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19 unusual facts about Leslie Grantham

Angie Watts

However the trip to Venice was fraught with problems and Dobson, Leslie Grantham (Den) and Jane How (Jan) were hounded by the press at all times.

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Angie is well known for her cheeky banter, her huge shaggy perm and turning to alcohol during her stormy marriage to cheating Den (Leslie Grantham) which ends when he hands her divorce papers on Christmas Day, in an episode watched by a record-breaking 30.1 million viewers.

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Alcoholic Angie shares a love/hate marriage to her womanising husband, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), and refuses to let him go even during their rockiest times.

Catford Stadium

In its heyday before the legalisation of bettings shops in the 1960s, the stadium attracted large crowds, and celebrities such as Henry Cooper, Lester Piggott, Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and Leslie Grantham appeared to present trophies to the winners.

Chrissie Watts

She and Den (Leslie Grantham) had met in Spain and married some years earlier, during which time he was believed to be dead by his family and associates.

Den Watts

Leslie Grantham had also decided that he wanted to move on, but Julia Smith didn't want the programme to suffer the double blow of losing both Den and Angie at the same time.

Dennis Rickman

Dennis, the product of a fling between Paula Rickman and Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) in 1974, makes his first appearance is in handcuffs, as he is on day release from prison to attend his mother's funeral.

Frank Butcher

Following Anita Dobson's (Angie) and Leslie Grantham's (Den) decisions to quit the show in 1988, Frank was reintroduced as a full-time character and installed as the new landlord of The Queen Vic, which he ran with his future wife, Pat, before opening a used car-lot on the Square.

Hayley Angel Holt

In 2000, Holt's first break came playing the daughter of Anita Dobson and Leslie Grantham in the screen revival for two part drama The Stretch for Sky1.

Jake Moon

Meanwhile, Chrissie confesses to Jake that she murdered her husband, Den (Leslie Grantham), whose body had been uncovered from the cellar of The Queen Victoria pub several weeks before.

James Willmott-Brown

Local publican Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) is furious about the competition and is even angrier to discover that his wife, Angie (Anita Dobson), from whom he had recently separated, is manageress of The Dagmar.

Julia Smith

Her final contribution to EastEnders, along with that of fellow creator Tony Holland, came in early 1989, amid a dispute with BBC bosses as to whether the character of Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) could ever return to the show after being shot and supposedly killed.

Louise Jameson

Jameson was a regular prison visitor during the first few years of her career, and during the early 1970s she met Leslie Grantham at Leyhill Prison in Gloucestershire, while he was serving 12 years of a life sentence for murder.

Pat Butcher

She had flings with Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) and Kenny Beale (Michael Attwell) — both restless men, unwilling to settle down with her.

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In addition, she was an old friend of Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), a former lover of Angie's husband Den (Leslie Grantham) and, as a supposed former resident of Walford, she was known to many of the other regular characters such as Dot Cotton (June Brown) and Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin).

Paul Priestly

Original production designer, Keith Harris, left the show, and co-creators, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, both decided that the time had come to move on too; their final contribution coinciding with the exit of one of EastEnders most successful characters, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham).