This week, Angie Watts made a stunning comeback to EastEnders, 25 years after her character was killed off. Anita Dobson, 75, originally stepped into the shoes of Angie in 1985, acting opposite Leslie Grantham as her on-screen hubby 'Dirty' Den Watts, establishing themselves as the iconic landlord and landlady duo of the Queen Vic.
But Anita wasn't the first actress to play the role of Angie —she actually replaced Jean Fennell, who had begun filming but felt she didn't quite "gel" with the role. Despite gracing Albert Square for a mere three years, Anita's portrayal of Angie left an indelible mark and saw her tackle some of the most explosive storylines ever witnessed in soapland.
Away from the show, Anita shares a beautiful life with her husband, Queen's legendary guitarist, Sir Brian May.
The EastEnders actress first met Brian at a film preview shortly after she joined the cast of EastEnders, at a time when Brian was still married to his first wife, Chrissie, and they had three young children together. The revelation that he was already in a relationship when they first met left Anita heartbroken, and she admitted they "went through hell".
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Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty I)In a frank interview, the actress revealed that Brian had initially invited her to a Queen concert at Wembley, but she "didn't know" he was married. "I was heart-wrenched when he told me. We had a terrible row. I was insulted. I thought: 'How dare you go out with me if you're married? ' So we just kept a certain distance until we could find a place in life where we could be together. But it was hard, really hard," Anita confessed to the Daily Mail in 2011.
"Everybody gets hurt, and if there are kids, it's not good, but if people fall in love, there's nothing you can do about it. Even if you separate, the ache is still there. It stops you from moving on because it's unresolved.
"We went through hell, but I believe it was true love. The dust's settled, and I have good relationships with his children and ex-wife." Brian and Christine separated in 1988, shortly before the death of his bandmate and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
Reflecting on their relationship, Anita said: "Nobody's perfect. We've all done things that we're not proud of but, unfortunately, that became public. I didn't think I'd ever come back from it. I thought: 'That's it. Over.'"
She continued: "But when I walked away, I thought, 'You obviously love this man, and he loves you. You've spent your life running away from commitment. Maybe it's time you stood and figured out why. I just thought, 'We've gone through all the c**p. It's time we had the good stuff.' So I said, 'Brian, I think I'm ready to get married.'"
Anita, who had been engaged four times prior to Brian, finally tied the knot with him in a quaint registry office ceremony in Richmond upon Thames in 2000. The couple chose Venice for their honeymoon, a destination they revisit every year.
In 2020, Anita's quick thinking proved pivotal when Brian suffered a heart attack.
She told The Daily Mail how she initially dismissed his complaints as mere exhaustion from over-exercising. "He said, 'Babe, I think I'm having a heart attack' I said, 'No, you've been exercising, and you've overdone it.'"
Brian later recounted on BBC Morning Live how Anita literally saved his life during a tumultuous health scare that included a heart attack and severe sciatica amid recovery from a gardening mishap. "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 by the heart attack and complications from the drugs, and then I had sciatica so badly. I couldn't even crawl.
Expressing gratitude for her unwavering support, Brian said: "So when you get that bad, you're just grateful to be alive at the end of it and its thanks to Anita that I am, she's been there the whole way through it. She's taken care of me and nursed me and whatever."
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