Eastenders and Hollyoaks
BBC1 revisits the classic two-hander from 1998 when Peggy and Pat clashed over Frank…
You bitch!’
‘You cow!!’
When it comes to iconic Enders lines, the insults hurled during Peggy and Pat’s barney are up there with, ‘You ain’t my muvva!’ and, ‘Get arta my pub!’ Who’d have thought that a second-hand car salesman with a revolving dicky bow could provoke such a heated exchange?
The women were clashing over Frank Butcher, of course. Frank had previously been married to Pat, but by 1998 he and Peggy were a couple, while Pat was hitched to Mr Reliable, Roy Evans.
On the night of Peggy and Frank’s engagement party, Roy’s son Barry was wrongly convinced that his stepmum and Frank were having an affair, and reported back to Peggy and his father. A devastated Roy smashed up the car lot and then sped off in his motor; almost mowing down his missus in the process.
Frank rescued Pat in the nick of time and went in pursuit of a fragile Roy, but not before instructing Peggy to take Pat home. Cue a tense two-hander that built up to a blistering climax in which Pat argued
Frank would never love Peggy the way he loved her, and the pair ended up slapping one another across the face. Classy!
Off-screen, thankfully, there was no such animosity between actors Dame Barbara Windsor and Pam St Clement. In fact, when they watched the shock scenes together for the 2015 series Eastenders:
Back to Ours, it was revealed that they had given each other gifts before filming, as a way of apologising in advance!
And, in truth, when the chips were down, Peggy and
Pat had each other’s backs. In 2016, when Peggy took her own life after discovering her cancer had spread, Pat – who had passed away four years earlier – appeared as a ‘vision’. Barbed comments were exchanged, but so were heartfelt words of love.
‘You bitch!’ piped Peggy, as Pat joked that her pal didn’t look bad for a ‘bottle blonde’.
‘You cow!’ laughed Pat.
‘My friend,’ responded a smiling Peggy. ‘My dear friend...’