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Nit Wit
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00:00Music
00:03Music
00:04Music
00:35Why leave?
00:36The truth?
00:38I don't think any of us really realised what we were letting ourselves in for.
00:43Nobody is better than this programme.
00:45This was a dream job, you know, this was my favourite TV show for the last 15 years.
00:52Tucker!
00:53Younger!
00:54Twiggle.
00:54Bobby.
00:55Ricky.
00:56Free as Pat.
00:58This is the EastEnders family album.
01:01A thousand snapshots of the classic moments that have become the most talked about on television,
01:06it's 15 years since we first met the families of Albert Square.
01:10But back in 1985, the small cast centred on just three families.
01:15The Watts, the Fowlers and the Beals.
01:19I think I was very lucky having Gilly and Peter.
01:22And I always called him Pops from day one.
01:24It was easier to call them Mum and Dad Offset as it was not to.
01:31But yeah, I still, when Gilly phones up, I spoke to her last night.
01:35Oh, hello Mum, how are you?
01:38Bizarre.
01:39From that first day, we really bonded, Adam and I, and Peter was great.
01:43I mean, we got on very, very well.
01:44It was lovely, part of a family, you know.
01:47Good afternoon, Grandma and Grandad.
01:50How are you?
01:51I've spent half my life here.
01:53I mean, I know it sounds like an old cliche when people say,
01:55yeah, but we all get on so well.
01:57On the whole, we do.
01:59It's almost like an extended family.
02:01Nick, the best for a must, eh?
02:03Well, you should have been quicker, shouldn't you?
02:05I first met my EastEnders family in Elstree Studios in the canteen area.
02:10And I just remember thinking how nice they were.
02:14And we all seemed to get on really well, which was a bonus,
02:17because you don't know what people are going to be like.
02:19I'd never heard a proper East London accent like Patsy's.
02:23And it was, oh, hi!
02:25It was this sort of real, like, only Patsy can do.
02:28And she went, I'm playing your daughter or something.
02:30And it was like, oh, my God.
02:32And I remember not... I wasn't that old, but I remember thinking,
02:34my goodness, I'm not...
02:36I don't feel old enough to have this tall, beautiful-looking redhead.
02:40It was my daughter.
02:42I had it with Lindsay my first scene.
02:44She was shouting at me, I was shouting at her.
02:47And everyone just clapped after.
02:49Hey, don't walk away from me while I'm talking to you!
02:51You're not talking to me! You're shouting at me!
02:56And I think actually the director said,
02:58that was very good, but could you just take it down a little bit, please?
03:01A good old family slanging match, but it's not all doom and gloom.
03:05We're all one big happy family.
03:07Of course it's difficult sometimes, and on the odd occasions,
03:10you know, some nerves get a bit frayed,
03:13but invariably we stick together like glue.
03:16EastEnders is essentially a team show.
03:18It is all teamwork, and we are a jolly good team.
03:21It's true, we do have our ups and downs,
03:23but at the end of the day, we are all there for each other.
03:36Oh, man, I'm so pleased for you!
03:38Well done, man!
03:42I'm going to be a bird, man!
03:44You're perfect!
03:46This boy!
03:48Oh!
03:48Yeah!
03:49You're beautiful!
04:01This is Frank Butcher!
04:07I do.
04:23It was just thousands of people there.
04:26I think they thought it was Fergie.
04:28Until I turned round, they heard me say,
04:30Ricky!
04:36Just over 200 actors have walked on the set of EastEnders,
04:40all from an original cast of only 23,
04:42sharply observed creations of script editor Tony Holland
04:45and producer Julia Smith.
04:47Julia Smith and Tony Holland,
04:49I think the BBC owed a tremendous amount to Julia,
04:54because she had come up with this unwieldy item called E8,
05:02which subsequently turned into EastEnders.
05:04Julia Smith was nicknamed the Godmother,
05:06and she was a formidable woman.
05:09She could just, with one look,
05:12just shun you completely and put you to the ground.
05:14You were so petrified of Julia.
05:15She knew what she wanted, she knew how to get it,
05:18and she got the right results.
05:20I know what people mean.
05:21She knew what she wanted, like Biddy Baxter.
05:23That kind of thing.
05:24It's like directors.
05:25I like that kind of director.
05:27None of us boys were allowed to use make-up.
05:31You know, which was right,
05:32because we was all like working-class people.
05:35The only person who was was me,
05:37and that was not make-up.
05:38I'd have like a reddish nose and a bit of ruddy cheeks,
05:42and potato dust, the make-up girl used to put under me nails.
05:45She was the solid director.
05:47When somebody picked up a glass,
05:49there was a puddle on the table,
05:51and she had all that close-up attention to detail.
05:55She made all my dreams come true.
05:58Julia produced EastEnders for three years
06:00and died in 1997.
06:05I think they wanted something very, very hooky,
06:07very melodic, something that would get people in,
06:09I think Tony said, from the garden or from the kitchen.
06:13So I knew it had to be a special kind of a melody.
06:17But we didn't get to the arrangement brief
06:19until the main melody had been set.
06:21After the first attempt that I made,
06:24which was a bit rubbishy, I must admit, in retrospect.
06:32I could see from Tony's face that I was getting absolutely nowhere.
06:35So I came back the next day,
06:37and I knew that it had to be special.
06:40I've got about ten dozen favourite chord sequences
06:43that I keep for special occasions, I think.
06:47And...
06:50Suddenly, you know, the whole thing evolved.
