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Reiss Colwell is the great-nephew of Dot Branning and widow of Debbie Colwell whom Reiss murdered. He made his first appearance on 12 December 2022. He is portrayed by Jonny Freeman.

Backstory[]

When Reiss was a child, he never fit in with other kids, and never had a girlfriend, but his mother always showered him with love. Reiss would often lock himself in the toilet. When on a French exchange trip, nobody knew the translation for the name Reiss, so Reiss' name tag read “John”, leading to him being called John the whole trip. At some point, Reiss met and married Debbie Colwell, Reiss and Debbie lived together, and planned on having kids, however Reiss found out he was infertile. One day, shortly after this, Reiss was watching TV while Debbie was having a bath. Debbie was taking longer than usual, so went up to check on her. The two always leave the bathroom door unlocked incase of an emergency, so Reiss was able to get in. When Reiss got in, he discovered Debbie had had a stroke in the bath. Debbie was taken to hospital, and is still unable to move. Reiss is a member of a band and plays the trombone. The band practice is led by a woman called Sarah-Jane.

Storylines[]

2022 to present: Arrival and relationship with Sonia[]

Reiss arrived in Walford in December 2022 for his great-aunt Dot Cotton's funeral. At Dot's wake, him and Sonia Fowler quickly bond and play their trumpet and trombone together. Sonia later takes Reiss upstairs and it is revealed by Dotty Cotton the next day that they have slept together. Reiss later leaves after the wake.

After ghosting Sonia for a month, Reiss answers Sonia’s call, but says he can’t help. Reiss returns to help Sonia with her inheritance tax troubles after Ricky Butcher, who had been staying with Sonia, finds his Business card and calls him. After finding a loophole, allowing Sonia to keep the house without paying anything, Reiss reveals he has been ghosting her as he hasn't had many girlfriends and really likes Sonia and doesn’t want to mess anything up. Later, Sonia and Reiss celebrate saving the house by once again playing their instruments together. The two later share some champagne in Sonia's lounge, where Sonia kisses Reiss, who leaves after that.

They continue their relationship, however when Tom Cotton proposes to Kathy Beale in Kathy's Café, Tom hears Reiss on the phone to a woman called Debbie. Tom confronts Reiss and Sonia overhears their exchange, Reiss admits to Sonia that Debbie is his wife and Sonia throws him out. Reiss later takes Sonia to the hospital and explains that Debbie is in a coma and has been for along time. Sonia is angry with him at first and dumps him for lying to her, although Sonia later takes him back.

On 5 June 2023, Ben Mitchell sells The Arches to Sharon to clear his debts after his financial trouble, Sharon later tells a furious Phil Mitchell that she has brought the Arches for Keanu Taylor. Keanu is shocked when Sharon tells him that she has brought him the Arches, Keanu tells Sharon he should be providing for her not the other way around. Sharon tells Keanu to swallow his pride and make a success of the Arches, Keanu is later annoyed when Sharon hires Reiss to do the accounts for the Arches. Sharon later invites Reiss and his Sonia to her house in attempts to get Keanu and Reiss to get along, the atmosphere is awkward between Keanu and Reiss. Reiss tries to make conversation with Keanu by talking about Tottenham Hotspur football team, during dinner Reiss upsets Sonia when he makes a comment about her bisexuality. Keanu later gives Reiss advice and tells him he should apologise to Sonia which he does.

Sonia confides in Whitney Dean when she admits that she may be pregnant. She is in shock and denial, but Whitney manages to calm her down. They later try to explain this to Reiss, who turns out to be drunk and lists all the reasons as to why he hates children. Sonia and Whitney agree to tell him when he is sober. In his drunken fugue, Reissunopened pregnancy test.

The next day, Sonia supports Zack Hudson as it's the due date of Peach Dean. Reiss sees this and gets jealous. Later, when Whitney supports Sonia to take the pregnancy test. Reiss barges in, looks through Sonia's phone and demands to know who the father is. He explains that he is infertile and cannot have children, so Sonia must have cheated. She denies this, and the tests comes up as negative. She realises that the reason he took this fertility test is because he wants to have children, but not Sonia's.

Sonia and Reiss talk, and they agree that they have a strong relationship together despite it being short, and wouldn't want to risk it by having a kid. Later, Sonia and Reiss realise that their relationship is strong enough that a child (or the loss of one) will not affect them. They decide to go through IVF, saying that they are perfect as a duo but could be even more perfect as a trio. It later turns out that Reiss is using Debbie's money to fund the IVF.

Kathy, Tom, Bobby and Jasper move in with Reiss and Sonia after Ian Beale kicks them out. Bobby later jokes how Reiss harmonises with Rocky when he is in the shower. Sonia complains to Harvey Monroe that Jasper keeps Reiss and Sonia up all night.

Sonia tells Martin about her IVF, and he doubts whether this is the right thing for her. Reiss worried about Sonia, and she wonders whether this is because of her age or the money. Sonia and Reiss later go to the IVF clinic. Reiss mistakes a fertility test (sperm) for being a blood test and gets worried, claiming he nearly fainted when he had his COVID-19 vaccine. Reiss gets "stage-fright" when depositing, so Sonia "gives him a hand", claiming that it is okay because she is a nurse.

