but she is later released after four months. Nick's funeral takes place in June 2015 with only Charlie, Roxy and his grandson, Matthew in attendance. In 2021, nearly eight years after Nick's death, it

15015-404: The series following his exit in February of that year after being shot and supposedly killed. The character would ultimately return to the soap in 2003, having survived the shooting despite being presumed dead. On his departure from EastEnders in 1989, Holland was approached by Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ to give their new urban soap opera Fair City its structure and story-lines for

15158-479: The series in August 1993. Their departing storyline introduced his partner, Zoe (Elizabeth Chadwick) and young son, Ashley (Rossi Higgins) to Dot, who was initially convinced that Zoe was attempting to con her, as she remembered the incident with Hazel several years before. Once Dot was convinced Nick was being truthful, however, she quickly grew close to Ashley, and the family moved to Gravesend together. This would be

15301-579: The series' characters, he was able to use some of his own experiences as inspiration for the central EastEnders clan the Beales and the Fowlers . In creating the stories and characters, Holland delved into family stories, past and present. His aunt Lou Beale came to inspire the EastEnders character of the same name, along with her two children Peter (Pete) and Pauline . Holland also used some of his experiences as

15444-426: The set of relationships examined by the series. Unexpected calamities disrupt weddings, childbirths, and other major life events with unusual frequency. As in comic books – another popular form of linear storytelling pioneered in the US during the 20th century – a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent . On The Bold and the Beautiful , Taylor Hayes ( Hunter Tylo ) was shown to flatline and have

15587-425: The show was later renewed through September 2021. In 2022, NBC announced that Days of Our Lives would be moved exclusively to its streaming service, Peacock , making NBC the first of the big three networks not to air any daytime soap operas. In March 2024, CBS Studios , NAACP Venture , in partnership with P&G Studios announced that a new soap opera for CBS titled The Gates is in development and will be

15730-673: The show with more dramatic storyline potential. During his time on the show, Nick embarked on multiple feuds with Phil Mitchell ( Steve McFadden ), Billy Mitchell ( Perry Fenwick ), Michelle Fowler ( Susan Tully ), Mark Fowler ( David Scarboro / Todd Carty ), Lisa Fowler ( Lucy Benjamin ), Tony Carpenter ( Oscar James ), Ali Osman ( Nedjet Salih ), Pete Beale ( Peter Dean ), Kathy Beale ( Gillian Taylforth ), Clyde Tavernier ( Steven Woodcock ), Nigel Bates ( Paul Bradley ), Den Watts ( Leslie Grantham ), Eddie Skinner (Richard Vanstone), his father Charlie Cotton ( Christopher Hancock ) and Ronnie Mitchell ( Samantha Womack ). Nick

15873-1535: The show's debut in January 1970 until it ended its network television run on ABC on September 23, 2011. Erika Slezak played Victoria Lord #3 on One Life to Live from 1971 until the show ended its network television run on ABC on January 13, 2012, and resumed the role in its short-lived online revival on April 29, 2013. Other actors have played several characters on different shows. Millette Alexander , Bernard Barrow , Doris Belack , David Canary , Judith Chapman , Keith Charles , Jordan Charney , Joan Copeland , Nicolas Coster , Jacqueline Courtney , Augusta Dabney , Louis Edmonds , Don Hastings , Larry Haines , Vincent Irizarry , Lenore Kasdorf , Teri Keane , Lois Kibbee , John Loprieno , Lori March , Maeve McGuire , Robert Mili , James Mitchell , Lee Patterson , Christopher Pennock , Antony Ponzini , William Prince , Rosemary Prinz , Louise Shaffer , Mary Stuart , Richard Thomas , Diana van der Vlis , Mary K. Wells , Lesley Woods and Michael Zaslow , among many others, have all played multiple soap roles. For several decades, most daytime soap operas concentrated on family and marital discord, legal drama and romance. The action rarely left interior settings, and many shows were set in fictional, medium-sized Midwestern towns. Social issue storylines were typically verboten when soaps were starting, due to heavy network-imposed censorship at that time, but writer and producer Agnes Nixon introduced these storylines slowly but surely, first in 1962 when

