EastEnders original cast: then and now

'Dirty' Den Watts was Albert's Square's original villain, terrorising his wife and neighbours and getting his teenaged daughter's best friend pregnant.His marriage to alcoholic Angie Watts was one of the most tempestuous the soap had ever seen and a year after we were introduced to them, he handed her divorce papers on the 1986 Christmas Day episode – watched by a record breaking 30.15million viewers. He was "killed off" by an East End gang in 1989, but returned again in 2003 for an 18 month stint, before being killed off for good at the hands of his second wife, Chrissie Watts.His character has been described by EastEnders executive producer Louise Berridge as being arguably one of the most iconic soap characters ever.

Actor Leslie Grantham's second departure from the show was shrouded in scandal as he was at the time embroiled in reports that he had exposed himself online to a 23-year-old female jouralist (lewd and offensive comments he'd made about his co-stars were also revealed in the national press). He published an autobiography in 2006, detailing his explosive life as an actor and previous misadventures before his time in the public eye – including serving a prison sentence of ten years for the murder of a taxi driver.He died in 2018.

She ran the local pub, The Queen Victoria, with her husband Den, but beneath her successful business and (sometimes) happy home life, Angie is struggling with an addiction to alcohol. She's desperate to make her marriage to Den work, despite his regular flings with other women and a long term affair. Faced with losing him, Angie panics and tells Den she has just months to live – ultimately resulting in those Christmas Day divorce papers.Angie left Walford for Spain and later Florida, before news travelled back home of her death from cirrhosis of the liver in 2002.

Not that Anita's life and times have been defined by her marital status, but she did wed Queen guitarist Brian May in the year 2000 so it deserves a passing mention.After her exit from the soap in 1988, Angie enjoyed plenty of success in the world of TV, theatre and music, including coming seventh in 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing aged 62. She's also worked on The Bill, Casualty and Holby City (natch) and has accumulated a number of stage accolades too.For her time on EastEnders as Angie Watts, Dobson received the Pye Award for Outstanding Female Personality.In February 2019 she attended the Baftas with husband Brian, looking as glamorous as ever.

The adopted daughter of Den and Angie Watts, Sharon was every inch the spoiled teen in Walford, always with the best clothes and must-have tech. She's close with both parents – when Den and Angie split, Sharon is caught in the middle until Angie leaves. In 2002, she travels to Miami to bring Angie's body back to bury her. She's left and returned to Walford three times, most recently in 2012, and now runs the Queen Vic herself. Despite being an EastEnder's favourite from the start, Shazza's biggest storyline to date remains the explosive 'Sharongate' – during her marriage to Walford hard-man Grant Mitchell, Sharon was conducting a secret affair with his brother, Phil, the uncovering of which is one of EastEnder's highest viewed episodes of all time. She went on to marry Phil but they split after he discovered she had an affair with Keanu Taylor...

Letitia 'Tish' Dean has become a bona fide A Lister in her own right, arguably one of the biggest stars to come out of the soap in it's 34 year run. She was already a successful actress when she joined the soap in the 80s, having starred in Brookside, Grange Hill and The Hello Girls before taking on the role of Sharon.She's a regular on the pantomime circuit, had her own run on Strictly (just like on-screen mum Angie) and released a fitness DVD in 2008. The classic soap star trajectory.

Early episodes saw Michelle Fowler compete with best friend Sharon for the affections of local teen heart-throb Kelvin Carpenter, but her storylines quickly became less wholesome when she found herself dealing with a teen pregnancy. They got even more explosive when the baby turned out to be Den's, who promises to support her and their baby as long as his paternity is kept a secret. In 1995, Michelle is shot by a friend of Grant Mitchell, her arch-nemesis and then husband of her best friend Sharon. She decided she's no longer safe and needs to get away from Grant, emigrating to Alabama with her daughter, Vicki.

Fans were thrilled when EastEnders bosses announced the return of Michelle in 2016, but the recasting of the character with actress Jenna Russell left some pining after the good old days. Original actress Susan Tully dropped out of public consciousness when she quit the role and we haven't heard hide nor hair of her since.Jenna Russel took over when a disgraced Michelle returned to London following a sordid affair with an American pupil in her career as a college lecturer.

Pauline Fowler, mum of Michelle, was an outspoken, headstrong woman, and clearly passed on her compassion to her daughter. Her marriage to Arthur Fowler was by no means perfect, but after his sudden death in 1996 she was bereft and never truly found love again.She was betrayed on many occasions by her family, first with Michelle leaving and later daughter-in-law Sonia Jackson trying to turn her son, Martin, against her.Pauline's final scene, after a mammoth 21 years on the show, saw her die alone on Arthur's Bench in the Square on Christmas Eve, going down in history as one of the most dramatic soap deaths of all time.

Wendy Richard was already a bit of a star when she joined the soap, the only truly known well name in the 1985 cast thanks to her time on 1970s comedy hit Are You Being Served playing Miss Shirley Brahms. After a long and illustrious career winning her national acclaim and even an Order of the British Empire by the Queen in the year 2000, Wendy died at a Harley Street clinic in London, where she was being treated for breast cancer, in 2009.

The original Albert Square matriarch, Lou Beale was a formidable character who ran her family with an iron fist, but also plenty of love.

Anna Wing was an actual IRL East Ender, and had already amassed plenty of TV credits before she joined the soap, including Dr Who. After she left she mainly worked on stage, but also continued to work on plenty of British TV and film productions including The Calcium Kid with Orlando Bloom and kids film Tooth in 2004. In 2009 she attended her on screen daughter Wendy's funeral. Anna passed away in her sleep in 2013, age 98.

