From Lofty to Mary the Punk, the forgotten EastEnders tell their stories
When the BBC decided to launch a 'bi-weekly drama' set in the fictional borough of Walford in London's East End, it was impossible to imagine the TV fixture it was to become.
Created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland, and with a cast of just 26, the show launched on February 19 1985. Its gritty setting and edgy storylines captured the viewing public's imagination and within months it was attracting more than 20 million viewers.
Those golden days may be over, but as the series turns 40, four original cast members share their memories of the birth of the soap.
Linda Davidson
Linda, now 60, played punk single mum Mary Smith until 1988. She moved into the tech world, heading up BBC Online, launching E4 and becoming Global Production Director of Discovery Networks, among other things. She now runs Outside Thinkers (outsidethinkers.org), an organisation which creates fertile work environments for the care-experienced.
I was a dancer in a working men's club in Liverpool, and then I decided to come down to London and be an actor. My best friend Julie was coming too, but when we got to Lime Street, I got on the train – and she didn't.
I was just leaving drama school, and I saw a tiny advert in The Stage, looking for actresses that lived in London but didn't have a London accent. I applied, and at that point it was called East Eight. I didn't have a telephone, and they arranged to call me at the phone box at the end of my road to tell me whether I'd got the job or not.
Tony had seen a young woman who was a tiny, vulnerable little thing pushing a pram. She had all this punk makeup on, which was her camouflage. That was Mary, an antidote to the excesses of the Eighties.
When they made me up for the press pictures, Julia came down with a flannel and wiped all makeup off because she said I looked too pretty. She wanted her to look frightening and frightened. From then on, I had massive input into Mary. I was 20 years old; I thought it was an incredible gift.
Above all, I loved working with June Brown. We remained very, very close friends until she died. I miss her so much. Because I was brought up in care – in and out from the age of six to 13, she taught me things like using the right knife and fork in a restaurant. She had a profound effect on me.
When the show took off, it was mental. We launched in February and by June we were the most famous people in Britain. You couldn't go anywhere. I went to the premiere of A Chorus Line, starring Michael Douglas, and I was mobbed. He was going, 'Who is she?'
There was tabloid scrutiny. The guy that came to fit my carpet turned out to be a tabloid journalist. If I get recognised now, it's rather sweet, but back then it felt very intrusive.
And then, there was the matter of who was selling stories to the newspapers which spread distrust among the cast. I was accused, though it turned out to be Leslie Grantham. I had a massive sense of injustice around it. Everyone always described the cast as a family, and because I'd been abandoned by my own family, it was a massive rejection.
I left partly because of that, and partly because I didn't like being famous. There are great aspects – I was able to buy my flat and made some incredible friendships, but I got offered this Steven Berkoff play and theatre was something that I'd wanted to do.
I did regret leaving at times. There was a point in my early 30s when I was really broke. I had a roof over my head, but I didn't have any money. But if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have done all these incredible things.
Shreela Ghosh
Shreela played shopkeeper Naima Jeffery from the first episode until leaving in 1987. Initially a traditional Bangladeshi wife, Naima ended up liberating herself and leaving her cheating husband Saeed. Now 62, she runs the Charles Wallace India Trust which gives grants to young Indian students and academics working in the arts and humanities.
I was in India visiting my mum, and my agent rang and told me Julia Smith wanted to see me. I thought it was just another BBC serial, I was in no rush. But to my huge surprise when I met Julia she said they'd written this part with me in mind.
I know she had a reputation as a dragon, but she was very kind to me. I became pregnant quite early on, which had not been planned, and I was able to bring my month-old baby to the studios and was given a very nice dressing room where my baby and I lived happily for months on end.
We started shooting in autumn 1984 and until it became a ratings success, we were quite happy out in Elstree. No one had any idea it was going to be huge. And then it became a 'thing'.
There were the usual things like fan mail and personal appearances, but none of that was particularly important to me. If you're a single, working mum, you have other priorities.
I wouldn't say I had a great deal of input into Naima – there wasn't much consultation. I was quite critical of the way she chopped and changed. I didn't feel the writers had a grasp on what an Asian woman's life was like, but I was never shy about speaking up.
I never felt that I was representing Asian womanhood, just as a character like Pauline Fowler wasn't all East End women. But I would get letters from young Asian women wanting to become actors. It was like, if she can do it, why can't I?
The cast were like either a dysfunctional family or a happy repertory company. I got along very well with everyone, Wendy Richard, Tom Watt, Paul J Medford and Anita Dobson were all great. I didn't have a great relationship with Andrew Johnson [who played Saeed Jeffery], to be completely honest. I've no idea where he is now.
I chose to leave. I was young, I had dreams – I was foolish! I should have stayed a bit longer. Now I look back and think, 'God, how silly were you?' But I enjoyed doing theatre. So after leaving, I did panto, which I loved and would never have done were it not for EastEnders. Then I went to the Bristol Old Vic and played [female wrestler] Totterdown Tanzi and broke my arm. The show had to be pulled and that was it. I just decided that I didn't want to do any more acting.
