Rocky’s going to find himself in a spot of bother (Picture: BBC)
Rocky Cotton (Brian Conley) is about to leave EastEnders in the near future, and as the character gets ever more desperate for cash, it looks like his exit will be linked to his money woes.
It was reported in September that Brian had been talking to co-stars and friends about leaving the soap, a decision which was said to have come as a surprise to the show’s bosses. This raised speculation about how much his sudden departure would impact the hotly anticipated Christmas murder episode.
There’s been a lot of speculation about how he’ll be written out, but it’s looking increasingly likely that his exit storyline will revolve around his money troubles.
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Currently Rocky is in a large amount of debt. When he married Kathy (Gillian Taylforth) they had to fork out £50,000 to his first wife Jo (Vicki Michelle) to keep her quiet. Jo and Rocky were still legally married, so the cash was to buy her silence over the fact that Rocky and Kathy’s marriage is bigamous.
Rocky’s way out of this financial pickle is to try to win the money through gambling, a strategy that Brian Conley told us isn’t exactly a winner for Rocky.
Will Rocky open up to Kathy? (Picture: BBC)
‘He doesn’t know where he’s going to find this money and he thinks his only way out is gambling which is obviously a fools game,’ the actor told us. ‘He thinks if he can possibly win some money he can repay it slowly. Of course as we all know, that is a downward spiral, you’re never going to win at the bookies. One of his quotes is “the only people that ever win at the bookies are the bookies.” I wish he would listen to himself sometimes.’
The other big problem for Rocky is that he’s been keeping the true extent of the financial mess he’s in a secret from Kathy. This means that when Kathy starts talking about buying somewhere to live with Rocky, he can’t tell her why he’s not keen on the idea.
‘Rocky does have a problem where he tends to dig himself a big hole and you think he might as well sit round a dinner table and have a cup of tea with Kathy and just tell her the truth,’ Brian reflected.
Rocky faces problem after problem (Picture: BBC)
‘But in true Rocky fashion he’s trying to keep this from her because he wants to be the provider, and he wants to help Kathy because he loves her so much. They realise this isn’t going to work living with Reiss (Jonny Freeman) and Sonia (Natalie Cassidy) and they need their own place but in the back of his mind he doesn’t want to leave because he knows he genuinely can’t afford it.’
With Rocky unwilling to come clean to Kathy about what’s going on, he has to resort to increasingly desperate measures to get his hands on some money – which inevitably means going back to the bookies.
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Brian told us that things rapidly get out of control for his character.
‘[Gambling]’s always been social thing for him, but he sees this as his only way out now,’ he said.
‘He’s making that terrible mistake where he thinks he can take on the bookies. He becomes more and more desperate, and he keeps on putting in more money to try and win back the money he’s lost. It’s one big downward spiral for him.’
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Rocky’s getting desperate.