There has been a lot of discussion in EastEnders recently about who ‘public enemy number one’ is on Albert Square, and Rocky Cotton (Brian Conley) seems to be creeping further up the list with each day that passes.
Rocky has been struggling financially ever since ex-wife Jo (Vicki Michelle) arrived and demanded a payment of £50,000 in exchange for her silence over his bigamy, and his gambling addiction has done nothing to help the matter.
After turning to loan shark Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry), Rocky’s problems increased tenfold as he realised he couldn’t afford the repayments, and with the interest racking up he was driven to desperate measures.
His plan was simple: Set fire to Kathy Beale’s (Gillian Taylforth) café and claim the money back on the insurance.
What he didn’t bargain for was Bobby Beale (Clay Milner Russell) getting trapped inside the building, and Peter Beale (Thomas Law) being seriously injured while trying to save his brother.
When Kathy was arrested for starting the fire, Rocky had no choice but to talk to the police, but he still didn’t come clean.
Instead of telling the truth, Rocky informed police that he had attempted to fix the electrics, which had unintentionally started the fire. Unfortunately for Rocky, this invalidated the insurance claim, meaning that he was worse off than when he started.
After weeks of being kept in the dark, wife Kathy was finally exposed to the truth, and it is safe to say that she hit the roof.
Heartbroken and betrayed, she ordered Rocky out of her life for good.
This left Rocky with nowhere to sleep, but fortunately for him Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy) wasn’t willing to see him sleeping rough.
At breakfast the next morning, she communicated through Reiss Colwell (Jonny Freeman) just how disgusted she was by Rocky’s antics, exclaiming that she didn’t want to eat breakfast with a ‘filthy arsonist’.
Having turned his family against him, will Rocky ever get back in favour, or was this one lie too many?
