GRANTHAM
Leslie

• 1. EastEnders

Leslie Michael Grantham was an English actor who played "Dirty" Den Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a West German taxi driver, and had significant press coverage resulting from an online sex scandal in 2004.

EastEnders

In 1984, Grantham auditioned with the BBC for a part in its new soap opera EastEnders, which aired in February 1985. He was recommended by Matthew Robinson, who was to become a key member of the EastEnders production team. Grantham had auditioned for the role of market trader Pete Beale, but he was offered the part of Den Watts. The character, landlord of The Queen Victoria public house, quickly became a national favourite, and gained the nickname Dirty Den, mostly because of the unpleasant way he treated his wife Angie, played by Anita Dobson; one of his many affairs occurred at the age of 39, when he fathered a child with 16-year-old Michelle Fowler.

On 25 December 1986, Grantham's character served his on-screen wife with divorce papers, with the line "Happy Christmas, Ange." The episode was watched by a record 30 million viewers, over half the British population at the time.

In 1988, the character sold his pub to Frank Butcher, played by Mike Reid, and gradually drifted out of key storylines, until finally departing in February 1989, although his final scenes had been filmed the previous autumn. Grantham had announced his intention to leave the soap early in 1988, around the same time that it was announced that Dobson would be leaving. However, the series' bosses had not wanted to suffer the double blow of losing its two biggest characters so close together, and set about an intensive block of filming that would allow Den to remain on screen into 1989, while enabling Grantham to continue on EastEnders until autumn 1988.

Den had become involved with a criminal organisation called "The Firm" over the summer of 1988, and his only option was to flee the Square. After spending time on the run in Manchester, Den spent several months on remand in custody for his role in arranging the arson attack on The Dagmar pub (an act of revenge against James Wilmott-Brown for the rape of Kathy Beale), and a dramatic escape from the police and from members of The Firm who ambushed him on his way to court, viewers watched a mysterious gunman shoot at Den with a gun hidden in a bunch of daffodils, before hearing a splash at the end of the episode which aired on 23 February 1989.

A shot depicting Den's death was cut from the final scene, in the hope that Grantham might one day be persuaded to return to the role. The following year, a body believed to be Den's was found in the canal.