50 Fun Facts About EastEnders

On which BBC channel has EastEnders been broadcast since 1985?

The show was commissioned to give the BBC a twice-weekly rival to ITV's Coronation Street. Within eight months it topped the BARB ratings.

Who created EastEnders with Tony Holland?

Smith and Holland had worked together on Z-Cars and the hospital drama Angels. Phil Redmond created Brookside; Tony Warren created Coronation Street.

On what date did the first episode of EastEnders air?

It went out at 7pm on a Tuesday and drew around 17 million viewers. The launch had slipped from January because of delays to Wogan's chat show.

Whose death opened the very first episode of EastEnders?

The creators decided none of their 23 characters was wicked enough to have killed him, so a 24th, Nick Cotton, was invented to do it.

Which character was the 24th created, specifically so someone was wicked enough to kill Reg Cox?

Played by John Altman, Nick became famous for constant exits and returns, tormenting his mother Dot until the character died in 2015.

What is the fictional postcode of Walford?

The show's working title was East 8, after Hackney's real postcode, but casting agents kept mishearing it as 'Estate', so a made-up code was created. E20 later became real for the Olympic Park.

The producers modelled their Victorian set on which real place in Dalston?

The creators found the area had changed too much to film in for real, so the square was rebuilt at BBC Elstree in Hertfordshire, outdoors and open to the weather.

Where has EastEnders been filmed since it began?

The outdoor set was rebuilt from 2014 using mostly real brick. Den's plunge into the canal, though, had to be shot in a water tank at Ealing because the Grand Union was deemed unsafe.

Who composed the EastEnders theme tune?

Alan Jeapes made the famous aerial title image from about 800 photographs taken at 1,000 feet. Eric Spear wrote Coronation Street's theme and Tony Hatch wrote Neighbours'.

The title sequence was updated to add which London landmark after it was built?

The Dome sits on the Greenwich peninsula, in the bend of the Thames that dominates the aerial shot. The credits have been re-photographed several times since.

Roughly how many viewers watched the first episode of EastEnders in 1985?

Tabloids were soon running EastEnders 'exclusives' daily. By Christmas 1986 the audience for a single episode would almost double that figure.

What did Den Watts hand Angie in the record-breaking 25 December 1986 episode?

Angie had lied that she had six months to live. Across the original broadcast and omnibus, 30.15 million people watched, still the highest UK soap audience ever.

Who played Angie Watts from the first episode until 1988?

Julia Smith had taught her years earlier and remembered her as 'sharp, brittle, very theatrical'. Dobson later married Queen guitarist Brian May.

In 1989, Den Watts was shot by a gunman hiding his weapon in what?

Den fell into the canal and was presumed dead for 14 years. The splash itself was filmed in a tank at Ealing Studios.

In which year did Den Watts return from the dead, having secretly fled to Spain?

Leslie Grantham's return episode aired on 29 September. He only meant to stay 18 months so Den's second death could land on the 20th anniversary.

Who finally killed Den for good in the 20th anniversary episode in 2005?

His wife bludgeoned him in the Queen Vic and he was buried under its cellar floor. 14.34 million watched the episode on 18 February 2005.

What was the very first line spoken in EastEnders, by Den Watts?

He said it just before discovering Reg Cox's body. Den was one of three Watts characters originally named Jack, Pearl and Tracey before the rename.

Which actor who played Den Watts had served ten years in prison for murder before joining the show?

He had shot a taxi driver in Osnabrück while serving in the army in 1966. The story broke three days after the show launched; producers already knew.

Sharon first appeared in 1985 as the adopted child of which Queen Vic landlords?

Letitia Dean's early contract famously forbade her from losing weight. Her 1994 affair with brother-in-law Phil became known as Sharongate.

In the 1994 'Sharongate' storyline, Sharon married Grant Mitchell but had an affair with whom?

Grant learned the truth from a taped confession played at a party. Writer Tony Jordan says it is the storyline he is proudest of.

Teenage Michelle Fowler's 1985 pregnancy was revealed to be by which older man?

The baby was Vicki Fowler, making her the half-sister of Den's adopted daughter and Michelle's best friend, Sharon.

In which year was Phil Mitchell introduced to EastEnders?

He arrived on 20 February, followed by brother Grant, sister Sam and mother Peggy. The Mitchells dominated the soap for the rest of the decade.

Who was revealed as the culprit in the 2001 'Who Shot Phil?' whodunit?

Phil's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his daughter Louise pulled the trigger. 19.8 million watched the reveal, even though a BBC employee had leaked it by email.

Which actor has played Phil Mitchell since 1990?

Born in Maida Vale in 1959, McFadden studied at RADA. Shane Richie plays Alfie Moon, Jake Wood Max Branning and Sid Owen Ricky Butcher.

Before Barbara Windsor took over in 1994, who first played Peggy Mitchell in 1991?

Warne appeared in just ten episodes. Windsor, who was 'as different as it's possible to get' physically, went on to play Peggy for more than two decades.

Barbara Windsor was best known before EastEnders for which British film series?

She made nine of them between 1964 and 1974, including Carry On Camping. She was made a Dame in 2016, the year she left the Square.

