Gin & Anguish

The Den & Angie years are EastEnders at its most compelling. This sideblog, begun on 13 March 2019, celebrates one half of the British soap's most iconic duo. Gritty, glamorous and gin-soaked, Angie Watts will forever be Queen of the Vic. I follow as @firebirdjudith.

[gin-and-anguish]

Den & Angie: episode by episode

Episode four (28 February 1985)

The day of the Watts’ private party has arrived. They have no choice but to go ahead with it if they want to avoid being caught out by the brewery rep, which does nothing to help thaw the frosty atmosphere at the Queen Vic.

As Sharon points out, her parents are in a mess entirely of their own making.

Den's not impressed that Angie has taken their daughter clothes shopping while he's ‘had to scrub round the bins' trying to find expensive-looking empty bottles to fill with cheap whisky from the cash and carry.

Upstairs at the pub, with the party in full swing and booze flowing freely, there's no sign of the brewery rep. Den looks about as cheerful as an undertaker, but Angie is determined to enjoy herself. Might as well, eh?

The landlord tries to persuade his wife's best mate, Kathy Beale, to keep Angie in check. Den doesn't want to be shown up at his own party. But Kath knows there's not much she can do.

All glammed up like her mum, Sharon sneaks downstairs. She's got her sights set on hapless barman Lofty, who's on his own in the darkened bar.

The tipsy teen makes a move on him - but Angie swiftly puts a stop to it. She's not too drunk to realise what Sharon's up to. Messing around with bar staff is not on (unless, of course, you happen to be the landlady).

Angie leads Lofty upstairs for a slow dance. She promptly embarrasses Den by giving the barman a lingering kiss in full view of all the Watts' friends. The music stops abruptly. Angie laughs in her husband's face.

The party's well and truly over. In private, Den gives Lofty a warning then has a go at the real culprit - his wife, who shows no remorse. Angie wanted to get her own back on her husband. Why? Because she knows all about his affair.

Den tries to deny it, claiming that he stopped seeing Jan ages ago, but his wife won't be fooled.

Angie veers between lashing out at her husband and pleading with him to be faithful. She reaches out to him, but he pulls away. The only comfort she'll find tonight lies at the bottom of a gin bottle.

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Den & Angie: episode by episode

Episode three (26 February 1985)

Den and Angie are convinced they've outwitted the brewery rep until it dawns on them that he may yet have the last laugh. On the off chance he decides to accept their invitation, he'll arrive expecting a private party only to find there's nothing of the sort happening; it's just an excuse to get dodgy booze past the brewery. That'd certainly land the couple in hot water.

They need to know for certain whether the rep will come or not. He's keeping them on tenterhooks.

But it’s the police who are really making Den sweat. Where was he on the night the Watts' neighbour, old Reg Cox, was murdered? With his mistress, as the landlord reluctantly admits to DS Rich, hoping nothing gets back to Angie.

Den's 'ladyfriend’ is called Jan, and she's the only person who can give him an alibi. His best mate, market trader Pete Beale, knows about the affair. Den confides in Pete and tries to justify cheating on Angie.

The Watts have fallen out of love (assuming they loved each other in the first place). Theirs is a destructive relationship. It's driving Angie to drink and Den to adultery and deceit. They're living dangerously close to the edge.

The day goes from bad to worse when the brewery rep calls to accept Den and Angie’s invitation. So now landlord and landlady are faced with throwing a party neither of them ever intended to have while pretending to be thrilled about it.

Angie’s snarl says it all.

[gin-and-anguish]

Den & Angie: episode by episode

Episode two (21 February 1985)

Downstairs at the Queen Vic, Den and Angie’s anniversary party is about to begin. Upstairs, Den is making a secret phone call - he’s having an affair. Seventeen years of marriage is just one big joke to him.

Den and Angie’s married life is not just unhappy, then; it’s a sham. They present a united front for the benefit of the Vic’s customers (and, to some extent, in the presence of Sharon). As the party gets underway, they pose for anniversary photos, but their smiles are just for show.

Out of sight, they’re at daggers drawn.

The tensions in the Watts’ relationship are in sharp contrast to the happiness shared by two of their long-married friends. Pauline and Arthur Fowler are in the pub celebrating the news that they’re going to be parents for the third time.

Angie is a loose cannon, drowning her sorrows in booze and getting easily-led Arthur drunk too. Den remains grimly sober throughout the evening. By closing time, Angie is legless, confused and filling the empty pub with raucous laughter.

Den has had enough and swiftly takes charge. He flings his wife over his shoulder (with such ease that you get the impression this is a regular occurrence) and carries her upstairs.

In the kitchen, Angie makes jokes at Den’s expense, waggling a floppy flower in front of his crotch. Romance is certainly not in the air. There’s nothing for it but for Den to carry Angie, who’s still laughing wildly, off to bed like a sack of potatoes. 

Sharon watches her parents’ farce on the landing, exasperated but not surprised.

The next morning, Angie has a hell of a hangover. No surprise there either.

Their personal life is characterised by conflict and division, but nothing brings the Vic’s seasoned landlord and landlady together like fiddling the brewery. When a brewery rep drops in, Den and Angie are caught red-handed with knock-off alcohol. The pair must think on their feet and work together as they try to pass it off as supplies for ‘a private party’, even inviting the rep to the imaginary event.

Will they get away with it?

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Den & Angie: episode by episode

Episode one (19 February 1985)

It’s middle-aged couple Den and Angie Watts’ 17th wedding anniversary. Neither looks overjoyed as they get the Queen Vic ready for opening time on a chilly East End morning.

