TWENTY-five years ago on Christmas Day, most of the country came to a
standstill to watch one of the most iconic moments in television.
The scene was The Queen Vic pub in Walford, where Dirty Den surprised his wife
Angie Watts by serving her with divorce papers.
As she stood shocked, he sniped: “Happy Christmas, Ange,” and the
doof-doof-doof drums kicked in.
That EastEnders episode in 1986 was seen by more than 30million people and is
still the most-watched drama programme in UK history, and overall beaten by
only the 1966 World Cup final and Princess Diana’s funeral.
TV Biz spoke to star Anita Dobson about the classic scene, consistently voted
the No1 moment in soap, as EastEnders celebrates its silver anniversary.
Anita, who played alcoholic landlady Angie, said: “My God — 25 years? That’s a
quarter of a century.
“It seems like another lifetime now. I sometimes look at the clips of Angie
and Den they show and I look like a distant relative!
“But I’m still very proud of it — and very proud of her. It’s funny because
Angie is still there, she’s still inside me. She was very close to me — I
come from the East End and there were a lot of people I knew and a lot of my
mum and family that went into her so she’s very special to me and always
will be.”
Angie Watts still regularly tops polls as one of television’s best characters,
making it perhaps surprising to realise Anita was in EastEnders for only
three years.
She and Leslie Grantham — who played her husband, “Dirty” Den Watts — were two
of the characters when the soap started in 1985 and instantly became hugely
popular with viewers, winning them many of the show’s biggest storylines.
Den decided to divorce Angie on that fateful Christmas Day after discovering
she had been lying about being terminally ill and having only six months to
live, so he wouldn’t leave her.
Anita quit EastEnders in 1988, causing such a shock that it was reported on
the BBC Six O’Clock News. The writers sent Angie off to run a bar in Spain.
Despite repeated offers from BBC bosses to return to Albert Square, Anita
never went back to EastEnders and Angie’s character was eventually killed
off in 2002, dying from cirrhosis of the liver. Her daughter Sharon took her
body back to Walford to be buried alongside Den.
Asked about why she never reprised her role, Anita — married to Queen
guitarist Brian May — said: “Why tarnish the gorgeous creation that was
Angie Watts? I was seriously tempted to go back twice but once you make a
decision as big as that to leave, I think it’s very rare that you go back.
“She was flawed but fabulous — and the combination was magical. What a
wonderfully complicated, completely joyful, screwed-up, mad kind of creature
she was!
“I had a healthy career before I got EastEnders, so I went back to that until
I found my feet again.
“And I’ve been really lucky — I’ve had a great career and done some fantastic
things since so there never was that reason to go back.
“When my agent rang me and told me they were going to kill Angie off, I said,
‘Good’.
“It was time. They had asked me so many times if I’d go back and I’d always
said ‘Never say never’, but realistically it was never going to happen.”
Anita, 62, has recently been back on our screens in this year’s series of
Strictly Come Dancing, where she made it through to week nine and wowed
viewers — and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall — with her youthful energy.
She will be back tomorrow for the Strictly Christmas special on BBC1 at 8pm
and is also joining the tour, which starts next year.