He departed on 26 May 2011, and, although it was said the character may re-appear in the future if Bardon's health improved, this did not happen and the actor died on 12 September 2014, more than three years after leaving the series.

[2] Jim dated his first wife Reenie (Joy Graham), with her giving birth to their oldest child Derek (Terence Beesley; later Jamie Foreman) out of wedlock.

Jim was an amateur boxer using the nickname "Basher" Branning, but according to Kate Lock's book Who's Who, he had been a "semi-invalid" for much of his working life following a drunken fall from a bedroom window, though he managed to maintain a job collecting supermarket trolleys until he was forced to retire.

When Nikos jilts April at the altar, Jim's second daughter Carol (Lindsey Coulson) marries her boyfriend Alan Jackson (Howard Antony) instead.

Jim also has to fight off attention from several spinsters, including Maureen Carter (Diana Coupland) and Doris Moisey (Marcia Ashton), the latter nearly causing the Brannings' separation.

Despite being overtly racist initially, these hostile feelings mellow, as shown through his close friendship with the Trinidadian shopkeeper, Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker).

Jim works as a potman, collecting glasses in The Queen Victoria public house, and likes to drink and gamble, to Dot's dismay.

He is initially opposed to his granddaughter Sonia's (Natalie Cassidy) lesbian relationship with Naomi Julien (Petra Letang) but later gives his blessing.

In their old age, the Brannings struggle to look after the child, and Dot eventually listens to Jim's pleas and hands the baby over to social services.

He visits his family and friends in Walford several times, the first occasion being on his 75th birthday in August 2008 when his daughter Suzy (Maggie O'Neill) has come to stay.

In February 2010, Dot's granddaughter Dotty (Molly Conlin) attempts to get Jim sent back to the care home by pouring water on his lap to make it look like he has wet himself.

A few weeks later, when his grandson Billie Jackson (Devon Anderson) dies, Carol goes to visit Jim, who starts crying, and she breaks down in his arms.

In May 2011, she hires a carer, Marta Demboski (Magdalena Kurek), and asks her to help look after Jim when he returns, but sacks her when she think she has stolen money.

Dot finally succumbed and accepted his marriage proposal in an episode that aired in December 2001; the scenes were filmed inside one of the carriages of the London Eye on the South Bank of the River Thames.

The Guardian critic, Nancy Banks-Smith, described the wedding as "uniquely uneventful [...] For Dot and Jim 'In sickness and health... till death do us part' seemed to carry more resonance than for most.

On-screen, Dot had suffered the death of her grandson Ashley, and Brown felt that a traumatic event like that would have changed her character.

[11] It was reported in April 2011 that Bardon had filmed his exit from the series, and that the show's staff believed it marked the end of the character.

A source told the Daily Mirror: "Dot's been struggling for a while and realises that she can no longer give Jim the care and attention he deserves and is forced to make the heartbreaking decision that he should move into a home.

[13] In 2002, Bardon was nominated in the Best Comedy Performance category at The British Soap Awards,[14] and along with Brown, won Best On-Screen Partnership in 2002[15] and again in 2005.