Anita Dobson made her return to Albert Square as Angie Watts during EastEnders 40th anniversary celebrations
BBC’s EastEnders shocked and delighted fans this week with a blast from the past in the return of Walford legend Angie Watts.
Played by Anita Dobson, the star hasn’t been see in Albert Square since 1988, having made her debut on the soap in its first ever episode on February 19, 1985.
In three short years, Angie become an iconic character and Anita a household name across the UK, with a record breaking 30.15 million people tuning in to see Den slap Angie with divorce papers on the stairs of the Queen Vic on Boxing Day, 1986.
Read more: ITV This Morning fans ‘switch off’ as they’re left unimpressed with show’s new look
Away from Walford, Anita met the love of her life, the legendary guitarist Sir Brian May of Queen fame, with the pair soon being styled Sir and Lady May.
The couple met in 1986 but tied the knot in a Richmond upon Thames registry office during an intimate and romantic ceremony back in 2000.
Looking back at their first meeting, Anita told the Daily Mail: “He invited me to see Queen play at Wembley, with some friends. Meeting my husband opened a door to a world I’d hitherto only dreamed of. Here was a man who was a god globally.”
It wasn’t all bliss though, as just a year following their marriage, Sir Brian suffered a heart attack, with Anita saving his life.
Speaking on BBC’s Morning Live, Sir Brian said: “She did save my life. I had this whole cluster of things go wrong. It was a good job it was lockdown in a way but I was incapacitated with the heart attack, complications from the drugs, then I had sciatica so badly. I couldn’t even crawl.”
The couple don’t share any children together, though Sir Brian has three kids from his previous marriage to Christine Mullen: James (born 15 June 1978), Louisa (born 22 May 1981), and Emily Ruth (born 18 February 1987).
When previously asked about a potential return, Anita threw cold water over it, saying: “Why tarnish the gorgeous creation that was Angie Watts?”
BBC bosses then decided to kill Angie off, off-screen, in 2002, she died from alcohol poisoning and returned to Walford to be buried by her daughter, Sharon Watts.
It was Sharon that gave Angie her return during the 40th anniversary, seeing her in a hallucination while she lay amongst the rubble of the Queen Vic.
Speaking of her return this week, the star said: “I have to say a huge thank you to everyone on the EastEnders team for making me feel so welcome. It was joyful. When I first put the costume on, it was like ‘Wow’. It was very wonderful and weird at the same time.”