List of EastEnders characters (2008)

Robert Lister, usually referred to as Mr. Lister and played by Nick Wilton, is the market inspector at Bridge Street market. He is the successor of Marie Matthews (Susan Cruse). He first appeared on 3 January 2008, but his first name was not revealed until 7 June 2013, which would be his last appearance for three years. Wilton reprised the role in 2016 for one episode broadcast on 15 August. The character was reintroduced for a story with Robbie Jackson (Dean Gaffney) in July 2017, and again in December 2017. He then appeared in one episode, broadcast in July 2018. The character returned again for one episode, broadcast on 7 January 2020, as well as an episode broadcast on 28 December 2021.

In his first appearance, Lister sacked his assistant, Bradley Branning (Charlie Clements). He appeared on a recurring basis thereafter. His next appearance was when Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel) sought approval for a new stall, which Lister accepted. In August 2008, Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) got a job as the market cleaner but Lister sacked him when he lost his cart. In October 2008, Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Janus) phoned him because Danielle Jones (Lauren Crace) was selling stolen nightwear in the clothes stall. In May 2009, Lister closed down Stacey Slater's (Lacey Turner) stall and in September of that year, he closed it again and gave it to Ryan Malloy (Neil McDermott). In February 2010, Stacey and her friend Becca Swanson (Simone James) decided to set up a stall but Lister turned them down as he did not like Stacey. Becca dressed up and pretended to be from Walford Council. She told Lister that Stacey had lodged a complaint against him, and made legal threats. Lister then gave Stacey her stall.

In April 2010, Lister was seen investigating Fatboy's (Ricky Norwood) van, as Fatboy was trying to sell T-shirts from the vehicle without a market license. In May 2010, Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) asked Lister if he could start a market stall, and Lister suggested a mobile phone stall. While he was having a drink with Syed, Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) refused to serve Syed, which Lister interpreted as racism. In October 2010, Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) squirted water at him, so he ordered Stacey to discipline or sack Kat. Stacey refused and squirted water at him as well, so he revoked Stacey's market trader's license. In March 2011, Lister offered Fatboy a month's trial on his own stall after Fatboy and Mo Harris (Laila Morse) argued over it.

In April 2011, Lister complained to Billy that his stall was in the wrong position, but Billy said nobody cared. Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) asked for her stall back, and they got chatting. He moaned about his life as he got abused by stallholders regularly, and his wife had left him so he rarely saw his two children. He invited Whitney for a drink and comforted her, saying that her stepfather, Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen), was doing what was best for her. As Lister got up to leave, he fell onto Whitney, prompting Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) to threaten him and call him a pervert. In May, Denise Fox (Diane Parish) asked Lister to get involved with Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) but Lister said he had no say over the shop, which Patrick owned. In June, Whitney and Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) asked Lister for a stall, but he was reluctant as Whitney had lost a stall for not paying her rent. However, he agreed as long as the arrears were paid and a month's rent paid in advance. In July, Lister issued Fatboy with a warning for kicking his own stall, but Fatboy decided to abandon his stall before he could be disciplined. He warned Eddie Moon (David Essex) about fly-tipping and was threatened by Eddie's son Tyler (Tony Discipline). Lister later accepted a bribe from Eddie. In November, Lister appeared following reports that someone was selling Dutch Father Christmas toys and asked Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) if he knew anything. Alfie denied any knowledge, although it was his relatives Tyler and Anthony Moon (Matt Lapinskas) who were involved. Anthony asked Fatboy to change them, so they no longer spoke Dutch, but Lister later saw one that played a jingle in Fatboy's voice.

In April 2012, Lister complained to Bianca Butcher (Patsy Palmer) that rubbish from the café was overspilling into the market, so she angrily emptied the rubbish into the street. A few days later, Bianca attempted to steal a handbag belonging to a market trader. She was caught and, in the struggle, hit and injured Lister. He called the police, resulting in Bianca's arrest and imprisonment. It later emerged that he had taken out a restraining order against Bianca, meaning that she could no longer go to the market or Bridge Street. In September, Lister threatened to call the police on Shirley Carter (Linda Henry), who was lying drunk in the street. Later that month, he reprimanded Syed for not selling his usual stock. In November, Lister accused Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell) of stealing a bag that he donated to the charity shop she managed, which led to Cora being fired. When Lister went to the salon for a haircut, Bianca washed his hair. While it was awkward at first, the pair started to bond during conversations about their children. Lister told Bianca his daughter was getting married, and he thought he would feel left out at the wedding. Lister agreed to have the restraining order dropped and gave Bianca a £5 tip. He accidentally left £20 behind and later accused Bianca of stealing it, but apologized and gave her the money after it was found. In April 2013, Lister temporarily banned Bianca and Kat from trading on the market after they played various pranks on him. Kat pretended to seduce Lister and Bianca took a photo of him with his trousers down, which they used to blackmail him to get their stall back. In June, Lister spoke to Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) about his new restaurant and introduced him to Danny Pennant (Gary Lucy). Ian hoped that Danny would find someone to invest in his new business. After Lister lost his job, he was replaced by Aleks Shirovs (Kristian Kiehling).

In August 2016, Lister interviewed Carmel Kazemi (Bonnie Langford) for the market inspector position. In July 2017, he had a meeting with new market inspector Robbie Jackson (Dean Gaffney) to discuss 'big changes' to the market and told Robbie that he had until Christmas to eject Donna Yates (Lisa Hammond) from the market.

In December 2021, Stacey and her ex-husband Martin Fowler (James Bye) both applied for the role of market inspector. Lister gave the job to Martin, after discovering that Stacey lied on her CV. However, Martin declined the job and recommended Stacey. Stacey's pride was bruised when she discovered that Martin was the first choice, and she resigned. Martin told Lister he would like to accept the job, but Lister had already appointed Honey Mitchell (Emma Barton). Provided by Wikipedia