07:01After discarding the original idea
07:04to base the drama in a real-life square in Hackney,
07:06designer Keith Harris created a perfect replica of EastEnd London,
07:10but with a paint barely dry,
07:12the first episode aired on Tuesday 19th February 1985.
07:21Oh, it stinks in here, doesn't it?
07:23I remember it opening with them kicking the door down,
07:26and somebody was dead,
07:27and they burst into a dingy little flat.
07:32That was the impact of the opening episode, as far as I recall,
07:36but I'd be very interested to remember what the first line was.
07:39I'd kick the door in, and I'd say,
07:42of course, it stinks in here, doesn't it?
07:45Rage.
07:46He's dead.
07:47Dead drunk.
07:48No, he's dead.
07:49No, no, it's not.
07:50I said, no, no, no, I don't think I'm going to do this.
07:54No, Julia, thanks.
07:55She said, why?
07:55I said, well, I don't think I'm really right for this,
07:58the way this character, Arthur Fowler, the way you've explained.
08:02Do you think I'm really right?
08:03She said, well, it was written for you.
08:06Eventually, of course, I came to my senses and rang my agent
08:09and said, tell Julia I'd be delighted to do it.
08:13The audition for Pete Beale, which subsequently turned out to be Den,
08:18which is very strange, because Den doesn't,
08:19he's not very good doing things like that with brown paperbacks.
08:22Um, he, er, I just had to talk to Julia and Tony about where I came from,
08:26and I lied.
08:27I said I was from the East End, but I wasn't.
08:30But I think they must have thought, well, he's cheap, we'll get him.
08:39I can't remember it. I really cannot remember it.
08:42I think it was me walking across the road from the caf to Pete's stall.
08:47Um, I think I asked him for some pocket money or something.
08:50Here we are. Thanks, Mum.
08:52You're confusing me and your mother now first, then, sir.
08:54I'll leave it out.
08:55Dad, I'm playing mark on the machines.
08:56That money's meant to pay for your dinner.
08:58I'm playing with me own money.
09:01Suddenly, I got a call from my agent saying,
09:03you've got a recall for EastEnders, but not for the part of Sue,
09:06it's for the part of Cathy.
09:08And I went up to meet Julia Smith and Tony Holland,
09:11and they just sat looking at me for ages and thinking,
09:14you're too young for the part of Cathy, you're too young.
09:17And I thought, oh, dear.
09:18So I thought, OK, well, fine.
09:20But then Tony Holland said, could you put your hair up?
09:22And he was sitting there with a calculator working out dates,
09:24and if I could have had this son Ian that I was supposed to have at...
09:27And they, yes, you could have had him at 18 or 60 or something like that.
09:30And I went away, didn't hear any more again.
09:32And so I eventually got a call from my agent saying,
09:35oh, congratulations, you've got the part of Cathy.
09:37So from Sue, I'd gone to Cathy in the space of, like, two months, yeah.
09:41Oh, you bloody bills.
09:42What's the matter with you?
09:44You want to control your own, Missy Dally?
09:45He's soft enough to take it, he is.
09:47You lot, neighbours.
09:49First chance you get, you can't wait to point the finger.
09:51Well, for a start, Miss Siltnik,
09:52because you don't even bloody more live on the square,
09:54so what's it got to do with you?
09:56And for a finish, you can tell Marville
09:57that we ain't gonna take the blame.
10:00Well, I wouldn't have said your tea was that bad, would you, Ali?
10:03When I first saw the first and second episode,
10:06I was rather proud, actually, to belong to it.
10:09I see you put your spouse before your old man.
10:12All the characters were very carefully drawn,
10:16and they were very lovely people to work with.
10:19Everyone was pulling together, you know, at the beginning,
10:23which was a wonderful atmosphere.
10:25We were given a private showing of them,
10:28and then you could have heard a pin drop in the room,
10:30and everybody sort of sat back and went, oh,
10:32because you knew you had really seen something.
10:35We were all made to watch the first episode.
10:39I actually thought it was a load of rubbish.
10:41I didn't wait to see what anybody else was gonna say.
10:44I said, that is a hit.
10:46And I took the cassette out, and everyone said,
10:48yeah, it's very good, it's very good.
10:49I said, no matter, I don't really care what you think,
10:51I know that's gonna be a hit.
10:53It was nerve-wracking, but it was lovely for me.
10:55I was dreadful for about eight months.
10:56It kind of felt like I belonged, almost.
11:02There's too many posers in this business.
11:04Exactly, that's what I was for.
11:05When this character came up, I was actually in Los Angeles doing a film,
11:09and, you know, I think at the time,
11:13I was more excited about the EastEnders thing that might happen
11:17than I was about actually making the film in L.A.,
11:21because this was a dream job.
11:22But I'm gonna make you suffer!
11:24Grow up, Saskia!
11:26My friend was living with me,
11:29and there was builders outside on the scaffolding,
11:32and, er, she shouted out,
11:34my mate, she's got a part in EastEnders!
11:37And they all start going, da-da-da-da-da-da-da!
11:40Sweet.
11:42Come in.
11:43One thing my mum did say to me years ago was,
11:46whatever you do, don't get a job on EastEnders.
11:48And I think it's because she just thought everyone talked like that,
11:50and she didn't want me to be talking like that.
11:53Don't worry about me, Dad. I can cope.
11:56I was over the moon. I was absolutely over the moon.
12:00I watched EastEnders, er, I suppose, from the beginning,
12:03mainly because you had sort of friends in it that you sort of grew up with,
12:06or, you know, you've got mates in the business.
