Rudolph Walker

I was, like, 12, and I just wanted to act, and there was a bunch of kids from, from ends, like, just going to classes and learning monologues.

And, and the biggest thing for us was meeting, like, Rudolph Walker, he plays Patrick on EastEnders, and being like-

Wow

... "Whoa." Like, he came just to us.

He was appointed OBE in 2006 and CBE in 2020 for services to drama and charity.

The latter recognising the Rudolph Walker Foundation, which he founded in 2009 to help disadvantaged young people build careers in the industry that took him a lifetime to break into.

From a sitcom that laughed at its community to a soap that has now outlasted every co-star, Rudolph Walker's career is proof that British television would not be the same without our black breakthrough figures.

The terrible representation of black people on screen in the 70s is why the creation of Empire Road was such a significant moment of history in black British television.

was the first authentic attempt at a long-running drama addressing Britain's growing multicultural society.