Sonia gets increasingly annoyed with Reiss after he associates her reproductive system with pipes. Both later reconcile and continue forward with the IVF. On 8 December 2023, Sonia and Reiss plan to have the first IVF injection, but Reiss quickly leaves after getting a call from the hospital telling him that Debbie has contracted an infection. She later confesses to Kathy that it would be better if Debbie did die. When Reiss returns from the hospital, he feels guilty as all he could think about whilst in hospital was Sonia.

In April 2024, Reiss meets Sonia’s sister, Bianca Jackson, who moves in clashes with Reiss for the way he is. Reiss gets annoyed and feels like she is having too much of an impact on their lives, hence, he requests for her to move out.

After Sonia was told on 6 June 2024 that she wasn’t pregnant, she was devastated and wanted to keep trying. Bianca was very against her trying IVF again so soon and told Reiss to convince her to rest. Reiss tried doing so but Sonia was determined. The only problem being is that they didn’t have enough money. Reiss then tries to scam Kat Mitchell and Jay Brown but they realise this and don’t fall for his tricks. Bianca discovers this in Vic and she sets off to find and confront him. Reiss is then seen visiting Debbie, thanking her for the help she has already gave, but in a vicious twist - Reiss says he has to take the rest of the cash. Bianca is stood in the doorway, horrified by his actions. Bianca later exposes Reiss to the entire pub, yet, no one is bothered and Bianca humiliates herself.

Reiss continues to struggle with his money problems even to the point he tries to scam his neighbour, Sharon Watts, he lies and says that she owes £13,500 in corporate tax, Reiss therefore sends it to himself and puts it towards Debbie’s fees, he continues to scam Sharon until Phil Mitchell gets suspicious and arranges a meeting. Later, Sonia puts the house on the market. However, Reiss didn’t know of this and thought that if Debbie was dead - everything would be easier. On 24 July 2024, Reiss is seen suffocating Debbie with her pillow - thus ending her life. Sonia breaks the news to Reiss that night and he is ‘distraught’, and puts an act of sadness on.

The following week, Sonia reveals that she won’t be putting the house on the market. After, some officers come to the house to say the post mortem has been carried out and results are pending. Reiss is paranoid and refuses to see Debbie. After speaking to Sonia and Zack Hudson, Reiss reluctantly visits Debbie. He visits her and takes her wedding ring, saying his goodbyes. Reiss leaves the room shortly and is shocked to see Debbie’s parents, Brenda Collins and Hugh Collins, asking for answers as to why their daughter died so abruptly. Brenda discovers the following day that Reiss stole Debbie’s money (also funded by her) and goes to the police.

Soon after, gossip begins to spread about the money troubles and locals become suspicious, so Sonia steps up for Reiss and reminds the locals of their past wrongdoings. That night, Reiss puts Debbie's ring up for sale. Later, Reiss later proposes to Sonia after the way she stood up for him and uses Debbie's ring, after taking the sale down, to which Sonia happily accepts. Reiss speaks to Eve Unwin, revealing that her grandmother also had the same ring as his. Later, Reiss gets 'mugged' whilst taking the ring to get it resized and stirs a lie to Sonia. Later, he strikes a deal with Eve - Eve buys the ring off of Reiss, to which Reiss pays Phil the money.

Sonia discovers about Reiss selling this and requests to get it back from Eve, they refuse at first but give in. Reiss' peace is later cut short when Hugh and Brenda arrive and notice Reiss is using Debbie's ring. Brenda then threatens to go to the police and assures Reiss that he won’t get any life insurance. Reiss then makes the decision to move away with Sonia. Phil discovers Reiss owes multiple people money and angrily confronts him, demanding for him to pay up over the weekend. Upon receiving no funds, Phil angrily bangs Reiss' door and screams at him, but is quickly stopped by Teddy Mitchell and Sharon.

Teddy notices Reiss' struggle and pays Phil the owed money, leaving Reiss with less pressure to pay Teddy back. Later, Sonia and Reiss' scan goes well. When Reiss learns that the police are searching for him, he has a panic attack. His worries become true when him and Sonia are arrested at their engagement party. Reiss is questioned and manages to use Penny as an alibi which gets him discharged on bail, Reiss then discovers Sonia gets charged and tries his best to stretch a deal with Jack and the police, but nothing works and he lets her take the blame.

News quickly spreads about Sonia's arrest and some other sympathy for Reiss, whilst others grow suspicions. Martin sneaks in and tries to prove Sonia's innocence, but fails to do so.

Kill count[]

Murders/manslaughter victims[]

  1. Debbie Colwell (24 July 2024) - Suffocated with a pillow.

Background information[]

Employment history[]

Occupation Years active
Accountant Prior to 2022 to present
Accountant for Taylor's Autos 2023

Quotes[]

See also[]

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