Den Watts

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 was the original landlord of The Queen Victoria public house from Albert Square who first appeared 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 discovers 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. Den continued his close relationship with their adopted daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean). 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 Fowler (Wendy Richard); teaming up with 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 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.

Despite turning down several offers to return, Grantham reprised the role 14 years later in a highly publicised 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) and his biological son Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), and later Den's second wife Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman). His second stint on the programme saw Den repeatedly clash with Dennis over his romantic feelings for Sharon, and he later has sex with Dennis' girlfriend Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) and gets her to lie that she is pregnant. Additionally, Den establishes a rivalry with Sharon's ex-boyfriend Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) that ends with him framing the latter for armed robbery; forms a friendship with Dot Cotton (June Brown); has sex with Phil's ex-wife Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) and his sister Sam (Kim Medcalf) as revenge; and cons Sam into relinquishing her ownership of The Queen Vic back to him. Grantham left in 2004, and Den was ultimately killed off for good on 18 February 2005, during the show's 20th anniversary episode, when he was fatally bludgeoned to death by Chrissie, which was watched by 14.34 million viewers.