12:08And in particular Sue, Sue Tully, who played my, er, played my sister,
12:12because we were together in Grain Chill.
12:14That was, er, quite nice to have a, a reunion with her.
12:17No.
12:18Brilliant.
12:18My first scene was in the market,
12:21and, er, I think I was just taking some money off of Matthew.
12:23And I was so nervous doing it that my hands were getting confused.
12:27I didn't know if I was taking it in my left hand or my right hand.
12:29And I was thinking, what's going on? It was a complete mess.
12:32Sorry, Kathy.
12:33Oh, it's all right.
12:33If there's a new character, you can always see that they're really trying
12:36not to use anybody's names or whatever.
12:38And it, but everybody's really good about it
12:40and sort of takes everyone under their wing.
12:42It was just a bit like, oh, my God.
12:45And I think I did call them by their names.
12:47What are you looking at?
12:51I thought you said it to Pam.
12:52I met her and I was like, oh, hello, Pam, Pam.
12:55I don't think any of us really realised what we were letting ourselves in for.
12:59I don't think I was ever prepared for the,
13:01the kind of profile it gives you.
13:03It's huge.
13:08No family albums complete without its recollections of love.
13:12Except in Walford, of course, where the path of true love rarely runs smooth.
13:16And more often than not, when you scratch away the surface,
13:19it reveals a web of deceit and lies.
13:22We're just coming, all right? We're just coming.
13:24You do what you like.
13:25There wasn't many more complicated than the rushed marriage of Cindy and Ian Beale
13:29on the 12th of October, 1989.
13:33You know what's best, don't you?
13:34Just one year later, the honeymoon was well and truly over for Cindy and Ian,
13:39and their relationship spiralled into the depths of mutual loathing.
13:43I hate you more than you will ever know.
13:45I miss working with Michelle because, I mean, we used to work well together.
13:49There was good fun with the original Cindy Wicks of Ian Triangle.
13:52What is it?
13:54What are you?
13:55I wish I had a camera.
13:57We all knew it, but it was the year before Ian would find out that Stephen,
14:01the child he thought was his firstborn, was really the fruits of a clandestine liaison
14:05between Cindy and his friend Simon Wicks.
14:09Of course you do.
14:09I want to talk to you about this.
14:12This baby.
14:13Isn't he beautiful?
14:15Yeah.
14:15Do you want one?
14:16I don't need one.
14:17Look, Si, give him to me.
14:19This baby.
14:19Simon, you're drunk.
14:20This baby.
14:21What?
14:22What about him?
14:22Tell me and let's get it over with, eh?
14:26Nothing.
14:27I think Cindy is a great character and I loved the way she did it, Michelle Collins.
14:34And?
14:35Poor Ian.
14:36He thought that after Cindy had given birth to his twins,
14:39that she would finally become the devoted wife and mother.
14:42But he hadn't counted on the other Wicks brother.
14:45David.
14:48What's he doing?
14:52Oh, I've just been explaining the plan to Cindy.
14:56What are you doing here?
14:57Well, I thought it made sense that she came home.
14:59Superbitches often get a lot of men.
15:01They end up like man magnets.
15:02Cindy Bill was a bitch and she went through quite a few men.
15:06I don't understand.
15:07Oh, yeah, watch out.
15:16I remember when she kidnapped the children.
15:18That worked very, very well.
15:19It turned out very bitter, didn't it?
15:21It was very, very nasty.
15:23There must be some other way.
15:25What?
15:26There might have been another way if you hadn't started snatching kids all over the show.
15:29Which one?
15:30Gate seven.
15:32I'm getting two openings.
15:35You've got Cindy racing through the airport.
15:37You've got Ian racing for the plane.
15:40And eventually Ian triumphs and gets his kids back and flies home to England.
15:46Let go of me!
15:48Steve and Peter!
15:49Ah!
15:56Cindy.
15:57She turned Ian's life upside down.
16:00But as in life, the characters in EastEnders usually get their comeuppance.
16:04And for poor old Cindy, it was a glamorous death during childbirth in prison.
16:13Ian's luck changed last year.
16:16We gazed on in astonishment as the beautiful Melanie Healey agreed to be his wife.
16:21But it was for sickness and not health that had finally persuaded her to marry him.
16:25Do you, Melanie, promise to honour and remain faithful to this marriage,
16:30and forsaking all others, be bound in union with Ian, as long as you both shall live?
16:39Lucy's got cancer?
16:42Yeah.
16:44Oh no!
16:45In a classic Will She Won't She episode, we all held our breath waiting for the just impediment to be
16:51revealed.
16:52I do.
16:59I don't think me personally would have forgiven what anything that Ian did leading up to the wedding.
17:07But I also think that for Mel, that was an excuse. It was a way out.
17:12She just needed something to trigger it off so she could go.
17:15I need you, Mel.
17:19Well guess what Ian, I don't love you, and I never have done.
17:25Three, two, one!
17:33New years, new resolutions and new chances for the residents of Albert Square.
17:39Unless you want to be a part of it.
17:40One East Ender always looking for a second chance was Grant Mitchell.
17:44Tiffany was forever living in the shadow of his first wife Sharon.
17:47There was just one time, however, when we thought Grant had finally come to his senses and that he and
17:53Tiffany could live happily ever after.
17:55Maybe I needed this time to find out.
17:58What are you saying?
17:59I'm saying I know what I want.
18:02I know how I feel.
18:07I'm saying that I love you.
18:10I always did.
18:12And I always will.
