revealed he had played similar roles to Derek before, but said playing a "hardman" in EastEnders meant he could not leave his character behind when he finished work. Foreman said: "When you do a show like this you want to hit the floor running and make him warm and make the audience take to him as quickly as possible, so you keep him a little bit more close to yourself. Not necessarily all the nasty things he does, but all his mannerisms and they way he moves and things." During an interview, Foreman said his character is so nasty and horrible that he "makes him cringe." Foreman also revealed that Derek does not think of himself as bad, saying "I try to explain this to everybody, he thinks he's the good guy, it's everybody else who thinks he's bad." Foreman added Derek would bring plenty of trouble to Albert Square. Foreman confirmed that viewers could expect "danger" and "destruction" from his character as his time progresses on the show. Foreman explained that Derek Branning is going to be the type of character that's going to really set things alight in the Square. Foreman said that when he was asked to play the part, they told him that he was dangerous, destructive and sexy. He commented: "Well, I haven't seen much of the sexy, but I've seen lots of the dangerous and lots of the destructive! So I think you're going to enjoy him. I think he's one of those characters you're going to love to hate. You never know what he's going to do next. And I'm just waiting for little old ladies to come and beat me with their handbags!" Foreman said he is "delighted" by viewers' reaction to his character. Foreman also added that member of the public approach him in the street to "comment on Derek's antics". Speaking to The One Show, Foreman said that he gets some wonderful reactions and that he gets told every day that he's nasty and horrible and just wants to walk around saying, 'Thank you, thank you'! But they say it with a smile on their faces, and he thinks they're enjoying the character, so he's doing his job. Storyline development Scott Maslen teased of an upcoming storyline where Derek hires a hitman to terrorise Roxy, who is the mother of Jack's daughter. Speaking to Inside Soap, Maslen said that Jack