Leslie Grantham – aka Eastenders’ Dirty Den – dies aged 71

Leslie Grantham has passed away this morning, and starred in a handful of bit-parts on TV, including Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks, as Kiston, in 1982, at the time when Peter Davison was in charge of the TARDIS, but it was his role as Den Watts, aka ‘Dirty Den’, in Eastenders, which saw him come to the fore as the Queen Vic’s landlord, even to the point where he had the opening line, “Cor, it stinks in ‘ere!” as they broke into Reg Cox’s flat to find him ‘brown bread’ as they’d say in Cockneyland.

He certainly made his name in the show, with his divorce to Angie, on Christmas Day 1986, achieving whopping ratings of over 30 million viewers. Alas, you can’t be evil forever, and he was kiled off in 1989… only to return in 2003.

I actually complained to Points of View, about his return – not about the content or his performance, or even the ridiculousness of it all, but about the the fact that the episode both under AND overran! It lasted about 34 minutes, so started around 7.58pm and ended at 8.32am, so if you were recording other things straight after, and had to stick to the strict start/end times, you’d be stuffed, and in 2003, this was in the days before iPlayer, so if you missed something, that was it. There wasn’t even the same level of repeats you get now… unless you wanted to wait until the weekend for the omnibus, as that used to dominate BBC1 on a Sunday afternoon. These days, it’s on in the small hours, and signed.

Anita Dobson, who played Angie, before going on to marry Brian May from Queen, said she was “deeply shocked and saddened”.

Leslie Grantham has also had his dark side, such as back in 1966 when he was convicted of murdering a German taxi driver, whilst serving as a soldier. Plus, his 2003 return to Eastenders only lasted two years because after the first one, he indulged in dodgy webcam sessions which ended up being reported in the media.

Take a look at the video below, which shows the Points of View clip where Grantham returns, as I put it online after my comment was featured, but.. that’s not my voice!!!