On 12 March 2016, it was announced that Patel would be leaving the show, with Tamwar making his final appearance alongside Nancy Carter (Maddy Hill) on 22 April 2016.

They are delighted when he achieves five A's during his AS Level exams, with Zainab boasting that Tamwar will be attempting to get a place at either Cambridge or Oxford University.

This evolves into a fast food market stall, which Tamwar helps run with his friend Waseem (Richard Charles).

When his brother Syed's (Marc Elliott) fiancée Amira Shah (Preeya Kalidas) forces Tamwar to do so, he confesses to his family that he cannot go to university.

He then sets up his own website, Rude Masood, where he impersonates Walford's residents Dot Branning (June Brown), Peggy Mitchell (Barabra Windsor), Pat Evans (Pam St Clement) and Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker).

Tamwar starts to grow tired of being single, especially as his best friend Darren Miller (Charlie G. Hawkins) is in a relationship with Jodie Gold (Kylie Babbington).

Tamwar returns and hears that Afia is in the bed and breakfast where a fire has broken out, so he enters to save her, but she is not inside.

Afia returns and Yusef is killed, while Tamwar exits with full-thickness burns to his back and in need of a skin graft.

While Tamwar recovers in hospital, he refuses to see Afia, whom he blames for lying to him and he continues to ignore her when he arrives home, but she reminds him that she is still his wife.

Tamwar's sister Shabnam (Rakhee Thakrar) returns to Walford and Masood learns that his mother has died, causing him to start drinking heavily.

Tamwar's new boss, Aleks Shirovs (Kristian Kiehling), arrives at his house and accuses him of stealing money from the workplace, when it was actually Masood.

A few months later, his former brother-in-law, Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) calls Tamwar after Nancy suffers a seizure in his bed.

Panned by critics and viewers, the Ferreiras were dismissed as unrealistic by the Asian community in the UK, and were eventually axed in 2005.

[2][3] The introduction of more ethnic minority characters is part of producer Diederick Santer's plan to "diversify", to make EastEnders "feel more 21st century".

[4] Prior to 2007, EastEnders was heavily criticised by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), for not representing the East End's real "ethnic make-up".

The industry has a key part to play in this, it is a powerful tool and can go a long way towards helping to build an integrated society.

Sometimes I only get the scripts a couple of days before filming, so it can be a bit stressful learning the lines but I'm managing so far … The whole EastEnders 'family' has been very helpful, and I was made to feel at home from the moment I arrived.

[9] Reports in 2007 claimed that Tamwar was to struggle with his sexual identity and be the first homosexual Muslim character featured on a British soap opera.

Hopefully, the many people that have found Tamwar's special website will derive big enjoyment from Himesh Patel's extraordinary work.

Whatever awaits me, I'll miss my family at EastEnders immensely - they've watched me grow from boy to man and supported me every step of the way.

The series was written by Richard Lazarus, and also features Ricky Norwood (Fatboy), Tameka Empson (Kim Fox), Nitin Ganatra (Masood Ahmed) and Jean Slater (Gillian Wright).

In episode 3 of series 2, Tamwar delivers a curry to Stevie Dickinson (Amanda Fairbank-Hynes) but finds her waiting in bed as she was expecting Masood who she had an erotic dream about.

In episode 5, Naz Mehmet (Emaa Hussen) flirts with Tamwar to get free food, and though he is reluctant, he agrees when she says one day he can touch her breasts.

[21] In 2008, it was reported that Cambridge University wanted to shed its "elitist" image and approached the producers of Britain's three leading soaps, EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, to include it in their storylines.

[22] Spokesman Greg Hayman said the idea was part of a bid to correct the perception that Cambridge was "not for young people from ordinary backgrounds.

Hayman said there have been no firm commitments from TV producers, although one crew was planning an exploratory visit to Cambridge; however he expressed that he was happy with the plot running in EastEnders that showed "working-class teenagers Tamwar Masood and Libby Fox considering applying to Cambridge and Oxford, to the delight of their ambitious mothers", saying that "It's a very happy coincidence.

"[22] Oxford University said it had no plans to write to the soaps for inclusion but a spokesperson claims, "I did speak to somebody at EastEnders about our bursary scheme in case the story line was going to continue.

EastEnders refused to comment on whether the universities would be featured at the time, as Tamwar and Libby still had another year left at college "and it was too early to say whether the Oxford-Cambridge plot would continue.

The paper alleges that both universities' press offices "fired off letters to the script editors: did they know about the generous bursaries and seemingly bottomless pit of cash available to help students from low-income homes stay on their courses?

Heritage opined that Tamwar's departure would be a "great loss" and said, "he's always been a character out of step with the rest of the show", adding "the overwhelming memory of Tamwar will be him simply existing; walking around Albert Square in an anorak, not really doing anything, underplaying every line in a way that suggests he's an overlay from a parallel, less histrionic version of EastEnders.