18:15I just didn't know until now.
18:17But then again, this is East Enders, and it was Grant Mitchell, and he just couldn't keep his hands to
18:23himself.
18:23I know...
18:26Yes.
18:52Thanks.
19:02What are we doing?
19:04I think I should go.
19:07Yeah.
19:08Tiffany is the love of my life.
19:10I never knew it till now, but I'm never going to forget it.
19:12So why were we nearly kissing again the other night?
19:15Because there's something between us.
19:16You know there is.
19:17Don't give me that.
19:18You just used me for sex when she wasn't giving you any.
19:20And now that she is, you just want me for babysitting instead.
19:24Oh, the worst kind of mother-daughter betrayal.
19:28But even without the handy baby intercom,
19:31those East Ender secrets have a way of getting out.
19:34And the one that kept 25 million of us on the edge of our seats
19:37was the identity of the father of Michelle Fowler's love child.
19:47Den Watts, adulterous husband to alcoholic Angie.
19:51Publican of the Queen Vic.
19:52And Albert Square's answer to the East End hard man.
19:57I'm sorry I had to call you.
19:59It's okay.
20:01You did the right thing.
20:02We were under a lot of pressure that day.
20:05And it suddenly started raining.
20:07And in the middle of a scene, I just said,
20:08I think we'll go under the bridge.
20:10And that's how we ended up doing it.
20:12But Susan Tully, like Anita, is a fantastic actress.
20:15So we sparked off very well.
20:20Have you considered all the alternatives?
20:24What? Abortion? Adoption?
20:26Being packed off to an article in Essex?
20:29I was grown up enough to do something.
20:32Got to be adult enough to face up to the consequences.
20:34Michelle Fowler, East Ender's first teenage mother.
20:38She left the square in 1995.
20:41But not before she became pregnant by the other East End bad boy,
20:45Grant Mitchell.
20:47I think you'll have kids one day.
20:50You know what?
20:51I think you'll make a good dad.
20:54Surely the lives of the East Enders couldn't get more complicated.
20:58Of course they can.
21:00Particularly when an actor decides to leave
21:02and the writers are charged with coming up with an explosive new storyline.
21:07Wow, look at this.
21:08Will someone tell me what the hell's going on?
21:11Poor Ulbrick.
21:12Who's the last one to find out?
21:14Bianca.
21:15Go on, tell him.
21:18What?
21:19Tell him.
21:20Carol.
21:20Tell me what?
21:23We're waiting.
21:27I can't.
21:28Of course you can.
21:29I bet he's dying to know.
21:31I'm going to tell him because if you don't, I will.
21:33What is it?
21:36Sorry.
21:37What's happened?
21:47I've been sleeping with Dad.
21:49Then at the end, it was just her complete devastation and total betrayal by her daughter.
21:54You turn that just like your father.
21:55You're just like David.
21:58I'm nothing like David.
22:00You're just the same as him.
22:02Self-centered, destructive.
22:04As long as you get what you want, you don't care who gets hurt.
22:06That's who you are, Bianca.
22:07I mean, the thing about that scene is that Carol had the power, is that I could go anywhere in
22:13that scene because Bianca didn't know what was going to happen and she'd already, she'd became so small.
22:18And I remember saying to the director, I think, I'd really like to sit and put my hand to her,
22:22her face, to either make a gesture if I'm going to give her a cuddle or I'm going to strangle
22:26her.
22:31I don't think I want to lose you, Bianca.
22:35You're my oldest child.
22:38I think it was so emotional that we'd just done it a couple of times and we kind of asked,
22:43could we not do it a lot?
22:45Because it's just one of those scenes, you just couldn't keep doing the same thing over and over again because
22:49it was just too emotional.
22:51But actually, the bit where she did put her hands around my face just made me burst into tears.
22:55When it's finished, it's over.
22:59I can't even get a sight of you.
23:03Getting a dramatic exit means that they are forever in our consciousness, but many of the actors pass through, leaving
23:10in much less infamous circumstances.
23:26I can't even get a sight of you.
23:55Oh, excuse me.
23:59EastEnders, indulging in our fantasies and fears as we observe people with lives more miserable and complicated than our own.
24:06Usually they've brought it on themselves, but occasionally the writers drop in the kind of tragedy that makes us all
24:12think about how near it can get to real life.
24:14What?
24:14We're going to have to stop seeing each other.
24:16You don't mean that.
24:17I do.
24:19I think the writers always handle sensitive storylines very well.
24:24And particularly the HIV storyline that I was involved in.
24:28That's it, Mark. Stop talking gibberish.
24:31What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on in your head?
24:33Because, you see, this is the end.
24:35I can't take any more.
24:39I'm afraid I'm going to ruin your evening.
24:42You mean you haven't already?
24:45The reason I have to stop seeing you is because I've been diagnosed HIV positive.
24:52I mean, it was very early days that, um, this subject would be, um, portrayed in, in, in a soap.
24:59Are you gay?
25:00No, I'm not.
25:02And I don't shoot up either.
25:04It was a girl.
25:08She went with you, no, and she had it.
25:10I don't, I don't know.
25:11You don't know!
25:13I don't know!
25:15It was a great experience for me and a great learning process because it was the very early days where
25:19people were a bit, um, unsure about the, uh, the condition.
25:23So we got together with some great researchers and great writers and, uh, um, yeah, it's been a great experience
25:29for me.
25:30I'm so glad, ten years later, that I got involved in this storyline.
25:34And Peggy Mitchell touched the hearts of millions as she struggled to come to terms with breast cancer.
