The Firm (EastEnders)

The Firm is a fictional gangland organisation in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

The Firm, aka "Walford Investments", is first introduced to the show in 1986, and is represented by the sharp-suited Gregory Mantel (Pavel Douglas), the lackeys Brad Williams (Jonathan Stratt) and Joanne Francis (Pamela Salem), and the elusive boss Mr Vinnicombe.

The Firm owns Strokes wine bar, a front for illegal gambling, which is reluctantly managed by Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). It is thought by Mantel that Den, a well-known local publican, will not attract any suspicion to the illegal goings-on at the bar. The Firm is also responsible for a protection racket involving the bar's rival, The Dagmar, which they financially ruin when the bar's owner James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde) refuses to let them buy into the place. When Den wants revenge on Willmot-Brown for raping Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), he persuades The Firm's Brad Williams to burn the place to the ground. This enrages The Firm's bosses, as it draws attention to the illegal gambling going on at Strokes.

Den is forced to take the blame for the fire at The Dagmar, and is remanded in custody, awaiting trial. The Firm mistakenly believe that Den has informed on them to the police while in prison, and so want him out of the way permanently. They capture him on the way to his trial with the intention of killing him. Den, with Brad's help, manages to escape, but is tracked down to the canal by Mantel. A Firm hitman shoots Den with a gun hidden in a bunch of daffodils, and he is believed to be dead but in fact escapes to Spain.

The Firm later discover this, and Vinnicombe is killed and his body is dumped in the canal to look like Den's (his teeth were bricked out to prevent identification). Vinnicombe's body is later recovered and, owing to some lazy police work (and false evidence planted by The Firm in order to save face), buried as Den's.

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Wikipedia