The following are characters who first appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders during 2012 listed by order of first appearance. New characters were introduced by Bryan Kirkwood, executive producer. He stepped down from the role in April. His last episode was on 13 July 2012. From 16 July, characters were introduced by his successor, Lorraine Newman.
The first character to be introduced was the undertaker, Les Coker (Roger Sloman). The first regular character to be announced was Ray Dixon (Chucky Venn), the biological father of Morgan Butcher (Devon Higgs), followed by Alice Branning (Jasmyn Banks), the daughter of Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) and, Alice's brother, Joey (David Witts). June 2012 also saw the first birth of the year: Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) and Michael Moon's (Steve John Shepherd) daughter, Scarlett. July saw the arrival of Masood Ahmed's (Nitin Ganatra) brother, AJ Ahmed (Phaldut Sharma). July also saw the second birth of the year: Lola Pearce's (Danielle Harold) daughter Lexi, Newman's first introduction. After the announcement that Sharon Rickman (Letitia Dean) was returning, her son Dennis Rickman Jnr (Harry Hickles), was introduced, along with guest character, Sharon's fiancé John Hewland (Jesse Birdsall). Danny Pennant (Gary Lucy) arrived in September, as part of a love triangle storyline involving Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) and Christian Clarke (John Partridge). Ava Hartman (Clare Perkins), the long-lost daughter of Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell) was introduced in November and Kirsty Branning (Kierston Wareing), Max's (Jake Wood) secret wife, made her first appearance on Christmas Day. December also saw the arrival of Zainab Khan's (Nina Wadia) family friend, Ayesha Rana (Shivani Ghai).
Les Coker
Les Coker, played by Roger Sloman, first appeared on 9 January 2012. He subsequently appeared in five episodes in 2012, before returning for an episode in 2014. Les was reintroduced as a regular character in April 2014 and continued to appear until 14 October 2016 when the character was axed from the show.
Les first appears when he visits Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson) and David Wicks (Michael French) to arrange Pat Evans' (Pam St Clement) funeral. He tells them he used to know Pat when he was an apprentice, implying he was her client when she was a prostitute, and offers a discount on the funeral. He says that he arranged funerals for many of the other local residents, including David's father Pete Beale (Peter Dean), Pat's husband Roy Evans (Tony Caunter), Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin), Pat's former sister-in-law Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) and Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb). He returns to meet Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) to finalise arrangements for the funeral of her daughter Stacey Branning (Lacey Turner). Jean is distressed to hear that Stacey has died, but Mo Harris (Laila Morse) reveals she has just spoken to Stacey on the phone, meaning Stacey is alive. Les apologises profoundly before leaving. Les is seen by Sasha Dixon (Rebecca Sanneh) doing business with Anthony Moon (Matt Lapinskas) and it turns out that when someone dies, Les offers to empty their house and sells the goods to Anthony for his business. Sasha and her employer, Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell), then ask Les to offer every other house to them for the charity shop. He attends a wake for a former Walford resident at The Queen Victoria public house, where Kim Fox (Tameka Empson) pretends to know the deceased, and talks to Les, successfully gaining Sasha a work experience placement with Les's firm. He attends the wake of a man previously known by Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) and is annoyed when Cora turns up, as he has agreements with her and Anthony. Les later appears when Sasha starts her first day of work experience.