Frustrated Angie undermines her husband’s masculinity with jokes with a sting in their tail.

The Vic is surprisingly popular for a dingy pub, suggesting that Den and Angie do a good job of running it together. They certainly spruce themselves up for the punters.

However, landlord and landlady are too busy behind the bar to give teenage daughter Sharon as much attention as they’d like.

Den and Angie have just about earned the approval of two of the Vic’s regulars, forceful Lou Beale and quirky Ethel Skinner.

Ethel cleans the pub, so she gets to see behind the scenes. She’s well aware that her employers manage their business affairs rather better than their personal ones.

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Strained smiles from Den & Angie on their disastrous second honeymoon.

Filming on location proved to be a challenge once the press heard about it.

‘The tourists were out in their thousands today [23 September 1986]. They all seemed to be British and anxious to have their photos taken with Den, Angie and Jan. Quite understandable, of course, but a bit of a nuisance when we are fighting such a tight schedule. 

‘We later discovered why there were so many Britons around. It seems that the story of our departure from Heathrow has been in all the newspapers back home, and the news of our arrival in Venice has reached the holidaymakers. So, we became a tourist attraction - something else to tell everyone about when we get back home.’

- From EastEnders’ co-creator/producer Julia Smith’s Venice diary in the EastEnders Special annual (1987)

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Candid photos of Letitia Dean and her on-screen mum, Anita Dobson, at a glamorous event in the mid-1980s. (Or as I like to think of it, Sharon and Angie enjoying a night out ‘up West’!)

How sweet is that second pic?!

Bonus points if you spotted another EastEnders legend, June Brown (who plays everyone’s favourite busybody-with-a-heart, Dot Cotton), in the background!

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It’s been going on for years, love. I’m sorry you had to find out like this, though.

Pivotal moment from early in the Den & Angie storyline. Sharon discovers her dad, who she’s always idolised, is cheating on her mum. Cue the duff duffs...

I made a (more pleasant!) discovery of my own this week: the Classic EastEnders Scenes channel on YouTube, which includes this video. It’s a treasure trove for bitesize EE! :-)

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Angie flashes one of her trademark winning smiles alongside James Willmott-Brown (don’t be fooled by his smile: he’s a wrong’un) at the opening of Albert Square’s mercifully short-lived yuppie hangout, The Dagmar, in 1987. She’s officially in competition with ex-husband Den at the Queen Vic now.

Things might look cosy here, but Angie will soon be itching to get away from the wine bar. Having been a proper East End landlady in a proper East End boozer for years, she’s not best pleased to be demoted to barmaid, especially when Willmott-Brown takes every opportunity to pull rank and remind her who’s boss.

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Temptation

[thinkingaboutbri-deactivated202]

Anita’s recent interview, about her theatre roles, going to the Oscars, visiting the Bo Rap set plus some good Bri anecdotes. Gotta say she had me in stitches, she’s such a sweetie. Also, did you notice? SHE’S WEARING BRIAN’S SPIDER WAISTCOAT AAAAA!!!

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At the end of this lovely, lively interview from July 2019, Anita is asked if a return to EastEnders could be on the cards. (The fact that Angie died off-screen in 2002 need be no barrier to the scriptwriters, especially as best mate Kathy has already come back from the dead!).

'I think it's very unlikely. I mean, it was such a huge thing for me. It's so iconic now, you know, the moment of the divorce papers, that I think why would you go back and run the risk of smearing or spoiling all of that?'

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Angie’s feeling philosophical

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Oh, the irony. Someone needs to have a quiet word with Sharon about her dad.

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Looks like Angie’s chosen her superhero name...

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‘We found a rhythm immediately, rehearsing the first scene,’ says Anita. ‘As soon as we started doing the dialogue, Leslie turned around and went, “Yes, brilliant!” From the start, it worked [...] There was just an indefinable connection between us,’ she says. ‘We just clicked. We had each other’s backs.’

- Anita Dobson discussing her chemistry with co-star Leslie Grantham in TV Years magazine (issue two, 2018)

[gin-and-anguish]

Den and Angie caricature by Jim Hansen

As a popular cartoonist, Hansen drew The Beano’s Dennis the Menace. That’d be a pretty appropriate nickname for Angie’s wayward husband, don’t you think! 

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‘Angie was a gift from the gods. I was a girl rather than a woman emotionally and so was she. The producers gave me the power to run with her and I did. She could be coquettish and flirty and funny and epic and angry. It was amazing.’

- Anita Dobson interviewed in the Telegraph (2012)

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‘“EastEnders” are here.........BBC-TV’s new bi-weekly drama serial set in the imaginary London Borough of Walford comes to our screens on Tuesday, February 19 [1985].

“EastEnders”, an on-going story of life in the East End of London, focuses on the community who live and work around the fairly run-down area of Albert Square, E 20. The social centre of life in the area is “The Queen Victoria” pub, run by Den and Angie Watts, played by LESLIE GRANTHAM and ANITA DOBSON.’

This extract from original EastEnders publicity material places Den and Angie at the forefront of the brand new soap (or ‘bi-weekly drama serial’!). The pub they manage rather more successfully, it must be said, than their marriage occupies a central place in the community. The behind-closed-doors personal struggles the couple attempts to conceal from the Vic’s punters will soon be at the heart of the action, revealed to millions of viewers in a series of compelling storylines.

The photo is from one of the first photoshoots (perhaps the first) featuring Den and Angie. They’re all smiles with no hint of tension in the air, and Den hasn’t yet earned his ‘Dirty’ nickname from the press, but just wait...