Paul Priestly is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Mark Thrippleton, from 20 April 1989 to 1 March 1990.

He finds work around the Square — the money is not great but there are benefits — for instance, Julie Cooper (Louise Plowright) discusses his building estimates while sharing a bed with him.

He arrives in Walford in April 1989 in search of a place to stay and soon begins lodging with the Butchers at The Queen Victoria public house.

[2] Paul has quite an impact on the ladies of Walford, particularly the school girl Diane Butcher (Sophie Lawrence), who is instantly attracted to him.

His fears are mistakenly realised when Paul takes Diane to a Deacon Blue concert and they are both assaulted on their way home by a gang of violent thugs.

Paul and Diane begin dating, although spending time alone together is almost impossible with Frank watching their every move, not to mention Mo Butcher (Edna Doré) — who takes to standing guard outside their bedrooms at night to stop any secret liaisons.

When Paul decides to take on some freelance work, he employs Trevor as a builder's aid, although he is more of a liability than a labourer and makes many disastrous mistakes.

Paul finds a fair bit of work around Walford, his first big job being the conversion of Julie Cooper's (Louise Plowright) salon.

Julie, who only saw their fling as a bit of fun, is not particularly bothered about the end of their affair, but refuses to pay him for his prior work unless he finishes the salon, so Paul is forced to continue.

Original production designer, Keith Harris, left the show, and co-creators, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, both decided that the time had come to move on too; their final contribution coinciding with the exit of one of EastEnders most successful characters, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham).

[4] The departure of two of the soap's most popular characters, Den and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), had left a massive void in the programme, which needed to be filled.

[4] In addition several other long running characters left the show that year including two original cast members, Sue and Ali Osman (Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih) and their family; Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler); Carmel Jackson (Judith Jacob) and her family and one of the show's more controversial characters, Colin Russell (Michael Cashman).

[4] Such characters included Paul Priestly, a northern heartbreaker, and his sidekick Trevor Short (Phil McDermott), "the nearest thing to a village idiot that Walford had seen in many years";[4] Julie Cooper (Louise Plowright), the man-mad hairdresser; Marge Green — a batty older lady played by veteran comedy actress Pat Coombs; wheeler-dealer Vince Johnson (Hepburn Graham) and Laurie Bates (Gary Powell), who became Pete Beale's (Peter Dean) sparring partner.

1989's changes were a brave experiment and while some found this period of EastEnders entertaining, many other viewers felt that the comedy stretched the programme's credibility somewhat.

[4] Although the programme still covered many issues in 1989, such as domestic violence, drugs, rape and racism, the new emphasis on a more balanced mix between "light and heavy storylines" gave the illusion that the show had lost a "certain edge".

[4] A new era began in 1990 with the introduction of the Mitchell brothers, Phil (Steve McFadden) and Grant (Ross Kemp), two hugely successful characters, who would go on to dominate the soap thereafter.

Several of the actors were upset to be leaving the programme so soon, but with the show's new direction there was no place for characters "whose prime function was to be comic relief".