16016-493: The shows were aimed at – and consumed by – a predominantly female audience. Clara, Lu, 'n Em would become the first network radio serial of the type when it aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. Although it did not make the move until February 15, 1932, Clara, Lu 'n Em would become the first network serial of the type to move to a weekday daily timeslot, and so also became

16159-454: The shutters and locks up the bar." The character's appearance was tailored to suit this unlikable, "nasty" image, with EastEnders series consultant Simon Ashdown commenting; "When he comes on, you know this guy is bad. He's got the black hair and the scowl and the leather jacket. He is like that, he is a Dickensian baddy." Frankie Fitzgerald, who played Nick's son Ashley Cotton from 2000 to 2001, agreed: "The look of Nasty Nick, you know, he

16302-429: The start of a new yearly broadcast. Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode and present all storylines. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger. In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market", noting

16445-471: The stories are similar to what happened to them in real life, or two, thank goodness that isn't me. Many long-running US soap operas established particular environments for their stories. The Doctors and General Hospital , in the beginning, told stories almost exclusively from inside the confines of a hospital. As the World Turns dealt heavily with Chris Hughes' law practice and the travails of his wife Nancy who, tired of being "the loyal housewife" in

16588-725: The storyline, Dotty suggested killing Dot for her life assurance policy. Nick leaves following this, allowing Dotty to work on Dot. He returns three months later, whereupon they begin their plan to convince Dot and her friends that she is suffering with dementia , Nick's aim being to kill Dot and blame her death on her deteriorating mental state. During Nick's brief stay in the square, he overheard Billy Mitchell ( Perry Fenwick ) telling Dot how he let Jase Dyer ( Stephen Lord ) die and Nick blackmailed Billy by demanding regular payments or he would tell Jase's son Jay Brown ( Jamie Borthwick ) what Billy did. When Billy's cousin, Phil Mitchell ( Steve McFadden ), found out about this, he led Nick into

16731-488: The storyline, written by P.J. Hammond, was set solely in Dot's house and featured an unusually small cast composed of Nick, Dot, Charlie, Ethel and Alistair, the fake priest. At the last moment, in what Altman has called the "one time we saw a glimmer of Nick's good side", Nick backed out of his plan and stopped Dot from eating the poisoned meal he had intended to kill her with. Once again, Dot was left alone, broken-hearted at what her own son had been prepared to do to her. Nick

16874-526: The success of the All My Children shoot. Soap operas Another World and Guiding Light both went to St. Croix in 1980, the former show culminating a long-running storyline between popular characters Mac, Rachel and Janice, and the latter to serve as an exotic setting for Alan Spaulding and Rita Bauer 's torrid affair. Search for Tomorrow taped for two weeks in Hong Kong in 1981. Later that year, some of

17017-678: The supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows , which did receive an essentially complete release on both VHS and DVD; the single lost episode #1219 is reconstructed by means of an off-the-air audio recording, still images, and recap material from adjacent episodes). Soap opera performers in the United States are typically divided into two main groups: primary characters (sometimes referred to as "contract players" – as their portrayers signed contracts of employment – or leading characters) and secondary characters (sometimes referred to as recurring characters). These two groups of characters make up

17160-584: The time. With the resultant budget cuts, soap operas were no longer able to go on expensive location shoots overseas as they were able to do in the 1980s. During that decade, soap operas increasingly focused on younger characters and social issues , such as Erica Kane 's drug addiction on All My Children , the re-emergence of Viki Lord 's dissociative identity disorder on One Life to Live , and Stuart Chandler dealing with his wife Cindy dying of AIDS on All My Children . Other social issues included cancer , rape , abortion and racism . Several shows during

17303-454: The truth and she assures Dot that Charlie is her grandson. A few weeks later, Carol Jackson ( Lindsey Coulson ) asks Charlie for advice, when he leaves his phone at her house, she answers a call and discovers that Nick is still alive. Following this, it is revealed that Charlie has been impersonating a police officer and is actually a caretaker at a care home where Yvonne works. Charlie leaves work to find his car windows have been smashed, with