But it's really exciting having been part of something that has become a staple of British culture. Who wouldn't want that?
Tom Watt
Tom, 68, played barman Lofty Holloway for three years until leaving in 1988. He's now a journalist and broadcaster and has published 10 books.
I was running a touring theatre company in Manchester, and I was getting lots of TV extra work for Granada and Yorkshire, but I wasn't making any money. I moved back to London and got cast in a kids TV show pilot with Brian Cant. A guy at my agency, Rio Fanning, mentioned that the BBC were doing this new thing, so I went along. The kids show didn't happen, but EastEnders did.
I had to lie about my age and the character was nothing like me, but the writing was of a very high standard, and I thought it was something I could really work with. And it was gainful employment. Obviously, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.
There were people who I hit it off with, pretty much straight away: Leslie Grantham ('Dirty' Den Watts), Bill Treacher (Arthur Fowler), Anita Dobson (Angie Watts), Letitia Dean (Sharon Watts). Working with Sue Tully came a bit later. I think the world of her. She's a straight down-the-line human being and a really good actor.
Then the show took off. Almost overnight, people were coming up to me every day – it was constant. You couldn't go to the shops. You get kidded into a sense of your own importance, but you soon realise that it's Lofty they want and not you, and you stop being up your own a---e. In economic terms, you'd earn more for personal appearances in an evening than for a week on EastEnders! There were a lot of opportunities. I even did an electropop cover of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues [released as a single in 1986], which is not exactly what soap opera people do as a rule.
Lofty was an amazing character to play, even if I didn't always feel it at the time. To play a comic character whom they allowed to become a fully rounded dramatic one was brilliant. When I got to the end of the first year of my three-year contract, I felt he was played out and I should move on. But Julia Smith said they had the next five years sketched out for Lofty and if I committed to my contract, they'd compress those five years into two, and that's exactly what happened.
Those two years were brilliant, it was all the Lofty and Michelle stuff [when the kind-hearted barman offered the isolated teenage mother a shoulder to cry on – they later married], but I had that deadline in my mind. Any time I had off I would go and do theatre, and I was doing some presenting. I never regretted it, because I did some really exciting things, and I have a lot to be grateful for.
I've been back to EastEnders a couple of times for funerals. I believe I'm a 'professional mourner'. I would love to go back and have another proper go. Otherwise, I'll just wait for another character to fall off the perch.
Paul J Medford
Paul J Medford, 58, played teenager Kelvin Carpenter until 1987 then spent decades in West End musicals. He now lives in Los Angeles and is VP of Unscripted, Current Series, at TV channel Nickelodeon.
I was 16, just left school and had a job with [1980s pop band] Kid Creole and the Coconuts, doing a little movie. I had also got into The Duke Ellington School of Art in Washington DC. While I was waiting for my visa, I auditioned for a show called East Eight. My agent said it was like an episodic Play for Today. I thought I'd earn a bit of money before I went but it turned out to be more of a commitment than I thought. I called the school, and they said, do it.
I remember the press call and the name of the show still wasn't revealed, and seeing Wendy Richard, and thinking, 'Wow! That's Wendy Richard from Are You Being Served?'. But it was just another job to me. No one realised it was going to be such a big thing.
Life didn't change that much. I'd been in showbiz since I was five, so I had already got used to my anonymity being taken away. But it was a tremendous amount of work. I remember going at 10 in the morning and still being there at 10 at night most days. But I can't say that it wasn't fun. We would go to Stringfellows or some nightclub uptown. I went out a lot with Tish [Dean] and Sue [Tully].
As far as storylines went, the writers were all of a certain age and they tried their best to write Kelvin as a young teenager who didn't have a chip on his shoulder. I spent quite a lot of time in the East End socially, so I would go back and say this costume isn't what they're wearing in Bethnal Green. The East End was much cooler than the writers knew it to be.
The band story was a lot of fun [Medford and Dean had a Top 20 hit with Something Outa Nothing as part of a storyline which saw Kelvin, Sharon, Ian Beale and others form a group called The Banned]. But the highlight of any day was hanging out with June Brown. Sitting with her having a cigarette telling a story – she was a joy.
When the time came to leave, I wanted time off to go and do West End shows but it wasn't possible, so I had to make a choice. I went to Julia, and she said we'll write you out straight away. I broke contract but she was very gracious about it.
No one ever gave me a job like on the strength of EastEnders. Everybody had to audition whether they had a profile or not, but I had no regrets. Did I know I'd end up here? Sort of. When I was leaving school, my friend Beverley and I wrote cards to each other saying, 'See you in Hollywood!'. Now we're both here.
I look back at EastEnders as being intense but fun. I was at the beginning of something groundbreaking, and that's always wonderful.
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