Ashley Cotton

Ashley Cotton
Frankie Fitzgerald as Ashley Cotton (2001)
EastEnders character
Portrayed by	Rossi Higgins (1993) Frankie Fitzgerald (2000–2001)
Duration	1993, 2000–2001
First appearance	Episode 886 29 July 1993
Last appearance	Episode 2123 14 June 2001
Introduced by	Leonard Lewis (1993) John Yorke (2000)
Spin-off appearances	The Return of Nick Cotton (2000)
Classification	Former; regular
Father Nick Cotton Mother Zoe Newton Half-brothers Charlie Cotton Half-sisters Dotty Cotton Grandmothers Dot Branning Uncles Eddie Newton

Ashley Cotton is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, the son of Zoe and Nick Cotton (John Altman) and the grandson of Charlie (Christopher Hancock) and Dot Cotton (June Brown), played by Rossi Higgins in 1993 and then by Frankie Fitzgerald in 2000.

Ashley first appears in Walford along with his mother Zoe Cotton (Elizabeth Chadwick) in 1993, at the age of nine. He meets and becomes close to his grandmother, Dot Cotton (June Brown), who later leaves the square with him, Zoe and Nick to live in Gravesend. Dot leaves Gravesend and returns to the square in 1997 without Ashley or his parents and reveals that Ashley and Zoe have moved away to get away from Nick.

Ashley returns to the square briefly in July 2000 to visit Dot for a few days. It is obvious he has taken after his father when he gets up to mischief. Nick is later released from prison and reunites with Ashley and Zoe in the special spin-off episode titled "The Return of Nick Cotton" which aired on 1 October 2000. Ashley wants to come with Nick despite Zoe's reluctance so he and Nick gets into a car and decides to travel before returning to Walford. When they return to Walford and settle in with Dot, Ashley is under the influence of his villainous father Nick and starts taking drugs and gets involved in robberies with Nick. After a series of arguments with both sides of his family, he drifts between each of his parents until a fateful summer evening in June 2001. He steals Mark Fowler's (Todd Carty) motorbike after an argument in The Queen Victoria, unaware that his father has cut the bike's brakes in hope of killing Mark. Nick, Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) and Dot shouts at Ashley to stop but he couldn't stop the bike until he comes face-to-face with a pedestrian. Ashley swerves to avoid the pedestrian and brakes sharply, but the motorbike flips over a pavement and Ashley crashes into the laundrette. 17-year-old Ashley dies instantly and Nick is riddled with guilt. Dot later overhears an argument between Mark Fowler and Nick, discovering that Nick is responsible for Ashley's death. After Ashley's funeral, Dot confronts Nick and throws him out of the house.