| Den Watts | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Leslie Grantham | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration |
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| First appearance | Episode 1 19 February 1985 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 2892 18 February 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Tony Holland | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Julia Smith (1985) Louise Berridge (2003) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances | Blind Spots Swings and Roundabouts | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crossover appearances | Doctor Who (2006) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 – in the local community of Walford, a fictional borough in East London – 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 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 Cotton (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.