Leslie Grantham - Popularity

Popularity

He had made a handful of bit-part roles on other television programmes prior to joining EastEnders, most notably Doctor Who, but was virtually unknown to the British public when he made his first appearance as Den Watts on 19 February 1985. Four days later, however, the Daily Mirror revealed that Grantham had spent a decade behind bars for killing a German taxi driver. He had warned BBC bosses about his criminal past when agreeing to join the new series in late 1984, but they had vowed to stand by him even after the media went public with Grantham's past. Grantham had also volunteered to quit the show if his colleagues were unhappy with him, but they backed him up and he remained with the show for the next four years.

Grantham's role as Den Watts had earned him iconic status among television fans by the time of his first departure at the beginning of 1989, and he built on this success by appearing in other high-profile television roles during the 1990s, though none of these attracted the media attention or public popularity that he had enjoyed as "Dirty Den".

The character of Dirty Den was still an icon in the eyes of many viewers by the time of his "return from the dead" in 2003, and Grantham was by now one of the most recognisable actors on British television. The decision to bring back a supposedly dead character was controversial, but it boosted EastEnders viewing figures for a while, and the character of Den was at the centre of many notable storylines for several months afterwards though much of 2004 and 2005 saw Eastenders ratings at their lowest in the show's history and their storylines receiving much criticism from the media and critics which proved that the character was far from the hit the show bosses had hoped for.

The internet sex scandal in May 2004 brought great public shame on Grantham, particularly in the tabloid press. There were constant calls for him to be sacked, but he returned after a two-month suspension without pay. On 5 November 2004 it was confirmed that Grantham would be leaving the series, and that the character would once again be killed off – but this time there would be no comebacks and the "coffin lid would be nailed shut".

Den was finally killed off in February 2005, and it was not until the autumn of the following year that he silenced the speculators who were still claiming that he had been sacked as punishment for the webcam incident, by confirming that his return to EastEnders was only ever going to be for 18 months, to tie in with the show's 20th anniversary. Den was referenced on the revived series of Doctor Who in 2006. In the episode "Army of Ghosts" the Doctor and others watch a piece of an episode of EastEnders wherein the ghost of Den Watts is supposedly returning to the pub. It is promptly told to leave before the channel is changed.

He was also referenced in Mock The Week by Andy Parsons during the Unlikely lines to hear in a T.V Show round of scenes we'd like to see, portraying Grantham as the host of Channel 4's Wank Week which was fictionalised by Parsons on the spot, at that same moment.

During the 2007 Christmas holiday season, Grantham appeared in the pantomime Dick Whittington, as 'Dirty Rat'.

Following the 2004 internet scandal of her ex-EastEnder co-star and on screen husband Leslie Grantham, Anita Dobson publicly spoke out about the case saying he was a "silly boy" for getting involved in such a case, how it was sad that he had lost so much as a result of it, and that he had a very good position in EastEnders for a man of his age, an age at a time in an actor's life when good roles were so hard to come by.