The Watts family are a fictional family in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The family consists of Den (Leslie Grantham), Angie (Anita Dobson), Sharon (Letitia Dean), Dennis (Nigel Harman), Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman), Vicki (Scarlett Alice Johnson/Alice Haig), Dennis Jnr (Bleu Landau), Albie and Alyssa. Sharon, Vicki and Albie are the only members of the family currently in the show, but Sharon's biological half-brother, Zack Hudson (James Farrar), and Vicki's husband, Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw), are considered part of the unit.
The Watts family have been a major part of EastEnders since its inception in 1985, anchoring its early success in the mid to late 1980s and then again dominating the action with their various comebacks since 2001. Their longstanding "feud" with the Mitchell family has become a hallmark of the show, as has their warring for the Queen Vic pub, the original and traditional home of the Watts family. Over the years the fractured family has centred largely on Den and his "princess", Sharon, with familial affairs also being marked by Den's tumultuous marriages with his long-suffering first wife, Angie, and scheming second wife, Chrissie, as well as Sharon's relationship with Den's biological son Dennis.
The Watts family are one of EastEnders original families (together with the Fowlers and Beales) and have been involved in many memorable storylines, have brought the show its biggest ratings, and have included some of its most 'iconic' characters.
Creation and development
Introduction
The Watts family were one of the central families introduced to viewers when EastEnders began in 1985, created by the show's co-creators Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Holland and Smith had correctly anticipated the importance The Queen Vic setting would have to EastEnders and therefore intended the Watts to be highly dynamic and vibrant characters fuelling the drama of the show, something that has largely been a hallmark of the family ever since, even as new members have been added, with the character of Dennis a popular favourite among audiences, winning various soap and television awards, and Chrissie largely the "centrepiece" of the show during her tenure. The Watts were originally composed of Den and Angie and their adoptive daughter Sharon. The early focus of the family was on the tempestuous marriage between Den and Angie, rooted in Den's womanising and the couple's many heated arguments. Indeed, Den's wandering eye is a central element in the family affairs of the Watts family and would frame many of their storylines over the years, leading him into affairs with women including Jan Hammond (Jane How), Kate Mitchell (Jill Halfpenny), and finally Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan). In May 1986, Sharon's 17-year-old friend Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) gave birth to Vicki, the product of an illicit relationship with Den (who was almost 40 years old). In 2003, it was revealed that Den had fathered another child - Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) - as a result of another affair 30 years earlier.
In April 1988, Anita Dobson made her last appearance as Angie Watts, and around this time Leslie Grantham expressed his desire to step down from the role of Den Watts. However, the show's producers did not want to suffer the double blow of losing both characters so close together, so Den's last appearance was aired in February 1989, although he had filmed his final EastEnders scenes in the autumn of 1988.
Letitia Dean remained in the role as Sharon until 1995, her character helping to facilitate the introduction of a new family - the Mitchells, who were one of the central families in the show from 1990 - through her marriage to Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) and her affair with his brother Phil (Steve McFadden), a storyline which caused her marriage to fall apart and prompt her exit from the show after 10 years. The revelation of her affair and the breakdown of her marriage is widely held to be EastEnders''' most notable storyline of the 1990s and is seen by many as the show's finest moment,"Tony Jordan interview", YouTube. URL last accessed on 24 February 2007. dubbed "Sharongate" by the press and fans alike. It is also the culminating point to Sharon's original run in EastEnders, as Dean had informed BBC bosses of her intention to quit EastEnders, and the following year she left the show, with Sharon departing to America to live with Angie.
As of 2026, Sharon, her son Albie (Arthur Gentleman), and Vicki are the only members of the Watts family left on the show. Sharon's biological half-brother Zack Hudson (James Farrar) and Vicki's husband Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw) can also be considered a part of the family.
Return of the Watts However, the popularity of the Watts family to viewers and the importance of the family to the show meant that successive producers and executives continually asked Dean, Dobson, and Grantham to reprise their roles. By 2001, John Yorke succeeded where others had failed, and Sharon made a triumphant return as the new secret owner of the Queen Vic, Yorke having "first floated the idea of Sharon's return" the previous year. The return was part of a highly successful year for EastEnders, and to build upon that success it was decided by Yorke, his successor Louise Berridge and Head of Drama Serials Mal Young to expand Sharon's familial connections and bring the Watts family back to Walford.
By the time Sharon returned to EastEnders, producers and executives began work on reconstituting the family; although Anita Dobson rejected the last of several offers to return to the show and her character's off-screen death was announced in the spring of 2002, Grantham finally agreed to return as Den in 2003, to accompany the re-introduction of his family, with Den's unknown son Dennis being introduced in April 2003, shortly after a teenage Vicki Fowler was brought back into the show, having left with her mother Michelle in 1995. Although a Fowler, Vicki maintained a close relationship with Sharon, with her storylines centring mainly around the Watts saga. The return of Den reunited the fractured Watts family,EastEnders episode airdate 2003-10-03, "Watts family reunited". creating "a real buzz to the show".
