George Peters (East Enders) - Jack Dalton

Jack Dalton was a gangster and head of the criminal organisation known as The Firm.

He first appeared in the show in May 2003, although the events surrounding the apparent death of the character Den Watts (who was supposedly murdered in February 1989) were then retconned to include him.

Dalton was a fearsome gangland boss, and as head of The Firm, he was responsible for ordering Den's death 14 years earlier.

In the late 1980s, Den had become 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 Wilmott-Brown, who went on to rape Kathy Beale, the wife of Den's best friend. 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 grassed them up to the police.

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, who remanded him 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 May 1990, 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.

As Den was not seen falling into the water (the viewers only heard a shot and a splash) the series was able to resurrect him 14 years later.

In 2003, it was revealed that Den had indeed been shot, but the shot had only wounded him and was able to escape to Spain (aided by his mistress Jan Hammond) where he forged a new life. He finally returned to Walford on 29 September that year.

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) - implying a power struggle for control of "The Firm" at this time. 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.

By the 1990s, many of Jack's loyal gangland allies had turned against him. Jack had just got too big for his own good. He responded drastically to attempts on his life - none of his former associates were ever seen again. (Source: BBC Character Profile)

By 2003, Jack was now operating from his nightclub; The Imperial Room. During his brief spell on screen, he showed a Machiavellian and ruthless streak: he had Spencer Moon beaten up (although it was Alfie who took the beating, pretending to be his brother) for using forged currency in his club and then ordered the murder of Kate Morton after he discovered that she was a police officer working undercover at his nightclub, but Phil Mitchell was able to persuade him to call off the hit but Dalton told Phil that he now owed him a favour.

Dalton later ordered Phil to kill Dennis Rickman, one of his most loyal employees, when he began blackmailing him for money. Unbeknownst to Dalton at the time, Dennis was Den Watts' illegitimate son.

Unfortunately for Dalton, Dennis managed to convince Phil that he would murder Dalton himself so the two of them would be free of him.

Armed with a gun, Dennis forced Dalton to drive into the woods and to the edge of a railway track where he duly murdered him as a train roared past and drowned out the gunshot sound. Before dying, Jack revealed the truth about Den Watts; that he was in fact alive. He begged Dennis that this "had to make a difference" in the hope that he would not shoot him, but Dennis went ahead and pulled the trigger.

Dalton would appear to be somewhat nihilistic. When Dennis told Dalton that he wanted a new life away from a life of crime, Dalton responded "There isn't any new life! Just the old humdrum life bobbing along, making a living, getting old, waiting to die." nonchalantly, echoing Dot Branning's words when she was depressed.