This week, Angie Watts made a sensational return to EastEnders, 25 years after her character was tragically killed off. Anita Dobson, 75, originally took on the role of Angie in 1985, acting opposite Leslie Grantham as her on-screen husband ‘Dirty’ Den Watts, and they quickly became the iconic landlord and landlady duo of the Queen Vic.
However, Anita wasn’t the first actress to play Angie – she actually replaced Jean Fennell, who had started filming but felt she didn’t quite “gel” with the role. Despite only being on Albert Square for a short three years, Anita’s portrayal of Angie left a lasting impression and saw her tackle some of the most dramatic storylines ever seen in soapland.
Away from the show, Anita leads 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, reports the Mirror.
The revelation that he was already in a relationship when they first met left Anita heartbroken, and she admitted they “went through hell”.
In a candid chat back in 2011, Anita opened up about her rocky romance with Brian, revealing to the Daily Mail how it all started with an invite to a Queen gig at Wembley.
She was clueless about his marital status and said, “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 didn’t hold back on the details of their tumultuous love story, admitting, “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.”
She reflected on the tough times they faced, saying, “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.”
After Brian and Christine parted ways in 1988, Anita looked back on the scandal that followed and shared, “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.’
“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 before Brian, finally said ‘I do’ to him in a charming registry office ceremony in Richmond upon Thames in 2000. The couple jetted off to Venice for their honeymoon, a destination they make a point of revisiting every year.
In 2020, Anita’s quick-thinking became crucial when Brian suffered a heart attack. She revealed to The Daily Mail that she initially brushed off his complaints as simple 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 shared on BBC Morning Live how Anita literally saved his life during a tumultuous health scare that included a heart attack and severe sciatica while recovering 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.”