17446-420: The vast majority of the people who appear on any given soap. There are also characters who appear only for a short time as dictated by a specific storyline, and even characters who may only get a first name and no fleshed-out character history with little dialogue (these are sometimes referred to as "under-5s" since they receive under five lines of dialogue in each episode). Due to the longevity of these shows, it

17589-575: The wonderful June Brown." –John Altman on Nick's 2014 return to EastEnders . In October 2014, Nick re-appears in Albert Square, seven months after his faked death. Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins promised to deliver the "Ultimate Nasty Nick" storyline and it would be the Nick story to end all Nick stories. Charlie and his fiancé Ronnie Mitchell ( Samantha Womack ) are horrified to find Nick in Dot's house. Nick blackmails them for £10,000 by

17732-498: The world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a left-handed boy statue, and helped a princess find her Aztec treasure in Mexico . Other soap operas attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location – frequently in exotic locales. During the 1990s, the mob, action and adventure stories fell out of favor with producers, due to generally declining ratings for daytime soap operas at

17875-399: The writers were introduced to the intended characters and early scripts, each independently wanted to know which character had killed Reg. However, Holland and Smith had never intended for the murderer to be unveiled. They had no idea who had killed Reg Cox, and they had felt that "the who" was not important. The fact that he was dead following an attack was the important issue, and Reg's murder

18018-520: Was Luke Spencer and Laura Webber on General Hospital . Luke and Laura helped to attract both male and female fans. Even actress Elizabeth Taylor was a fan and at her own request was given a guest role in Luke and Laura's wedding episode. Luke and Laura's popularity led to other soap producers striving to reproduce this success by attempting to create supercouples of their own. With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue, Luke and Laura saved

18161-471: Was a bad guy. Even when he gets dressed up in a suit, he's still got the earring, he's still got the rings, he's still got the tattoo on his neck." One of Nick's most notable returns to the series occurred in 1990. Nick returned to his mother's life with the claim that he was a born-again Christian, which happened to coincide with her £10,000 win on the bingo. EastEnders writer Sarah Phelps explained: "For Dot,

18304-432: Was a reformed character, Altman remained ambiguous: "Nick's back, he's got a cute little daughter. He's become a plumber, he's a changed man. ...Or is he?" As the storyline progressed, Nick's true agenda was revealed when he blackmailed his mother into giving him money for custody of Dotty. In a further plot twist, it was revealed to the audience in 2009, that Dotty (real name Kirsty) was colluding with her father all along. In

18447-465: Was always really filthy. When I was shooting those scenes I met with a guy who was an addict, and he told me things that you go through, like you can't relax when you're trying to come off it. You can't sleep so you drink loads of alcohol to try and kill the pain. The clock barely seems to move. For me as an actor, they really let me go as far as I could on that. We had letters as well from people saying how it's put them off heroin for life, so I guess we did

18590-408: Was briefly discussed that all ABC shows might do telenovela arcs, but this was rejected. Though U.S. daytime soap operas are not generally rerun by their networks, occasionally they are rebroadcast elsewhere; CBS and ABC have made exceptions to this, airing older episodes (either those aired earlier in the current season or those aired years prior) on major holidays when special event programming

18733-517: Was cleared of his cancer, he refused to let Dot see him. "Nick Cotton is an EastEnders legend. His complex relationship with Dot, his criminal tendencies, and his addiction to heroin, violence, and everything else that's bad have made him one of the show's best-remembered and best-loved villains. We're very excited that he - and the talented John Altman who plays him - will be returning to the Square." —Executive producer Diederick Santer on Nick's 2008 return to EastEnders . On 2 October 2008 it

18876-411: Was frequently a key player in their storylines. Days of Our Lives initially focused on Dr. Tom Horton and his steadfast wife Alice. The show later branched out to focus more on their five children. The Edge of Night featured as its central character Mike Karr, a police detective (later an attorney), and largely dealt with organized crime. The Young and the Restless first focused on two families,

