Debbie "Debs" Wilkins is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shirley Cheriton, from 21 March 1985 to 14 May 1987.

She has an on/off relationship with her ill-fated boyfriend Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson) and she tends to be a bit too pretentious for the working class locals of Albert Square.

Debbie Wilkins was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith.

The character of Debbie along with her boyfriend Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson) were an attempt by Holland and Smith to represent the influx of upwardly mobile people that were opting to move to the usually working-class areas of the East End of London.

Gentrification of the East End was on the increase in the 1980s, and in Holland's experience, the new, wealthier residents were never welcomed or truly accepted within the community, and this was what he hoped to convey on-screen with these two characters.

[1] Debbie's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story.

During this time, rumours began to circulate in the British press that Ross Davidson (Andy) was axed because Julia Smith disapproved of the off-screen relationship he was having with Shirley Cheriton.

When Debbie leaves a steady job as a bank clerk in order to start her own business and make fast money, Andy is furious as they then have insufficient funds to repay their mortgage.

Debbie's last words to her friends and neighbours are a paraphrasing of Rhett Butler's famous line in the 1939 film Gone With The Wind, when she says "You know love, quite frankly I don't give a damn"!