Setting the bar and jumping it

EVERYONE tells Leslie Grantham their favourite EastEnders moment is the Christmas Day episode when Dirty Den served divorce papers on his wife, Angie.

A record TV audience of 31 million people, more than half the population, watched the episode, which set the bar for Christmas episodes of soaps in years to come.

Grantham has other ideas. “My favourite would be when I jumped over the bar at the end of episode one, because that’s the one that cemented the character. That and carrying Angie upstairs drunk,” he tells me.

“That first episode I could live now in my mind. The reaction afterwards from the public was they wanted to know more about Den and Angie.”

He’s gearing up for another day of rehearsals for the second tour of the stage version of another TV hit, Dad’s Army. As we were speaking on the eve of the live 25th anniversary edition of BBC1’s EastEnders, it would be remiss not to talk about soap icon Dirty Den Watts.

Grantham, unlike some former soap stars, does not object to discussing the role. He takes issues with my suggestion he was an unsympathetic character.

He said: “I found him very sympathetic.

“There are certain characters who can get away with certain things because they have the charm.”

Certainly Den was a rogue with dubious morals – getting a 16-year-old girl pregnant, incurring the wrath of East End gangsters and cheating the Mitchells out of the Queen Vic.

Hardly an upright Walford citizen. No wonder he was killed – twice. Once shot by a hitman with a gun concealed in a bunch of daffodils by the canal and then, after his return to Walford in 2003, bludgeoned to death with a dog-shaped doorstop.

He later revealed that he agreed to return for 18 months so the murder mystery could be the focal point of the 20th anniversary celebrations.

Five years on, Grantham is taking part from a distance in the post-episode programme on BBC3 tonight.

He has had more than his fair share of headlines concerning his personal exploits during and after his time on EastEnders, but he’s moved on and so perhaps should we by not dragging up past misdemeanours. Unlike some actors, he hasn’t pulled up the drawbridge and stopped talking to the press. He’s not one of those actors – “I use the term very loosely when I say actor,” he says modestly – who resents being associated with a particular role. “You’re remembered for certain things and it’s wonderful to be remembered for the character of Dirty Den,” he says.

“Some of the kids who spot you weren’t even born when it started. I was in a cafe yesterday and a couple of guys repairing drains near the rehearsal rooms came over and said, ‘we love your work’. They were straight on the phone to book some tickets for Dad’s Army.

“You sometimes draw the short straw, but when you draw the long straw, you’re lucky to get it. If you can bring happiness and pleasure to people, why not?

“When I left drama school in 1981, they said never do commercials or a soap. Life makes choice for you – and good or bad, you go with them. I’ve had 29 years of working solidly before and after EastEnders. Since I left last time, I’ve been doing theatre and a little bit of television non-stop.”

EASTENDERS might have been so different.

Den Watts wasn’t originally meant as a main character, but the public took him and Angie to their heart, demanding to see more of their relationship. “I was well-served by the writing and directing, and Anita Dobson was superb as Angie,” he says.

It’s a partnership that nearly didn’t happen.

Jean Fennell, the actress originally cast as Angie, was replaced before filming began. “She fell foul of Julia rather than her own ineptness,”

he says.

Julia was EastEnders producer Julia Smith, a woman with a tough reputation. “She was supposed to be this hatchet woman, but you make decisions which sometimes come back to haunt you and sometimes you make the right decisions,” he says, no doubt mindful of some of his past indiscretions.

When Den returned from the grave for a fresh stint in Albert Square, he did so to solve a problem. “The character, they felt, was bigger than the show and I went back to kill him off,” he explains. “That hasn’t worked. People are always saying, ‘when are you going to go back to sort them out?’.”

Could Den really come back from the grave again? “I think that’s very dubious,” he says.

As Den is such an icon, his chances of working in another soap aren’t good, which is probably just as well, as he’s not entirely happy with the way soaps are going, feeling that having to do four or five episodes a week is too many.

“You don’t really have the time and space to do things. You just have to get on with it and sometimes you take the easy option. It still works because they’re getting talked about and getting front pages and coverage in magazines.

“But sometimes doing it four or five times a week, the audience gets cheated. And I’m in it for the audience, not just to make a living.”

He loves stage tours. This second Dad’s Army outing – which includes at date at York Grand Opera House – features four episodes transferred to the stage with Grantham taking the James Beck role of spiv Private Walker.

It was a risk to take on a role in such a wellloved show, but audiences have accepted it.

“When you get sent the scripts, straight away you’re flattered like all actors and when you wake up you think, ‘I’ve shot myself in the foot’.

“Everyone seems to know the lines. Some places people turned up in costume. Once we had marched on, the audience were on our side.

“It’s finding the James Beck qualities and making the character as warm as he made it.

The public seem to have a great affection for it – and seem to have the same affection for Den Watts and myself.”

■ EastEnders: tonight, BBC1, 8pm. EastEnders Live: The Aftermath; BBC3. 8.30pm.

■ Dad’s Army Marches On: York Grand Opera House, April 1 to 3. Tickets 0844-847-2322.