Den Watts
Dennis Alan "Den" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actor Leslie Grantham. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den".
Den Watts
- 1985–1989, 2003–2005
Episode 1 19 February 1985
Episode 2892 18 February 2005
Julia Smith (1985)
Louise Berridge (2003)
Blind Spots
Swings and Roundabouts
Doctor Who (2006)
Dirty Den
Dirty Den
Pub landlord
Career criminal
Bar manager
Nightclub owner
Dennis Watts
Angie Shaw (1968–1987)
Chrissie Watts (1999–2005)
Dennis Rickman Jnr
Albie Watts (adoptive)
Den was the original landlord of The Queen Victoria public house from Albert Square – in the local community of Walford, a fictional borough in East London – who first appeared back when the show debuted on 19 February 1985. From then onwards, the character had a turbulent marriage with his alcoholic first wife Angie (Anita Dobson). In 1986, Den discovered that Angie lied to him about having six months to live and got revenge by giving her divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986 – which was watched by over 30 million viewers. While his marriage with Angie was finished beyond repair, Den continued his close relationship with their adopted daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean) – whom he grew fondly devoted towards throughout his time on the programme. Den soon became involved in storylines that mostly contributed to the character's magnanimous and "bad boy" persona, such as Den impregnating 16-year-old Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) – which resulted in a long-standing feud with Michelle's mother Pauline (Wendy Richard); teaming up with longtime companion Pete Beale (Peter Dean) to force their enemy Nick Cotton (John Altman) out of Walford for causing trouble around the square; romancing with his mistress Jan Hammond (Jane How); and getting revenge on business rival James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde) for raping Pete's beloved wife Kathy (Gillian Taylforth). Grantham quit the series in 1988, and in February 1989, Den was apparently killed off after getting shot due to his involvement with The Firm – a criminal organization which ended up trying to have him murdered in light of the character's imprisonment for having one of its members help him get revenge against Willmott-Brown.
Despite turning down several offers to return to the series, Grantham reprised the role of Den in 2003. The character returned 14 years later in a highly publicized week in September 2003, where Sharon discovered that Den had survived his shooting and had fled to Spain afterwards. The development of Den's return to the show was contributed with the introductions of his and Michelle's daughter Vicki (Scarlett Alice Johnson), as well as Den's biological son Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), and later the character's manipulative second wife Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman) in 2004. His second stint on the programme saw Den repeatedly clash with Dennis over his romantic feelings for Sharon – which sparked a longstanding father-son feud that escalated after Den discovered that Dennis had killed his mob boss Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett), and subsequently destroyed his relationship with Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan), by getting her to lie to Dennis that she was pregnant with their baby. Additionally, Den established a rivalry with Sharon's ex-boyfriend Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) that ended with him framing the latter for armed robbery; formed a friendship with Dot Branning (June Brown); slept with Phil's ex-wife Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) and his sister Sam (Kim Medcalf) as revenge; became publicly humiliated after losing a high-stakes poker game to the square's crime kingpin Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs); and conned Sam into relinquishing her ownership of The Queen Vic back to him by blackmailing her lawyer Marcus Christie (Stephen Churchett).
Grantham left in 2004, and Den was ultimately killed-off for good on 18 February 2005, during the show's 20th anniversary episode that also featured Andy being murdered by his gangland successor Johnny Allen (Billy Murray) – who would later have Dennis killed on New Year's Eve 2005. Chrissie had conspired with Sam and Zoe to get revenge on Den for victimising them. They did so by destroying his relationship with Sharon, an act which prompted Den to attack Chrissie, that resulted in Zoe hitting him with Pauline's dog doorstop; this seemingly killed Den until he regained consciousness and was fatally bludgeoned to death by Chrissie. The character's death was watched by 14.34 million viewers – and would later serve as the most important storyline of 2005 with Sharon teaming up with Phil, along with his brother Grant (Ross Kemp) and their mother Peggy (Barbara Windsor), to exonerate Sam after Chrissie framed her for Den's murder.
Character creation[edit]
Background[edit]
Den Watts was one of the original 23 characters devised by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. The character of Den was originally going to be called Jack[3] and he, his wife and adopted teenage daughter were to be the occupants of the soap's local pub, now famously known as The Queen Vic. Holland, who had worked as a barman in his youth, called upon his own personal experiences to invent the Watts family and the pub they lived in.[3] Holland and Smith had always been critical of the way pubs had been portrayed on television feeling they lacked vitality and life, so they were determined that their pub and occupants were going to be more realistic.[3] The Watts family were seen by Holland as integral to the show's success, partly because he had already guessed that the pub was going to be a monstrous battleground where emotions would run high on a regular basis, and also because the occupants would be providing the majority of the drama.[3]
Den's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story. In this passage, Den will be referred to as Jack, his wife as Pearl, his daughter as Tracey and his dog as Prince (known now as Angie, Sharon and Roly respectively).
Reception[edit]
Despite the controversy surrounding Grantham, the character of Den remains one of the most popular and high-profile characters in EastEnders history and was voted the 75th greatest television character of all time in a Channel 4 poll.[14] He has also been branded the villain "you most love to hate" and was voted the number one TV Bastard in a 2002 poll.[15] In addition, the moment when Den served Angie divorce papers has been voted the number one soap moment of all time in a 2004 poll.[15] In 2020, Sara Wallis and Ian Hyland from The Daily Mirror placed Den second on their ranked list of the best EastEnders characters of all time, calling him "a swindling love rat" and the "biggest villain of them all" who had a "stormy marriage" to Angie, as well as noting how Den shocked Sharon "and the nation" when he was revealed to be alive in 2003.[16] In a 2021 Radio Times poll, Den and Angie were voted as the joint fourth "soap pub landlord", receiving 8% of the votes.[17]
Impact on popular culture[edit]
In the short story Brief Encounter: Mistaken Identity by Gary Russell, published in Doctor Who Magazine Edition 174, the mercenary Lytton meets Den Watts in the Queen Victoria and mistakes him for Davros's adjutant Kiston. Leslie Grantham had played Kiston in an early television role in the Doctor Who serial Resurrection of the Daleks.
The 2006 episode of Doctor Who entitled "Army of Ghosts" features a scene where Peggy Mitchell tells the "ghost" of Den to "get outta my pub!" as the only spirits that will be served are vodka, whisky and gin. Given that the episode later reveals the "ghosts" to be fully converted Cybermen, Leslie Grantham is not seen in this episode.
In 1986, the duo Whisky and Sofa released a single called "Dirty Den", with lyrics making direct references to the character.
In an episode of the fifth season of Old Harry's Game, Satan (the main character), takes control of the BBC and, in an effort to improve human morality, decides to insert moral messages into EastEnders, including reintroducing Den as a "force for good", when executives challenge Den's reintroduction, stating that he can no longer feature in the show as he was murdered, Satan replies dismissively "Oh, he's always being murdered", a reference to Den's 2003 resurrection.
In the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, Bryn, played by Rob Brydon, mentions that he stopped watching EastEnders when Den returned to the show in 2003.