25:39What's wrong?
25:40Well, I'm going into hospital the next couple of days.
25:44Well, you've got the results back.
25:46The consultant says that, the consultant says that a mastectomy is me best chance.
25:53And I've decided to take his word for it.
25:57Mum, you're going to be all right.
25:59After all this time, Phil, I've found someone I love.
26:05And Frank loves me.
26:08And I don't want to leave him.
26:17Frank!
26:18Just, just a minute, please.
26:20I love you.
26:21You're going to be fine.
26:23You're going to be fine.
26:29This is my pub.
26:31Tom, I got back behind the pumps.
26:34Peggy, you're going to go straight up on them stairs, sweetheart.
26:37All right, then.
26:40Are you sure you want to do this?
26:42I mean, you don't have to put a big X on, you know, and it's just a few pimpers brought
26:46one up the bar.
26:47Do I swear you're wrong, Frank?
26:49Running a pub is showbiz.
26:51It's about making people feel good.
26:54Now, how's me lipstick?
26:57Great.
26:59Right, then.
27:03And it was a dark moment, indeed, when poor Frank Butcher, dogged with work and financial
27:07troubles, plunged into the depths of depression.
27:10We've had a run of bad luck before, but we've always come out fighting.
27:16Darling, you're going to have to snap out of this one, or I'll have to shake you out of
27:19it.
27:20I don't think I'm going to snap out of this one, Peg.
27:23We've all got problems.
27:25Come on, Frank.
27:25Get back on board.
27:26So every time we get a situation on the television, they look where in and they can
27:30actually identify with it because it's happened to someone in their life at some stage in
27:35a game, and they can identify.
27:37That's the success of these centers, in my belief.
27:44I never, ever thought it would got to me, but it did, and it really made me very low.
27:53There was a period of three months where Frank had a nervous breakdown, and they asked me to
27:58come back again, and I said, yes, I would.
28:00And I'm not being big time, I said, but under the conditions, that I will never go for that
28:05again.
28:06That won't happen.
28:07So the first thing that happens is Frank kills Tiffany.
28:19Ron, I'm going to call the police.
28:20Mum, no, mum.
28:22Come on, mum.
28:28Oh, no.
28:37Oh, no.
28:43Oh, please.
28:44Tim!
28:46Tim!
28:47Now, if the producers don't kill the actors, there's always a chance that they could return.
28:52But this is so planned, and there's no guarantee you would get the same part.
28:56Just go away.
28:57She was our worst nightmare in her role as Tiffany's mother, Louise Simmons, played by
29:01Carol Harrison.
29:02But she'd already had blood on her hands 12 years before, when poor Andy had a fatal encounter
29:08with a lorry.
29:14Mona Hammond played Blossom, the Jackson family's much-loved grandmother.
29:19But hang on a minute.
29:20Wasn't she the midwife delivering Michelle and Den's baby?
29:26Leslie Schofield made his first appearance in the square in April 88 as Pat's first husband,
29:32Brian Wicks.
29:32He returned nine years later, still a divorced father, but it wasn't Pat that was his ex-wife,
29:38but someone called Jane Healy.
29:40Hello, Melanie.
29:42Dad.
29:46And Barbara Windsor, the quintessential glamorous EastEnders landlady and mother to the brothers
29:52Mitchell, she'd undergone a major transformation from the original Mrs. Mitchell, played by Joe
29:56Warne in 1991.
29:58I thought my boys might have taken their old mum out for a drink.
30:02Hey?
30:05Now, a lot of families have their black sheep, but this family album would need a shepherd
30:10to round up all the troublemakers, Dan, at EastEnders.
30:12You stupid, senile crow!
30:15Look, listen to me!
30:17Look, if they lock me up, I'll be finished.
30:19I just told you what it'll be like.
30:21Are you going to kill your own son?
30:22Are you?
30:23If you beat me up before they come, there ain't nothing much I can do about it.
30:29Nick.
30:30Nasty Nick, eh?
30:32It's a pantomime nastiness, you know, it's about something, about the man.
30:36What do you take me for?
30:37A villain or something?
30:38The main thing that I really liked about Nick Cotton was his relationship with Dot.
30:42So I don't remember so much of the bad stuff, apart from the unconditional love that Dot
30:47gave him, which was constant support all the time.
30:51That mother-son relationship was very, very believable, I think.
30:56Now, I know that his past is nothing to be proud of, but I want you to believe me when
31:01I tell you that I'm convinced that Nick is now a new person, a good person.
31:07Of course, it would be foolish of me to call him a saint.
31:10But if you want a modern version of a good Samaritan, then your son Nick would be a prime candidate.
31:17Oh, I have.
31:19I have wronged him.
31:21My own son.
31:25The pity that you had for Dot in that situation of how vulnerable and gullible she was, was amazing.
31:32And also, he kept being bad.
31:36And I think people hated him, generally, the character, because of what he did to his mother.
31:44Nice owl.
31:46Nick Cotton.
31:47He lied to Dot, robbed her and even tried to murder her.
31:51He's currently doing time in jail.
31:54A soap has to have a bad guy.
31:55Yeah, it has to have someone in there that can mix it all up.
31:59Apart from your two fists, you've got nothing going for you.
32:02Do you hear?
32:03Nothing.
32:03And if I wasn't Courtney's gran, I'd have that child taken away from you.
32:07You're unfit to be a father.
32:10Don't you dare turn your back on me.
32:11Get off me.
32:16Traditionally, these programs are led by strong female characters.
