Arthur Fowler
Encyclopedia
Arthur George Fowler is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by Bill Treacher
.
The father of the Fowler family
, Arthur was essentially a good man, but he made some foolish choices and he always ended up paying dearly for them, also being bossed to the brink of insanity by his mother-in-law and wife (Lou Beale
and Pauline Fowler
). During his time in Albert Square
he had an affair with another woman, suffered with mental disorder, was sent to prison twice and eventually died of a brain haemorrhage in 1996.
married on 22 September 1965. They lived at Number 45 Albert Square with their three children; Mark
, Michelle
and Martin
as well as Pauline's mother Lou
(until her death in 1988).
Arthur worked as a skilled labourer in a local toy factory for 15 years until he was made redundant in 1984. At age 43, he had no prospects for steady employment and his main source of support was state benefits. His inability to hold down a steady job was of paramount concern to his interfering mother-in-law, Lou, and Arthur was often on the receiving end of her sharp tongue.
, which he would regularly use as a foil to escape his nagging wife and his equally nagging mother-in-law.
Over the years Arthur found a steady stream of odd jobs to keep him occupied. He worked for Tony
as a carpenter
's helper, deliveryman and as a road sweeper in the Turpin Road Market. For a brief period in 1986, he was also employed by Walford Cleaning Services to clean the local schools.
Arthur initially had a distant relationship with his son, Mark, and was unable to keep him in check when he turned to crime in 1985. After some time apart Mark returned to the Square with the news that he was HIV positive in 1991. Arthur had a difficult time accepting his son's illness and his lack of education concerning HIV led him to react in trepidation. Mark eventually helped him come to terms with his status, and he and Arthur enjoyed a close relationship in the following years.
Arthur's lack of employment became a huge problem for him in 1986 when his daughter, Michelle, announced her engagement to Lofty Holloway
. Desperate to provide his daughter with a wedding
that the family could be proud of, Arthur decided to dip his fingers into the Walford residents' Christmas Club savings scheme that he had been running.
With Christmas fast approaching, Arthur realised that he would have to do something to explain the lack of money in the account to everyone in Walford that contributed. At the beginning of November, Arthur announced to the members that he'd withdrawn the money, then foolishly staged a fake burglary at his house and told the police that the Christmas Club money had been stolen.
However, Arthur's attempts to make the robbery look legitimate failed abysmally, and it took the police
no time at all to realise that it was an inside job. When questioned by the police, Arthur soon confessed and after his arrest he became severely morose, withdrawn, and depressed. This culminated in Arthur finally having a nervous breakdown
on Christmas Day and smashing his living room to pieces in a violent rage. By early 1987, Arthur had become so despondent that he was admitted to hospital.
He returned to the Square the following Spring just in time to stand trial for the theft of the Christmas Club money. Despite Arthur having the whole community behind him, he was sent to prison for 28 days. After his release he succeeded in making things even worse by borrowing money from a loan shark
.
. Christine and Arthur soon became friends and this led to Christine getting a job as Arthur's gardening assistant. In May Pauline was called away to New Zealand
to care for her brother, Kenny, who had been involved in a car accident. In Pauline's absence Christine became a regular visitor to Albert Square and it was clear to everyone that she was becoming very fond of Arthur. By Christmas of that year Arthur and Christine had embarked on an affair, meeting up and kissing in alleyways at any chance they got.
It wasn't long before Christine began to crave more commitment from Arthur, and when he refused she decided to get a job at Kathy Beale's café so she could be as close to him as possible. The affair continued, unknown to anyone, until Kathy caught them both kissing and forced a confession from Christine. Faced with the threat that Pauline may soon find out about his seedy shenanigans, Arthur began to cool their romance. Meanwhile, Christine, sensing that she was losing Arthur, became slightly loopy and she began to drink heavily, stalk him round the square and attempt to buy the affections of his youngest son, Martin, which only sought to infuriate Arthur.
As a last resort Christine threatened to spill the beans to Pauline unless he told her about their affair. Arthur finally told Pauline the truth, and tried to tell her that he wanted her and not Christine. Hurt, embarrassed, and angry, Pauline responded by hitting Arthur in the face with a frying pan and then throwing him out of their home.
Arthur was forced to move in with his son, Mark, and he spent the rest of the year desperately trying to convince Pauline that it was her he wanted. Pauline and Arthur eventually reconciled when he helped her deal with the death of her beloved brother, Pete
. The affair was never allowed to be forgotten, however, particularly when Pauline's aunt Nellie
came to lodge and discovered his escapades.
