The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders in 2003, by order of first appearance.
Dominic Price
Detective Inspector Dominic Price, played by Paul Brennen, is first seen in March 2003, while his colleague, PC Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) is undercover as a honeytrap on Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), investigating the disappearance of Lisa Fowler (Lucy Benjamin), mother of Phil's daughter Louise Mitchell (Rachel Cox).
He mainly helps Kate with initial searches of the Mitchell house, constantly reminding her that "the boss" wants to nail Phil. He later starts to suspect that Kate is developing feelings for Phil, and reminds her that Phil could be a murderer. Kate gives Phil an ultimatum: to tell the truth about Lisa's whereabouts or she will finish with him. After Phil calls her bluff and finishes with her, Price takes Kate off the case, however, after Phil phones her and says he will tell her everything, she is congratulated by "the boss" – DCI Jill Marsden (Sophie Stanton) – who has wanted to convict Phil since 2001.
Kate goes to the Mitchell's house wearing a wire, and hears Phil's confession that he had mentally abused Lisa into handing over Louise, leaving her in Portugal. After this, Kate takes off her wire, telling Price and Marsden that she has fallen in love with Phil. They stick around outside, hoping that Kate has changed tactic and is still on their side, but they cannot hear what is happening as the wire has broken, so Marsden calls Kate's mobile phone, which leads to Phil discovering the wire. After a heated argument, Price and Marsden storm into the house to find Phil with his hand around Kate's throat. She refuses to press charges so they cannot arrest him, and they have to leave, deflated.
Price appears again in May 2003 when Kate returns to work and is asked to choose between her job and Phil. She chooses to resign, and asks Price for one last favour as a leaving present: to get George Peters (Andy Beckwith) arrested for dealing cocaine. George is a heavy employed by Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett), who had been sent to rape Kate.
Price and Marsden later appear in November 2003, when Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) and his son Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) set Phil up for armed robbery; this time they are successful in convicting him, keeping him in custody until his case collapses in 2005. In late 2004, an off-duty Price visits Kate, now running a salon, and she tells him she is bored of her career. He finds her another job in the police, based in Brighton, which causes her to leave Walford the next day.
Dennis Rickman
Dennis Rickman, played by Nigel Harman, is introduced as the hardman successor to the character of Steve Owen (Martin Kemp), who was killed off in the series in 2002. Dennis makes his first appearance on 14 April 2003. His storylines involve his difficult past and childhood, relationship with his infamous father, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), clashes with the rival Mitchell family, and a forbidden romance with his adopted sister, Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean). He is described as the show's "bad boy pin-up character." In 2005, Harman quit the show alongside co-star Dean, and makes his last appearance on 30 December 2005.
Mickey Miller
Mickey Miller, played by Joe Swash, makes his first appearance on 15 April 2003. Introduced as a guest character, Mickey proved popular and was turned into a regular by executive producer Louise Berridge. The character is portrayed as a wheeler-dealer, involved in various money-making scams. A family is built around the character in 2004 when the other Millers move to Albert Square. It was announced on 25 February 2008 that the characters of Mickey and his stepfather Keith (David Spinx) had been axed by EastEnders' executive producer Diederick Santer. Mickey leaves on 1 July 2008. In July 2011, it was announced Swash would reprise his role for the departure storyline of his screen brother Darren (Charlie G. Hawkins). He appears for two episodes on 19 and 20 September 2011. In 2024 Mickey Returned To Albert Square For a Storyline Involving Mo Harris.
Shirley Benson
Shirley Benson is played by Robyn Moore. The character was axed in 2004.
Shirley is initially seen in Albert Square in May 2003. A divorcée, she has three sons, now grown up; two are in the army and the other lives in New Zealand. She works at the Walford Bookies and lives with her cat, Boots, at 89a George Street. Shirley asks if Vicki Fowler (Scarlett Alice Johnson) is old enough to gamble and her half-brother Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) vouches for her. However, several weeks later, Vicki and Dennis' half-sister Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) reveals that Vicki is underage and threatens to report Shirley, much to her shock.
Dan Ferreira (Dalip Tahil) needs a date for an upcoming wedding, so he asks Shirley and she agrees. Dan tells Shirley that his wife, Pushpa (Madhur Jaffrey), is dead, when they have only separated, following Pushpa's infidelity. At the wedding, everyone is enjoying the day until Pushpa introduces herself to Shirley. She is mortified to discover Dan's lies, telling him that her ex-husband was a liar and she is not prepared to put up with lying again. She also tells Dan that she wants nothing more to do with him.
