book in 1994 that the true parentage of Simon was still uncertain in the minds of the producers. He stated, "At various times over the years the story has been amended, until the only certainty is that we will never be certain about the actual facts." He added that, at the time of writing the book for EastEnders' 10th anniversary in 1994, "the current producers believe that Pete was the father of [Simon's older brother] David and may have been the father of Simon." The character of Pete lasted in the show for eight years, and was eventually written out in 1993 when the writers felt that the character had come to a natural end. There was initially talk of Pete getting back together with his ex-wife Kathy, but it was felt that it would have been a retrogressive step, and it was dismissed. The character was killed off-screen in December 1993 and brought back to Walford to be buried. The press reported at the time that Pete was killed off because he spoke negatively about EastEnders in the press following his axing. There was also speculation that he had not got along with Gillian Taylforth, who played his ex-wife Kathy. Dean commented, "When they wrote me out of EastEnders, they said they had run out of storylines. I was a naughty boy and said if the wheel falls off the cart, get rid of the cart. But they got rid of me, not the scriptwriters [...] What gets me is the way it was done. It's all politics and backstabbing." Reception Despite lasting in the serial for eight years, during his tenure in EastEnders, producers appeared to differ in their opinions of Pete's importance in the programme; some referenced the character's value, while others deemed him disposable and there were several attempts to cull the character. It was revealed in 1987 that Pete was originally only intended to be a short-term character. Show creator and series producer Julia Smith had considered killing him off in 1986, but she vetoed this idea, ultimately deciding that Pete was too much of an asset to lose. When producer Mike Gibbon took the helm as head of the serial in 1989, he employed writer David Yallop to pen storylines that controversially killed off various characters in the show. According to Yallop, the decision to axe the characters was dependent of the talent of