In 1995 Arthur was elected secretary of the allotment committee, and started raising money to create a new eco-friendly, urban garden, which was named the flowering wilderness fund. Arthur attended a funeral later that year and ran into an old friend, Willy Roper
, who took a keen interest in Arthur's financial dealings. By the end of the year Arthur had managed to raise twenty thousand pounds for the garden, and this was enough to tempt Willy to crime.
Willy was the sole carer of his senile mother, and desperate to get the funds to pay for her placement at a nursing home, he decided to con Arthur into signing the fund money into various accounts, and then left Arthur to face the music when the money was declared missing. For a second time, Arthur was faced with a police investigation and with all the evidence stacked against him, he was soon arrested and ended the year behind bars. This was too much for Arthur, who was unable to face the prospect of serving a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit, and upon his imprisonment he suffered a mental breakdown and refused any contact with his family.
Not content with putting Arthur in prison, Willy spent the beginning of 1996 trying to woo Pauline in his absence, even taking her on holiday to Jersey
. However, this served to be Willy's undoing, after Mark correctly figured out that his real motive was to put the stolen money in an off-shore account under a false name. The evidence continued to stack up when Pauline discovered counterfeit credit cards on Willy. Willy was eventually arrested and charged, and Arthur was cleared. However, before they could pass on the good news, they were told that Arthur had been involved in a huge prison riot. Arthur was released the next day, but he had received a nasty blow to the head in the riot, although no one realised the seriousness of his injury until it was too late. Only a few days after his release in May 1996, Arthur suffered a brain haemorrhage on the allotments, and died the next day in hospital.
Arthur's funeral was delayed pending an inquest, but the jury eventually returned a verdict of accidental death, much to the disgust of Mark and Pauline, who felt that the prison services neglected to seek proper medical help for Arthur.
A bench was placed in dedication to his memory in Albert Square
, the dedication is entitled "Arthur Fowler: He loved this place".
On 12 June 2007 after Pauline's death Dot Cotton and Ian Beale
buried her ashes at Arthur's grave, leaving them together again.
In July 2011, Authur's bench is moved from the Gardens by Christian Clarke
(John Partridge
) who took it home to Roxy Mitchell
(Rita Simons)'s flat to sleep on. Dot Branning
(June Brown
) finds the gardens destroyed and blames it on neds. Jean Slater
(Gillian Wright
) is left upset as her plants she had planted months previously had been destroyed.
and Julia Smith
. Arthur was a member of the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers
, and Holland took the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Arthur's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story
.
Bill Treacher
had been the first actor Holland and Smith had thought of to play the character, in fact, Arthur had almost been invented with him in mind. Both had worked with Treacher before on the popular BBC drama Z-Cars
. His qualities as an actor were exactly the ones they wanted for the "very difficult" part of Arthur: "Warmth, directness and an ability to be convincingly ordinary without being dull".
money) and the deterioration of his health as a result, was an important issue that Tony Holland wanted to get right. His character had "to reach the gutter" before he could be put on the "straight and narrow again". The deteriorating situation was to be shown graphically, with "no punches pulled". His eventual harrowing breakdown and destruction of Lou Beale
's living room was written by Tony Holland and aired on Christmas Day 1986. Holland and Smith initially feared that the audience may not be able to tolerate so much doom and gloom at Christmas, however that same episode went on to pull in 30.1 million viewers, giving the soap its highest ever episode rating, which has yet to be beaten by any other plotline from any other soap in the UK.
It was initially decided that Arthur would not go to prison for stealing the Christmas club money, until a legal advisor to the programme suggested that EastEnders would not be portraying a likely outcome. In reality he would probably get twenty-eight days in prison, so that others could be taught a lesson, and so that is what happened on-screen. The episode where Arthur was sent to prison was written by Bill Lyons, and dominated by Arthur's trial. A special court set had to be hired, but it was too large to fit into the regular EastEnders studio at Elstree
, and needed an extra studio. The episode cut back and forth between the trial and the regular goings-on in the Square before climaxing with the shock decision of the judge
, who told Arthur that, as he had betrayed people's trust he must be seen to be punished, and she sentenced him to twenty-eight days.