Den's return was widely regarded as a coup and seen as instrumental to EastEnders success at the time, which was facing tight competition from the ITV soaps, with Coronation Street enjoying one of its most successful years ever, and Emmerdale in the midst of a ratings revival. The return of Den, who had supposedly died when he fell into a canal after being shot by a mysterious gunman in February 1989, was seen as far-fetched by many critics, although the scene had been set at the time of his demise to allow the possibility of him returning to the show, and BBC bosses had approached actor Leslie Grantham a number of times before about a possible return to EastEnders.
With Den set to stay, the Watts family was completed in the shape of Den's second wife Chrissie, who arrived in the spring of 2004, having finally followed her husband back to England from Spain - where Den had been living since his faked death in 1989. Although similar to Angie in many ways, Chrissie was intended to be more actively independent and as devious and conniving as her husband.
Again, the family was to be increasingly dominated by the volatile relationship between husband and wife, culminating in Den's death in February 2005, after Leslie Grantham decided not to extend his current contract. This followed the departure of actress Scarlett Johnson from the programme with Vicki making her last appearance on Christmas Day 2004. However, the importance of the Watts family to the dramatic action of the show took its toll on the actors, especially Tracy-Ann Oberman, who played Chrissie, with the actress noting how "in 18 months I knocked up four years of acting experience". By the autumn of 2005, it had been announced that all three actors who played the remaining on-screen Watts family members would not be seeking to renew their contracts and would be leaving over the next few months. All three had exited the show by January 2006, with Dennis being sensationally killed off in the episode aired on 30 December 2005 and Sharon departing to America in the new year, while Chrissie was imprisoned after finally being arrested for the murder of Den.
Sharon's return Despite an official BBC report in 2005 stating that Letitia Dean was taking a scheduled break and would return to EastEnders later in 2006, this did not happen and she was away from the show for more than six years. Sharon finally returned to Walford in August 2012 after her six-year-old son, Dennis Rickman Jnr (born in July 2006) was kidnapped. After she had rescued him, she moved to Albert Square to help her lifelong friend Ian Beale who was suffering a mental breakdown. Two years into her return, Sharon discovered that Phil, her fiancé, ordered an attack on her bar, the Albert, that saw her hospitalised and suffering from anxiety for many months. Sharon then plotted with one of the Mitchells' old adversaries, crooked solicitor Marcus Christie, to bring down Phil and the Mitchell empire.
Family tree
Dennis Watts (deceased) Den Watts (deceased), married to Angie Watts (deceased) and Chrissie Watts Sharon Watts, daughter of Carol Hanley (deceased) and Gavin Sullivan (deceased), adopted by Den and Angie; married to Grant Mitchell, Dennis Rickman (deceased), Phil Mitchell and Ian Beale Albie Watts, son of Sharon and Phil Dennis Rickman (deceased), son of Den and Paula Rickman (deceased); married to Sharon Dennis Rickman Jnr (deceased), son of Dennis and Sharon, adoptive son of Phil Alyssa Lennox, daughter of Dennis and Jada Lennox Vicki Fowler, daughter of Den and Michelle Fowler
The family dynamic
The Watts family have long been portrayed notably fractured family; it is a condition that has made them strong-willed, independent, yet also volatile and vulnerable (especially to each other). Unlike most of the other main families in EastEnders, the Watts have each spent many years of their lives without the comfort of a traditional family, and are deliberately represented as highly individualized characters who are yet in need of, and searching for, that sense of family which seems so elusive to them.
For Vicki and Dennis, they are looking for the absent father figure; for Angie and Chrissie it is reflected in their desire to be loved by Den as they love him; Sharon longs for the calm, stable family she never knew as a child, having first been given up for adoption as a toddler by her biological mother, and then being adopted by a constantly warring married couple who finally went their separate ways. Den wants the perfect family – but only on his terms. He does his best to love his family but at the same time does not fully understand what love is. The story of the Watts family is largely that of a man who is easy to love and yet just as easy to hate, and the impact this has on those closest to him.
Den
The Watts family centre on the figure of Den, who for decades has cast a strong shadow over the family even during his long absence and after his death. All members have a direct tie to him as either offspring or spouses, and it is their relationship to him that often colours their relationship to each other and also to themselves. His first wife, Angie, was driven to alcoholism because of his many affairs during nearly 20 years of marriage, whilst the relationship between Sharon and Dennis was greatly hindered by the strong personality of their disapproving father. Dennis in particular was greatly affected by his love–hate relationship with Den, who was unable to be the father he always wanted.