In August that year, Shirley has problems with her new neighbour, Gavin Sharp (Steve Nicolson). He lives in the flat above hers and plays extremely loud music at all hours, meaning Shirley cannot sleep. She tries reasoning with him several times but he laughs at her, only playing his music louder, so she complains to the council. Maddened, Gavin threatens to make her life a misery as payback. Days later, Shirley's cat disappears and Shirley fears that Gavin is responsible. Whilst Dan confronts Gavin about Boots, Little Mo (Kacey Ainsworth) walks into The Queen Victoria pub, cuddling Boots. Shirley rewards her with money but later that day, Shirley finds Boots on her doorstep – dead in a plastic bin bag. Shirley turns to the Ferreiras for help, and Dan confronts Gavin again. Gavin denies killing Boots and says that he found her lying dead in the road and left her on Shirley's doorstep so she could bury her. Shirley, however, is not convinced. Gavin's taunting continues when he puts her telephone number on a card, advertising her as a prostitute, and distributes it across Walford. Later, while she is at work, Gavin breaks into her flat and tips rotten rubbish all over the floor. Shirley is distraught, and seeing her angst, Ash Ferreira (Raji James), decides to help. He plays Gavin at his own game, borrowing his brother's amplifier and speakers and playing dance music extremely loudly. He then breaks into Gavin's flat and lets a rat loose. Gavin is petrified of rats and when he discovers it, he agrees to call a truce if they remove it.
The saga brings Ash and Shirley closer together and it is not long before they start a relationship. Ash wants to keep it a secret because he knows his father will be furious if he finds out. Shirley begins to get irritated with Ash's inability to tell Dan, particularly when Dan tries to woo Shirley for a second time. Ash explains that he had been a compulsive gambler, and Dan had bailed him out of serious financial difficulties after he lost his house and his wife. He owes his father everything and is unwilling to hurt him. However, when Dan tries kissing Shirley she told him that she is with his son, Ash. This revelation causes huge rows at the Ferreiras' and although Ash loves Shirley, he feels he has no choice but to finish with her to keep the peace.
In February 2004, Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs) takes over the bookies where Shirley works. Shirley does not like the way Andy runs things and after she complains repeatedly about his conduct, Andy fires her. Shirley demonstrates about her unfair dismissal with a placard outside the bookies. Eventually Andy offers her a large sum of money to leave. Shirley is thrilled with the pay-off and decides to go to New Zealand to visit her son.
Jack Dalton
Jack Dalton, played by Hywel Bennett, is a gangland boss and the leader of the criminal organisation known as "The Firm". He first appears in EastEnders in May 2003, although the events surrounding the apparent death of the character Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), who was supposedly murdered in February 1989 were then retconned to include him. Dalton was a fearsome and legendary kingpin of the Walford criminal underworld. In addition to this and his status as head of The Firm, Dalton was responsible for ordering Den's death 14 years earlier.
In the late 1980s, Den became involved with "Walford Investments", aka The Firm, and was forced to become the titular manager of Strokes wine bar (formerly Henry's), which was owned by The Firm and was really a front for illegal gambling. Strokes had a rival bar in the form of The Dagmar, fronted by James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde), who went on to rape his employee Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) – the wife of Den's best friend Pete (Peter Dean). In response to this, Den used his connections with The Firm to arrange for The Dagmar to be torched. The fire drew attention to the illegal goings-on at Strokes, and thus greatly angered The Firm. Den refused to take the blame and The Firm believed that he had informed the police about them.
Consequently, Dalton decided to have Den murdered, and two of their members followed him to Manchester in September 1988 when he went there to seek refuge with a friend. However, he managed to outrun them in his friend's car and handed himself into the police; Den was then held under remand in custody on an arson charge until he appeared in court the following February.
In one of the series' most famous exits, Den – who just hours earlier had escaped after members of The Firm had intercepted the taxi taking him to court – was shot as he walked by the canal by a member of The Firm, who was walking with a woman and had a gun hidden in a bunch of daffodils. Three weeks later, spots of blood were found on the canal towpath and the police identified this as Den's blood, and believed that he had been murdered. However, an initial search of the canal failed to uncover his body.
In April 1990, Billy (Danny Brown), a local boy was fishing in the canal when he discovered Den's distinctive signet ring, prompting another search of the canal, which this time uncovered a body which was identified as Den's.
In 2003, it is revealed that Den had indeed been shot, but the shot had only wounded him. Aided by his mistress Jan Hammond (Jane How), he was able to escape to Spain where he forged a new life. Den finally returns to Walford on 29 September 2003. The body which had been found, wrongly-identified and buried had actually been the body of the unseen Mr. Vinnicombe, who was said to have been Dalton's predecessor as head of the Firm during the 1980s.
Dalton had been displeased with Vinnicombe's failure to murder Den, and so ordered a member of The Firm to kill him and dump his body in the canal at the location where Den had been shot – his teeth were then bricked out to prevent dental identification; this implied a power struggle for control of "The Firm" at the time between Dalton and Vinnicombe. He also dumped Den's distinctive ring in the canal to further increase the likelihood of the body being identified as that of Den. Upon Vinnicombe's demise, Dalton was able to gain firm control of the organisation.