32:21That what would be fascinating in this particular program was strong male characters.
32:27And, you know, a duo, people who could infiltrate, who could just bring some testosterone in there.
32:33So we screen tested and worked long and hard and were lucky enough to come up with two superb actors
32:38in Ross and Steve.
32:40Tell me what happened with Kathy.
32:42I told you.
32:43You haven't told me anything.
32:47Tell me!
32:53All right.
32:55I did it because of Sharon.
32:56Is that what you want to hear?
32:57I wanted to do to you what you did to me.
33:02Grant Mitchell.
33:03His world was turned on its head once again.
33:07You slept with him, remember?
33:11I feel it was different.
33:13Why?
33:14He just was.
33:16I didn't know that the first time.
33:18In one minute I was looking at him, in the next.
33:21Ripping each other's clothes off.
33:26Now we get to it, don't we, hey?
33:27What's good for one is good for the other, right?
33:30Kathy and Ben.
33:31They were the only decent thing in my life.
33:33Yeah, and Sharon was the only decent thing in my life.
33:36But it didn't stop you, did it?
33:37So like I said, we're quits.
33:39You really mean this, don't you?
33:41I mean, do you actually believe it?
33:43What's the matter, Phil?
33:45I mean, I'm Grant Mitchell.
33:46At first, I ask questions later.
33:48Trick women like dirt.
33:49Don't care about anybody else but myself.
33:51But that's what people think of me, innit?
33:52That's what you and everybody expect from me.
33:55So I shout about it when I live up to it.
33:57I ain't talking about anybody else.
33:58I'm talking about Kathy.
34:00Bad guys are better to play than good guys.
34:02Good guys, we all do that in everyday life.
34:06You know something?
34:07It was hardly worth the wait.
34:09Stop the car.
34:10Get stuck.
34:11I said stop the car!
34:18With a bad guy character, you can kind of go to work,
34:21you can play out this kind of fantasy, and then go home.
34:26As an actor, you want to play extremes.
34:29I mean, I'm not mad on playing those characters that just kind of bumble along.
34:34You know, I like the highs and the lows.
34:36They're the things that kind of keep me going.
34:38Really?
34:40Yeah, really.
34:41Lord, then throw me out.
34:42Throw me out.
34:43Come on.
34:48I can't tell you.
34:51Get up.
34:52Get off me.
34:53What are you doing?
34:54You all right, Steve?
34:56When Matthew Robinson told me about the murder storyline,
34:59I thought, wow, bring it on.
35:00That's what I want to do.
35:01That's why I'm here.
35:10I wanted Matthew to go down.
35:12I didn't want to spend any more time in that prison set than I had to.
35:15Anyway, he deserved it.
35:17In respect of Stephen Owen, on the count of manslaughter.
35:23Not guilty.
35:27In respect of Matthew Rose, on the count of manslaughter.
35:35Guilty.
35:44No!
35:46He's innocent!
35:47My son is innocent!
35:50You call this justice!
35:53My favourite bad guy, there's only one.
35:57That's Dirty Den.
35:58How long have we been married?
35:59Den, you're not saving up for our silver wedding already, are you?
36:0218 years.
36:04In the beginning, it was good.
36:06We both went to the same things, and we both worked damn hard to get them.
36:08Well, that's what I keep telling you.
36:10Yeah, and then the bubble burst.
36:11The dream faded.
36:12There ain't no big house in Rygate.
36:14There ain't no pair of tiny feet.
36:15All we've got is the shambles, this pretense, these lies.
36:18Look, Den, I haven't got time to...
36:19Will you stop it?
36:20Will you stop avoiding the issue?
36:22Will you stop making it impossible?
36:25Den Watts was not a very attractive or nice person.
36:33But if you went below the surface, you understood him.
36:39And you loved to hate him.
36:43He was the lovable rogue, wasn't he, Den?
36:45I mean, everyone loved him, didn't they?
36:47Even though he was a real...
36:50What do you call it?
36:53Dirty Den Watts, desperate to get out of the neurotic grip of Angie,
36:57finally got his chance when he discovered she'd lied
36:59about having terminal cancer to keep him.
37:01On Christmas Day, 1986, he delivered her final present.
37:07I don't want to get morbid today of all days, but it scares me.
37:11I don't think I can keep up this performance 24 hours a day.
37:14Oh, you could keep this performance up for a lifetime.
37:20Like on the Orient Express, like in the bar, like chatting up the barman.
37:27Oh, I've told my husband this terrible lie.
37:29Not a little white one, but a big black one.
37:34Six little months to live.
37:36Six tragic little months.
37:39That has got to be the sickest joke that you've ever played.
37:43And then what's fell for it?
37:44Well, now the joke's on you.
37:48This, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor
37:53telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce.
38:00Happy Christmas, Ian.
38:05Blackmail, robbery, rape, drive-by shootings
38:07and even murder make forgiveness pretty hard down at EastEnders.
38:11But they're so used to infidelity that they can usually find it in their hearts
38:15to let bygones be bygones.
38:17And even nice guy Arthur Fowler couldn't resist temptation.
38:20You tell me you've been seen so tired and you expect me to relax.
38:23We can sort this out.
38:25Now, come here, Paul.
38:25Now, go away from me, Arthur.
38:26Now, come on, Pauline.
38:28Will you please...
38:28I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.
38:31And frankly, you know, if as much happened to one character
38:35as happens to any one of the characters in EastEnders,
38:37then they'd be in a mental institution, wouldn't they?