Which actor played Grant Mitchell?

Kemp later became a BAFTA-winning documentary maker. Fairbrass played Dan Sullivan, Kazinsky Sean Slater and Harman Dennis Rickman.

Danniella Westbrook is best known for playing which Mitchell?

She was 16 when cast as Phil and Grant's younger sister. Kim Medcalf took over the role during Westbrook's well-publicised addiction years.

Dot Cotton spent most of her Walford years working where?

She shared the job with Pauline Fowler and mispronounced her boss Mr Papadopolous for years. Bupa once rated chain-smoking Dot television's unhealthiest character.

In 2008 Dot became the first British soap character to do what?

The episode, 'Pretty Baby....', was a single half-hour of June Brown recording a message for her hospitalised husband Jim. It earned her a BAFTA nomination.

Who played Dot Cotton from 1985 until 2020?

Born in Suffolk in 1927, she served in the Wrens and trained at the Old Vic school. She left in 1993 and returned in 1997; Dot died off-screen in December 2022, eight months after Brown.

What was the name of Ethel Skinner's beloved pug?

Roly was the Watts' poodle and Wellard was Robbie Jackson's dog. In 2000 the terminally ill Ethel asked her friend Dot to help her die.

Which character is the longest-serving regular in EastEnders history?

Only barmaid Tracey, a background character since 1985, has been there longer overall. Adam Woodyatt has played Ian since the show began.

Which 1996 storyline drew 23m viewers, 4m more than Coronation Street?

Cindy Beale hired a gunman to shoot her husband. The same era produced the critically panned episodes filmed in Ireland.

In 2001 Kat Slater revealed that her 'sister' Zoe was actually her what?

Kat had been raped by her uncle Harry as a child and her parents raised the baby as their own. The Slaters had arrived only a year earlier under producer John Yorke.

Pat Butcher's exit in 2012 was marked by fans donning what trademark accessory?

Pam St Clement said after 25 and a half years it was time to 'hang up her earrings'. The Inbetweeners mocked Jay's piercings as 'the Pat Butcher look'.

Pauline Fowler was killed off in an episode broadcast on which day in 2006?

She collapsed in the snow on Albert Square after 21 years on the show. Wendy Richard had previously spent 13 years as Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served?

Which sitcom did Wendy Richard star in before playing Pauline Fowler?

She played Miss Shirley Brahms in all 69 episodes from 1972 to 1985, leaving Grace Brothers the same year she arrived in Walford.

Arthur Fowler went to prison in the 1980s for stealing what?

Unemployed and desperate to pay for Michelle's wedding, he raided the savings scheme he ran for neighbours. Writers originally planned to spare him jail until a legal adviser objected.

Kathy Beale's 1988 rape storyline involved which wine-bar owner?

Played by William Boyde, James Willmott-Brown returned decades later plotting to buy up the Square. Gillian Taylforth has played Kathy since 1985.

In 1987 EastEnders aired British soap's first same-sex kiss, between Colin Russell and whom?

It was a kiss on the forehead; the first on-the-mouth gay kiss came in 1989 with Guido. Colin's actor Michael Cashman later became a Labour MEP and peer.

Which executive producer introduced the soap's fourth weekly episode in 2000?

Yorke also brought in the Slater family and oversaw Who Shot Phil?. The show had started at two episodes a week in 1985 and moved to three in 1994.

The 1993 charity crossover 'Dimensions in Time' paired EastEnders with which show?

It was shot in 3D for Children in Need and featured several Doctors wandering Albert Square. A 2010 Children in Need special, East Street, crossed over with Coronation Street.

The show's first live episode in 2010 revealed who had killed Archie Mitchell. Who was it?

Lacey Turner's Stacey confessed as her husband Bradley fell to his death from the Queen Vic roof. The episode peaked at 17 million viewers on the 25th anniversary.

The 'Who Killed Lucy Beale?' saga peaked with a week of live episodes for which anniversary?

The 2015 week revealed Lucy's ten-year-old brother Bobby as the killer. The 35th anniversary in 2020 staged a boat disaster on the Thames instead.

Which 2010 storyline drew more than 6,000 complaints to the BBC?

Ronnie Mitchell swapped her dead newborn for Kat Slater's living baby. The backlash led producers to cut the story short.

Walford East, the fictional tube station, sits on the show's map where which real station is?

The map first seen on air in 1996 puts it between Bow Road and West Ham on the District and Hammersmith & City lines. The station set was built in 1993 as the show went to three episodes a week.

Smith and Holland created the original 23 characters in two weeks while on holiday where?

Holland based the Beales and Fowlers on his own family; his aunt Lou had married an Albert Beale. The Watts were designed to bring 'flash, trash and melodrama'.

Kat and Alfie Moon got their own 2017 spin-off drama set in Ireland. What was it called?

The six-parter was created by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins. E20 was an earlier online spin-off and Last Tango in Walford a DVD release.

EastEnders began broadcasting in high definition on which date?

The whole Albert Square set was later rebuilt in real brick so it would survive HD close-ups. The Sunday omnibus was axed in 2015 once iPlayer catch-up arrived.