List of East Enders Characters (1996) - Jim Branning

Jim Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by John Bardon. First appearing on 29 April 1996 and becoming a regular character in 1999, he remains in the series right until 2011. Jim was written out of the show in August 2007 due to Bardon suffering a stroke. A storyline was created where Jim also suffers a stroke. It was reported on 10 March 2008 that Bardon would be returning to the role of Jim in summer 2008. Bardon returned to film four episodes in the latter half of 2008. He returned permanently from the episode broadcast on 20 August 2009. On 1 April 2011 it was reported by the Daily Mirror that Bardon had filmed his final scenes and had left. He departed on 26 May 2011. On the behest of producer John Yorke in 2000, Jim was paired romantically with pensioner Dot Cotton, played by June Brown; a slow courtship is featured, with Dot often shown to be outraged by Jim's advances, resulting in numerous rejections. Dot finally succumbs and accepts his marriage proposal in an episode that first aired in November 2001; the scenes were filmed inside one of the carriages of the London Eye on the South Bank of the River Thames. Their wedding first aired on 14 February 2002, Valentine's Day. The Guardian critic, Nancy Banks-Smith, described the wedding as "uniquely uneventful For Dot and Jim 'In sickness and health... till death do us part' seemed to carry more resonance than for most."