38:39I mean, you know, Pauline wouldn't be walking around as she is
38:41because she's been through so much.
38:42The one I think sticks in most people's minds and mine
38:45is when Pauline hit Arthur with the frying pan
38:48and the props boys had left me a stack of six frying pans
38:52to pick my chugs.
38:53But Pauline beat us!
38:55Get away from me, Arthur!
38:57But how could you stay mad at Arthur for long?
39:02Arthur?
39:02Yeah?
39:03Do you think you'll sleep all right tonight?
39:05Well, as well as I usually do, I suppose.
39:08Good night, love.
39:08Now, listen, if you do want to do anything for your birthday,
39:11just let me know, eh?
39:14Arthur?
39:14Hmm?
39:16There is something I want to do for me birthday.
39:19Oh, yeah?
39:21Yeah.
39:23But can I do it early?
39:28Oh!
39:30Even though Barry had lost his father's fortune,
39:33Roy stood by him.
39:34But when the tables were turned,
39:36it took Barry months to forgive his father for his betrayal.
39:39The night his mother had died,
39:41Roy was in bed with his mistress.
39:43Then I risked losing you.
39:53And even Ian could find it in himself to forgive Cindy in the early days.
39:58Oh, look, Cindy, look,
40:00I want you back.
40:01More than anything I've ever wanted, I want you back.
40:03Ricky, please.
40:06Come back with me.
40:15But Natalie had to leave and come back again before Bianca could find it in her heart to forgive her
40:21for sleeping with Ricky.
40:22Slag.
40:23Slag.
40:24In big red letters.
40:25What?
40:26Slag!
40:27You work on so many different episodes and you're not working in story order that you develop this way of
40:33working where you can throw yourself into it at any moment.
40:35So if somebody's calling you a slag and you know they're your mate, you're not really thinking, oh, that's really
40:39hurtful.
40:40Don't you start, I know, it ain't a competition.
40:43Just as well.
40:44Whenever I see anyone cry, I cry.
40:49I'm really sorry, Bianca, about everything.
40:55Patsy cries all the time.
40:59Oh, I'm coming it up.
41:05I always found myself quite emotional when me and Lucy did arguing scenes because we do get on really well.
41:11And my last scene I did with Lucy, I had one line and I just wanted to, I just couldn't
41:15stop crying for ages.
41:18It's such a mad place to work.
41:20It's a really crazy job, isn't it?
41:22I mean, we all come in this place and cry all day.
41:24It's great.
41:26Barry and I having this drink, we thought we might want to come.
41:28But it wasn't long before Bianca had to ask for Natalie's forgiveness after the shock revelation that she'd been sleeping
41:35with her mother's boyfriend, Dan.
41:37I'm really sorry about everything.
41:39Lying to you, isn't it?
41:41Yeah, well, that's the least of your crimes.
41:46Still, it's your loss, not mine.
41:49We're still mates though, aren't we?
41:53Yeah, of course we are.
41:56See you round.
42:04And Irene Raymond.
42:06Now, she'd had a passionate affair with Troy, her toy boy lover.
42:11Husband Terry, himself no saint, found out that he chose to turn the other cheek.
42:17I mean, if that's OK with you.
42:21So do I get the girl.
42:25Oh, do you still want the girl?
42:30Oh, yes.
42:35Shall we pick up where we loved off?
42:41The EastEnders families.
42:43They're like our own flesh and blood.
42:45So much so that sometimes it's difficult to separate facts from fiction.
42:50People say the strangest things.
42:52Well, as bad, as bad, as bad.
42:54All the time, every day of my life.
42:56Tucker and their teenage kids are saying, Mark.
43:00About 30, 40 times a day.
43:02All right, Dweagel.
43:04Hi, Bianca.
43:05Where's Ricky?
43:06Ricky, Bianca.
43:07Ricky.
43:08And then for a little while I was getting Dan, so it was quite a nice change.
43:12Ricky, Barry.
43:13On good days, I'd be very friendly and chatty.
43:15On bad days, I ignored them.
43:17Before Mel married Ian, people used to shout, don't do it, don't do it.
43:21I can't tell you what people say to me in the street.
43:23Then they shouted, Steve's a murderer, don't go with Steve, stay with Ian.
43:26Nice one.
43:27And now they shout, you bitch, leaving Ian, so can't really win.
43:32But you're our friends.
43:34Sometimes, though, they have to move on.
43:38The truth is, I walked into the green room, and I seemed to be the only person there.
43:45This was on a Saturday.
43:46And I went into it, I thought I must be late, so I go in for a scene, and there's
43:50every member
43:51of the production team is doing a part.
43:54There's no member of the cast.
43:55So I said, where's someone's at?
43:58Oh, no, it's opening the supermarket.
44:00Oh.
44:00Oh, well, they've only got this scene, so they're not coming in.
44:03Oh.
44:03And where's, oh, no, I'm fine.
44:05So I said, I've just come in all the way just to walk in the back of the shop.
44:10You know, we've got to, everywhere we go, we're, you know, feeted, and people look after
44:15us, and nothing's too much, and there's these people moaning.
44:18Something happened.
44:20And I just went down and said, Julia, can I see you?
44:22She says, yes, darling, couldn't you?
44:23Of course you can.
44:24I said, you know, they're negotiating my contract next week.
44:28She said, yes, and the BBC had told me that I've got to look after you very well.
44:32I said, I don't want to do it anymore.
44:35And she went, what?
44:41Well, it was my decision to be killed off.
44:43They said, what do you want to do is you can leave it open.