19019-403: Was here that he met producer and director Julia Smith , and started a long and successful working relationship with her. Holland and Smith became an established producer/script-editor team during their time on Z-Cars and went on to work for the BBC's hospital drama, Angels . It was during their time on Angels that the format of the programme was changed from weekly 50 minute-long episodes to

19162-461: Was impossible. Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post-production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets. The first daytime TV soap opera in the United States was These Are My Children in 1949, though earlier melodramas had aired in the evenings as once-a-week programs. Soap operas quickly became

19305-469: Was letting Nick know that she was thinking of him, and didn't mean anything by not telling him about her cancer treatment before hand, which this eventually ended up leading up to Nick getting back in contact with Dot two years later, when he had his own cancer in 2006. However, Santer explained: "There will always be a way back to Dot for Nick", a position supported by EastEnders writer James Payne, who stated: "[Dot] believes, I think, deep down, that he has

19448-406: Was not away from Walford for long. In 1991, he returned with a heroin addiction but Dot initially shunned him and ignored his pleas for help. It was only after discovering Charlie had died that Nick was her only family left and was determined to reform him. Discussing the storyline, Altman has said: "I found the heroin addiction quite exhausting actually, because I grew a really thick beard and my hair

19591-425: Was not intended to be solved, it was only there to tell the audience, from the outset, that Walford was a rough and tough place. The writers opposed this. They accused Holland of throwing away a great opportunity and suggested that a murder hunt would provide an array of dramatic possibilities that would captivate the audience. After deciding that all of the twenty-three original characters were incapable of committing

19734-645: Was possessed by the devil, and in 1998, Guiding Light featured a cloning storyline involving legacy character Reva Shayne . Modern U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera format. The duration and format of storylines and the visual grammar employed by U.S. daytime serials set them apart from soap operas in other countries and from evening soap operas. Stylistically, UK and Australian soap operas, which are usually produced for early evening timeslots, fall somewhere in between U.S. daytime and evening soap operas. Similar to U.S. daytime soap operas, UK and Australian serials are shot on videotape, and

19877-548: Was reported that Nick would return to EastEnders on Christmas Day that year after more than seven years away. Executive producer Diederick Santer spoke of his excitement at Nick's return, hailing the character as an " EastEnders legend" and "one of the show's best-remembered and best-loved villains". Altman stated: "After an absence of seven years, I am thrilled to return to Albert Square . The BBC have always given me great storylines as Nick Cotton and I look forward to seeing if Nick will once again spread fear and loathing throughout

20020-487: Was responsible for Reg Cox's death in 1985. Dot decides not to call an ambulance and instead lets fate decide if Nick should survive. Dot accepts that she is to blame for Nick becoming a monster as she saw what he was turning into but turned a blind eye to it in the vain hope he'd change. In his final moments, Nick sincerely apologises for everything he put Dot through and asks for forgiveness. Dot refuses and tells him to ask Jesus instead, seconds before Nick dies in her arms, in

20163-426: Was the twenty-fourth character invented by the creators of EastEnders , Tony Holland and Julia Smith . Nick was not part of Holland's and Smith's original vision for EastEnders , and his creation came about as an afterthought. The first episode of the series was to include the death of an elderly resident, Reg Cox , who had been brutally attacked in his home, and left to die. During the first writers' meeting, where

20306-484: Was voted the 25th "Greatest Soap Moment" in a Five poll in 2004, and he has also been voted the 4th most villainous television character in a Channel 4 poll. The Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker has denied Nick's villainous characterisation, however, writing: "The man simply isn't menacing; he's half as terrifying as an Argos catalogue. Whereas [ Coronation Street villain] Jez Quigley ( Lee Boardman ) looked as though he'd enjoy riding an onyx stallion through

20449-425: Was written to coincide with the 30th anniversary of EastEnders . Nick's primary function was as an antagonist, a drug-user and a murderer. He was notably responsible for the death of Reg Cox (Johnnie Clayton), who was discovered unconscious in the first scene of the programme in 1985, and revealed in the following episode to have died. Nick's death was partly scripted as a reenactment of Reg's death, as Nick died in

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