Square roots
Would you Adam and Eve it? East-Enders is turning 35. MARION MCMULLEN looks at the cast who were there at the soap’s birth
THERE was a new soap on the block in 1985 and the birth of EastEnders began with an early appearance by the Grim Reaper.
The body of Reg Cox was discovered in the first scene as Albert Square’s Arthur Fowler, pub landlord Den Watts and Ali Osman broke down the door of Number 23 to make the grisly find.
It set the drama bar high for the BBC show on February 19, 1985, and it was later revealed that Nick Cotton, played by John Altman, had murdered poor Reg.
Quickly dubbed Nasty Nick, the soap’s resident villain kept turning up like a bad penny over the years to cause trouble for his long-suffering Ma, Dot, and the entire neighbour hood. He even smashed the window of local pub the Queen Vic when he was shown the door shouting “Barred? Stuff your poxy boozer!”
Nick killed four people during his time on the soap and finally met his end from a heroin overdose almost 30 years later... in the same spot where his first victim Reg had died. A long-suffering Dot, who obtained the drugs for her errant son is there at the end and chooses not to try and save him and later serves prison time for his manslaughter. Actor John Altman, who is now 64, later wrote about his experiences on the soap in his autobiography In The Nick Of Time.
June Brown, who plays Dot, will soon be turning 93 and was known for her stage work before joining the soap. Yes, Minister actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne once described her as “one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve seen on stage”.
Most of the clothes Dot has worn in the soap have come from charity shops and the launderette worker became the first soap character to star in a single-hander monologue in 2008. June Brown also brought out her autobiography Before The Year Dot in 2013.
Nasty Nick was not the only bad boy on the square, there was Dirty Den, played by Leslie Grantham. He earned his nickname for his shady deals and criminal connections. He cemented his reputation as a scoundrel by getting schoolgirl Michelle Fowler – the friend of his daughter Sharon – pregnant.
The pub landlord also left more than 30 million viewers gasping when he handed divorce papers to his wife on Christmas Day, 1986.
Den was killed off three years later when he was shot and fell into a canal, but he returned from the dead in 2003 to reappear for a two-year stint. Leslie died in 2018 at the age of 71.
Anita Dobson, who played Angie, recorded her own take on the EastEnders theme tune in 1986, this time with lyrics and under the title Anyone Can Fall In Love. It reached number four in the UK singles chart and was produced by Queen guitarist Brian May, who Anita, now 70, later married. She brought out her book My East End in 1987.
Wendy Richard, of Are You Being Served? fame, and Bill Treacher played Pauline and Arthur Fowler. The parents of Michelle, Mark and Martin, always struggled to make ends meet, with Pauline working in the launderette with Dot to help pay the bills.
Arthur in desperation stole from the Christmas Club money to pay for his daughter’s wedding.
The role was written with Bill in mind and he later recalled the first press call and read-through saying: “It was a vast room, but it was crowded with chairs and the place was full of people. That’s when I realised how big this really was.
“Then they threw us straight into it. Our feet didn’t touch the ground for the first three weeks.”
Wendy, who looked back on her career in the biography No “S”: My Life Story, died at the age of 65 from breast cancer in 2009. Bill will be celebrating his 90th birthday in June.
Veteran actress Gretchen Franklin, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 94, played one of Walford’s oldest residents Ethel Skinner. Dot’s long-time friend could often be seen taking her pet pug Willy for a walk around Albert Square and made her last appearance on the soap in 2000.
Susan Tully, Letitia Dean and Adam Woodyatt played Albert Square’s young teens Michelle Fowler, Sharon Watts and Ian Beale. Fifty-two-year-old Susan is now best known as a director and has worked on TV dramas like Line of Duty, The Musketeers, Strike and Tin Star, while Letitia, aged 52, returned to the Square after a break to continue Sharon’s story. Adam Woodyatt will also be 52 in June and has never left EastEnders, notching up nearly 4,000 episodes. EastEnders initially ran twice a week. A weekend omnibus followed later.
BBC producer Julia Smith and script editor Tony Holland were the creators behind the soap that was attracting more than 23 million viewers two years following the launch. Their legacy continues to keep viewers hooked and the theme tune by Simon May has been described as one of the most recognisable in the UK. It was even heard during the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London.
As for the famous end credits, Graham Broad, who taught Phil Collins drum basics, was responsible for playing the dramatic beats that ends every episode.
He [Dirty Den] left more than 30 million viewers gasping when he handed divorce papers to his wife on Christmas Day, 1986