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The Original Angie
Topic Started: 2 Feb 2015, 19:39 (2,509 Views)
MrJames
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I would have put this in the Past section but seen as it is a new story...

The story of original Angie Watts actress Jean Fennell and why she was fired... http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-02-02/eastenders-revealed-the-original-angie-and-why-she-was-fired-30-years-ago

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The Other Slater Cousin
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How wrong does that look?
"I loved it in the Olden Days because you talked more. There’s more action now. You know, we would do scenes in the Rovers of me, Bet and Doris Speed with a cup of coffee each before we opened the pub, talking about absolute rubbish. But it was something, and it was what people do." - Betty Driver
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Roly
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The Other Slater Cousin
2 Feb 2015, 19:48
How wrong does that look?
Very!!

Den and Angie made EastEnders the success it was. No one other than Leslie and Anita would have been able to do that. While its a sad story for the actress concerned its a blessing it happened.
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The Other Slater Cousin
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I don't really approve of this article though. The whole piece reads as "Look at how this actress failed". The fact this has been written four years after she passed away also leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
"I loved it in the Olden Days because you talked more. There’s more action now. You know, we would do scenes in the Rovers of me, Bet and Doris Speed with a cup of coffee each before we opened the pub, talking about absolute rubbish. But it was something, and it was what people do." - Betty Driver
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Cam
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To be fair if Anita was fired first and replaced by Jean, we'd be saying how wrong that looked too. Would she have been as successful, who knows.

Seems weird for this to come out now.
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Leon
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Julia Smith seems like she was such a formidable woman.
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Leon
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She looks like a mix of Tina and Linda.
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Markus
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It's sad to read the actress ended up dying in a council flat. I would say how different her life may have turned out if they hadn't sacked her but it seems very unlikely the show would have experienced a similar level of success with her as Angie.

Fascinating read though, and to see the pictures.

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Swirly
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I'd be interested to see the scenes they filmed with her.
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Eastend boy
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Sad story, I see why they cast her originally they obviously had a set look for the role of Angie and her and Anita Dobson look like they could be sisters.
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Jedi Pat
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The story has been out there for years, but it's still fascinating that they've finally released the original promo pictures after all this time. It would have been a very different Angie, from the looks of it... more sophisticated and refined I suppose. Perhaps by way of contrast, they would have brought in a more downmarket, tarty Jan as Den's mistress.

But I guess we'll never know... just like we'll never know how great the Fereiras would have been if their dad hadn't been deported. Or what a hit the Moon brothers would have been if they had cast actual talented actors to play them.
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Mr Carter
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She looks like Linda Carter! Same build and sense of fashion.
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Professor Plum
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How young does Den and Sharon look in those pics!!


My first thoughts were like all those above: She looks more like a Carter.

Even the Queen Vic looked pretty much how us foreigners think of London: Dark, dingy and dirty.
That was how the show was portrayed at the start. Think of Lou Beales place. They still had an outside loo and couldnt afford a phone. This was the mid 80s!

then you had the likes of the yuppy couple (Debs & Andy?) and a couple more (cant remember the names) and the glamour started coming in, Mel is another that springs to mind. Now all of them look pretty reasonably well off really.
Kat, who is suppose to be so broke she needs to remove the bones out of her bum to make soup for her kids, but yet has lovely nails, Shirley, supposedly a hard nosed woman whose appearance isnt high on her list also has beautiful manicured long nails.

Pauline was just grateful for a new beige cardy from the Sallies!
Just livin' in perfect New Zealand!
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Will Slater-Mitchell
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Julia Smith was not to be trifled with.

It sounds like somet out of Road to Coronation Street does this.
If I remember that story well, one of the original characters of Corrie was fired before they went to air. I think it was Ena Sharples.

I would love a dramatization of the origins of EastEnders.
Julia Smith is a formidable woman. I imagine some brilliant writing could be done for her character. I loved how Tony Warren was portrayed in Road to Coronation Street.

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DirtyDen
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DirtyDen(ise)
It would be interesting to see the scenes she filmed. I can't believe she was that bad an actress, it's more likely she just didn't fit the way Julia had envisaged the character and so as a result she was sacked.

Of course everybody thinks Anita Dobson in the role because that's all we have known.

It's sad that she never got the break that she obviously craved.
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McFudd
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This is from Leslie Grantham's autobiography.

"I met Letitia Dean, who was to play my daughter Sharon, who was lovely, I then met Jean, who was also lovely if a bit tense, I finally met them both together. After the audition we all walked back together to the tube station, Letitia hardly saying anything and Jean talking nineteen to the dozen about how she was going to be the new Bet Lynch. Jean how ever was never going to be anything like Bet Lynch. After 10 minutes of this monologue from her, which even carried on to the platform. Letitia and I looked at each other and I shock my head, Letitia, who had just turned 16, then very sensibly asked me why Jean was so excited as she hadn't even got the job yet- she had a point".
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Kim
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She looks a bit too young to have been Angie to me - maybe that was the problem in the end. She doesn't look that much older than Sharon in that picture, I don't think. More like an older sister than her adoptive mother.
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