Son of Lou and twin bother of Pauline, Pete ran the family veg stall on Albert Square – a traditional stalwart of East End life. Pete and Pauline grew up at Number 45 Albert Square (which in 2019 is still owned by his son Ian), and his childhood friend Den Watts lived nearby.When we meet Pete he is an honest, hardworking man, married to Kathy. Kathy is his second wife - we learn that when Pete was a teenager a one night stand with local prostitute Pat Harris resulted in a pregnancy and subsequent marriage. Some of Pete's biggest storylines revolved around confirming the paternity of the two sons produced during their marriage, Simon and David.

Pete Beale left Walford in 1993 to elope with his third wife, Rose Chapman. But the character was killed off for good later on in the year after actor Peter Dean publicly slammed the BBC for his early dismissal, blaming lazy and unimaginative scriptwriters.In fact, he gave a full exposeé to The Sun in which he slammed other actors on the soap, leading the show's creator Julia Smith to release a statement saying slander of the show would not be tolerated.Since he left EastEnders, Peter's TV credits have dwindled although he has featured in comedy sketch shows like Little Britain and Bo Selecta. He most recently took part in the third series of the BBC's Real Marigold Hotel, in summer 2018.

Kathy is introduced to the series as the young, pretty wife of Pete Beale and Ian's mother. She works behind the bar at the Vic with her friend Angie Watts, and helps out at the family fruit stall. But when she changes jobs to work at the new wine bar across the road, her storylines get more complex. She is raped by her new boss which eventually exposes an illegitimate daughter, Donna, from an earlier rape as a teenager. Pete never believes that Kathy was blameless, and their relationship turns abusive as Pete turns to drink before they eventually separate. Kathy's subsequent marriages and relationships are all marred by domestic violence. After leaving and returning to Walford on various occasions in the late 90s, she eventually returned for good in 2015, following her daughter Donna's suicide.

Gillian Taylforth who plays Kathy basically hasn't aged a day since she joined the soap 34 years ago, which makes her maternal relationship to Ian a bit weird. But during her break from EastEnders, her main role was as Jackie Pascoe-Webb on all five series of Footballer's Wives. She's done various reality TV work including Big Brother in 2013, and for a time was a recurring panelist on Loose Women.She's also had long term roles on The Bill and Hollyoaks.

Ian Beale was - sorry, is - the son of Kathy and Pete Beale, the grandson of Lou Beale and the cousin of Michelle Fowler. As a teenager Ian was an enterprising lad, arguing with his father over his ambitions of working in the catering business but follows his dreams anyway, encouraged by his nan, Lou. He buys his first business, a local cafe, soon after graduating from college.In his personal life, Ian experiences plenty of romantic set backs, including a failed relationship with his childhood friend Sharon, and is even accused of fathering his cousin Michelle's baby when she falls pregnant.

Over 30 years on, Adam Woodyatt is the only OG cast member remaining, and as such Ian has had more dramatic, touching and down right unbelievable storylines than any other character. He's been married five times (to four different women), has had two aborted engagements, fathered three children (and suffered the death of his daughter Lucy) and even been homeless. He's currently the proud owner of multiple businesses in Walford, and recently fans were shocked when they learned the monthly takings from his fish and chip shop alone exceeded £10,000.in 2020 it was confirmed that Adam would be taking an 'extended break' from filming for personal reasons and he was written out of the soap. The last we saw of him, he headed for the tube station and chucked his phone in the bin on the way, after discovering his wife Sharon was poisoning him. Will he be back? We'll have to wait and see... (but yeah, probs).

'Nasty' Nick Cotton was another of the soap's original villains, and gave Dirty Den a run for his money. In fact he was worse, brought in by the soap's producers as an "agent of chaos" responsible for the show's first murder, Reg Cox, who was found dead in the opening scene of the first episode. Throughout 30 on-off years on the show, Nick was involved in multiple deaths. But drugs were his ultimate downfall – after battling a heroin addiction throughout the 90s, an overdose in 2015 left him fighting for his life.He died on the 15th of February 2015 – exactly 30 years after Reg Cox had died in the same spot – and his dying words were admitting to the murder.

Nick has had more returns and departures from the soap than any other character, so it makes sense that his credits outside of EastEnders have been sporadic. He's a fan of pantomime, but his real love is for music and in 2001 he performed in the Leiber and Stoller tribute evening at the Hammersmith Apollo, singing Trouble, originally performed by Elvis Presley.In 2002, he toured around the UK playing Billy Flynn in the long-running musical Chicago AND in 2010 he joined a metal band called Heavy Metal Kids (tbf we can totally see that). Oh, and he's also won the prestigious Rear of the Year award in 2001, which is the real accolade here.

The mother of Nick, Dot was introduced as a gossiping, God-fearing local woman who'd lived in Walford nearly her whole life and was estranged from her cheating husband. She had a difficult relationship with her son, and would ask no questions when he regularly disappeared for weeks on end.Her Samaritan-esque ways are a great comfort to many in Walford but also causes some difficulty, gaining her a reputation as something of a meddling busy body. She struggles to cope with Nick's heroin addiction and tries her best to help him but has never been the motherly type. Ultimately when Nick overdoses in 2015, she doesn't get help for him and allows him to die.

Dot very nearly matches Ian's incredible 34 year run, but left Walford in 1993 to go and live in Graves End with her grandson, Ashley and his mum.She returned in 1997 and in the year 2000, Dot made the selfless decision to help her old friend Ethel Skinner, another original cast member, to die on her 85th birthday, after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.In February 2020, after 35 years playing the character, June left the cast.