44:46I said, no, I want to be killed off.
44:49I said that she'd had this scene with Michelle, and that as she'd left, there'd been a young
44:54couple coming along, the girl holding the flowers, and as they'd gone past in the flowers,
44:58it would be the girl that shot me.
45:02But messages hadn't gone through and ended up being shot by a bunch of daffodils, which
45:05is great, because the day after it had gone out, I was in Sloan Square shopping, and I
45:10came out and my car was covered in daffodils, so someone thought it was funny.
45:21I wanted to leave.
45:22I'd got fed up with him.
45:33So by the time I left, I was quite pressurised.
45:38I was stressed, you know.
45:38I just wanted out.
45:48As for the daffodils, I didn't care, as long as they tied it up, I just wanted out by them.
46:18When I went up and told them that I was going, there was that fear, well, what am I going
46:22to do if they say, if you go, we're going to kill you off?
46:25So I had to think about that one, because it was happening a lot at the time.
46:29And I kind of thought, well, if that's what they want to do, I've made my decision, you
46:33know, I've really made sure that I've made my decision, and if they want to kill me off,
46:38then so be it, you know.
46:40Bianca, wait.
46:42Bianca, look, I know you're upset, but I'm telling you something now.
46:44You go without me, you're going to regret it.
46:45I don't think so.
46:46Now, stay away from me.
46:47You don't mean that.
46:48Look, it's over.
46:49You told me you had feelings for me.
46:51It just can't disappear.
46:52You might have, Dan, completely.
46:55I went up to Mel Young and Mafia, they're like executive producers, and it's like, you
47:02know, I don't really know what they're going to react like, and I don't know if they're
47:05going to kind of say, well, fine, bye then.
47:09You can go now.
47:10You know, because I know that nobody is better than this program.
47:17Bianca!
47:19Rikki!
47:21I can't believe you're here.
47:23Matthew didn't really say a lot.
47:24Mel was just...
47:25And he said he was just a bit fed up that it was so soon.
47:29But I couldn't have had a better leaving storyline, and I couldn't have had nicer compliments.
47:34Call someone to turn out, come on!
47:36And it was just like a dream come true.
47:38I mean, you know, because I know that he could have turned around and said, well, look, you
47:42know, it's too soon.
47:43You can't just go.
47:44See you later type of thing.
47:46But he didn't, so I was lucky.
47:49Look, I love you and no one else comes near.
47:52I just need to know that you feel the same.
47:53Well, of course I don't!
47:54You know, I ain't second best.
47:56You know, I'm enough for you.
47:57You are!
47:58Bianca, I mean it.
47:59Just do me this one thing, be honest with me.
48:02Am I a compromiser?
48:04Am I really what you want?
48:08Am I?
48:19What do you know?
48:21That's what I needed to know.
48:23My final scene with Sid was sad, but just looking at his little face, it was really sad.
48:30Didn't take a lot, really, you know.
48:32So then I kind of thought, oh, bye.
48:35And he's got one of them faces, hasn't he, that you just want to cry anyway.
48:53I'm very lucky, I suppose, in the fact that I do have this open book at the moment that
48:57I can keep coming back.
48:59I mean, I don't know how long that will last.
49:00No one's indispensable.
49:01And certainly if they decided one day that Cathy got killed by a shark while she was swimming
49:06in South Africa, that would be it for me.
49:08So I don't really know how long it'll last.
49:10I love you, Mum.
49:13I swore I wasn't going to do this.
49:15I couldn't let you go without saying it.
49:17All the times I've let you down and hurt you.
49:19Just stop it, all right?
49:20Don't you dare put yourself down.
49:23I am so proud of you.
49:25And I know if your dad was here he'd say the same.
49:29You and Ben are the best things that have ever happened to me in my life.
49:32Every man I've ever known counts for nothing next to you two.
49:36I love you to death.
49:37Come here.
49:42Come on.
49:43Otherwise you're going to miss your plane.
49:45I'll ring you as soon as I get there.
49:46Yeah.
49:47No, don't watch me, will you?
49:48We'll just go.
49:50See you, mate.
49:51Have fun.
49:55Jilly.
49:56I always love working with Jilly.
49:58It's always great when she comes back.
49:59And please bring her back again.
50:02I think if I was ever going to be killed off, I'd like to be back in Albert Square.
50:08I'd like to be serving on Mark's stall now, which was originally my husband's stall, where
50:14I worked, and perhaps the stall could fall down and I would be killed by a 400-weight
50:19King Edwards.
50:20That would be it for me.
50:22Go on, Nez.
50:22I started.
50:23Serving potatoes.
50:25The way that I would like to go out, I suppose, a ball of flame.
50:30In E20 being burnt down.
50:32Maybe.
50:34I think he'd probably have to drown in the chip fryer.
50:39I think Ricky would definitely kill Bianca.
50:41If anyone, he'd strangle her.
50:45EastEnders.
50:471908 dramatic episodes with thousands of stories swapped over the bar of the Queen Vic.
50:5215 years of on-screen highs and lows.
50:55More people will come and go in the next 15 years.
50:58More pictures for the EastEnders family album, bringing their own brand of heartache, passion,
51:04revelations, and perhaps a ghost from the past.
51:09Well, I don't know what's going on in Albert Square.
51:13But they need someone to sort them out.
51:23So, with a big week in Walford to come, Ross Kemp is on BBC One tomorrow night at eight,
51:28with EastEnders stars past and present marking 40 years on the square.
51:53I say that on theì²´ this morning before that.