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List of EastEnders characters introduced in 2009

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ6569682
Source-derived summary

EastEnders is a long-running BBC soap opera from the United Kingdom. This is a list of characters who first appeared on the programme during 2009, listed in order of their first appearance. They were all introduced by the show's executive producer, Diederick Santer.

Debra Dean

Debra Dean, played by actress Ruth Gemmell, first appears on 5 January 2009. She is the mother of established character Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), who she left along with Whitney's father, Nathan Dean, when Whitney was very young. Debra kept in touch with Nathan and his partner Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) so Nathan and Bianca could keep her informed about Whitney. Debra is known to have worn a crucifix, which she gave to Whitney before she left. She also gave Whitney a porcelain doll that was broken by Whitney's sister, Tiffany Dean (Maisie Smith).

Debra is first mentioned in late December 2008 when Whitney decides to get in touch, only to discover Debra has not received the letter as Bianca gave her the wrong address. She claims not to have the right address when Whitney asks for it, wanting to protect her, but Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) discovers Bianca is lying and steals it from Bianca's address book, and gives it to Whitney.

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The public source identifies “List of EastEnders characters introduced in 2009” as wikimedia list article. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around List, EastEnders and characters.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009, 2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with List, EastEnders and characters providing the first useful test.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6569682. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009 and 2008.

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This entry incorporates text from List of EastEnders characters introduced in 2009” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.