but Nigel remains reticent believing he is tarnishing Debbie's honour. He almost loses Julie after she announces she is moving to Scotland, but on the night of her departure, Nigel sees sense and pledges his love for Julie and in April 1998, he and Clare leave Walford for Scotland to be with Julie and her son, Josh Saunders (Jon Lee). Dot occasionally visits Nigel off-screen. Clare returns to Walford in February 2008 to stay with Dot. Nigel is meant to visit her in July 2008, but does not arrive. This upsets Clare and she confides in Bradley Branning (Charlie Clements) that her and Nigel's relationship had become strained in her time away from Walford. According to Clare, Nigel had transferred his affections to Julie's son Josh as he struggled to cope with Clare's teenage dalliances. In October 2009, Pat reveals that Nigel had suffered a heart attack and Dot goes to visit him. Creation and development Nigel was one of several introductions occurring in 1992. Executive producer Leonard Lewis took a tentative approach to introducing new characters in 1992. Most were introduced gradually, making an initial appearance and then joining the programme full-time a couple of months later. This allowed the producers and writers to create new characters and see them brought to life by the actors before committing them to a longer contract. Characters introduced in this way included Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton), Christine Hewitt (Lizzie Power) and Nigel Bates, played by Paul Bradley. Nigel first appears in March 1992 as a friend of established characters Grant (Ross Kemp) and Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), when he comes to Walford and buys Frank Butcher's (Mike Reid) Mercedes. After a successful first appearance, Nigel moves to the soap's setting permanently later in the year following the death of his mother and became the lodger of Dot Cotton (June Brown). Paul Bradley has discussed his casting in Larry Jaffee's book, Albert Square & Me: The Actors of Eastenders, conducted in 1994: "I was only supposed to do three episodes and I think they just liked the character. Nigel is kind of light and funny and arrived just after Gill [Fowler] (Susanna Dawson) had died of AIDS and the show was accused of being a bit gloomy. I came back for one more episode and then I've been back ever since." Bradley has described Nigel as "harmless and amiable ... I suppose he's