Arthur being 'sent down' ended up being a favourable outcome for Bill Treacher, as it allowed him time to recuperate. The gruelling schedule of the last two years and the emotional investment that was needed to play such a depressed character for such a lengthy period had taken its toll on him. Treacher said "The breakdown story really got to me. One night I came home, had a drink and just started weeping. I had so many sad letters from people with nervous breakdowns. So many people wanted to end it all."
During 1989, Holland and Smith left EastEnders and executive producer Mike Gibbon took control, heralding a new era for the show. Humour became an important element in the storylines during 1989, partly due to media criticism which had been labelling the show as depressing. There featured a greater amount of slapstick and light comedy than had previously been seen, and this led to a certain amount of criticism from some fans and critics, who suggested that the credibility of the show was being stretched. Such storylines included Arthur's unlikely success on a fictional television game show Cat and Mouse. The episode was written by Tony McHale and, despite the criticism, it is considered by EastEnders writer Colin Brake
as "one of the funniest and most outrageous episodes" of EastEnders ever aired". The fictional game show even used video game music from past Commodore 64
titles.
One of the big storylines in EastEnders in 1992 was Arthur's infidelity with the lonely divorcée Christine Hewitt
. The storyline built up slowly and was conceived by the writer Tony McHale. The audience had witnessed Arthur and his wife Pauline
rowing many times, but they were generally seen as the most stable of all couples ever featured in the show, and so the storyline involving Arthur's extramarital affair came as a huge shock to viewers. The British press labelled the storyline "The Bonk Of The Year" and it finally reached its climax on-screen in September 1993. The scripwriters had many conferences about ways in which Pauline would find out about the affair; should she work it out herself or should some third party tell her the truth? In the end it was felt that Arthur should decide to tell her himself, which he did in a shocking episode that saw Pauline turn violent and hit Arthur in the face with a frying pan. This episode (written by Tony McHale and directed by Keith Boak) was chosen by writer Colin Brake as the episode of the year in EastEnders: The First Ten Years
.
Arthur became one of EastEnders best loved characters, and his reputation as an eternal loser endeared him to viewers. In 1995 audiences were shocked and horrified when Arthur was framed for the embezzlement of the Flowering Wilderness Campaign funds and wrongfully imprisoned. There was a public outcry and a nationwide Free Arthur Fowler campaign was launched. 'Arthur Fowler Is Innocent' T-shirts were produced and a single was even released in the UK singles chart
promoting the campaign. Eventually the truth came out and Arthur was released. However, a gash to the head he had sustained in prison led to a brain haemorrhage and Arthur died suddenly in 1996 shortly after his release. Off-screen Bill Treacher had asked to be written out of the series after eleven years playing Arthur, saying: "By the time I finished, even the sound of the theme music was making me feel ill. I felt depressed." Although it was his decision to leave the soap, Treacher was shocked that the show’s bosses chose to kill Arthur off. He has said: "I certainly didn’t ask them to kill him. Oh no, because you never know, you might need to come back and earn a few grand."
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, played by Bill Treacher
Bill Treacher
Bill Treacher is an English actor. Most famous for playing Arthur Fowler on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, for 11 years, from 1985-1996.-Early life:Treacher grew up in the East End of London...
.
The father of the Fowler family
The Beale/Fowler family
The Beale/Fowler family is a fictional family in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.For many years before the show began, the Beale family consisted of head of the family, Albert, his wife, Lou Beale, and their three children, Kenny and twins Pauline and Pete...
, Arthur was essentially a good man, but he made some foolish choices and he always ended up paying dearly for them, also being bossed to the brink of insanity by his mother-in-law and wife (Lou Beale
Lou Beale
Louise Ada "Lou" Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anna Wing. The character is played by Karen Meagher in the 1988 EastEnders special, Civvy Street, set during the Second World War....
and Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional London borough of Walford. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between 1985 and 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer...
). During his time in Albert Square
Albert Square
Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is ostensibly located in the equally fictional London borough of Walford in London's East End. The square's design was based on the real life Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after the real...
he had an affair with another woman, suffered with mental disorder, was sent to prison twice and eventually died of a brain haemorrhage in 1996.
Backstory
Arthur and Pauline BealePauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional London borough of Walford. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between 1985 and 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer...
married on 22 September 1965. They lived at Number 45 Albert Square with their three children; Mark
Mark Fowler
Mark Albert Fowler is a fictional character from the popular British BBC soap opera EastEnders. Mark was an original regular character in the series starting February 1985 but became a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the role in April 1985. Scarboro made...
, Michelle
Michelle Fowler
Michelle Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actress Susan Tully.Although she was one of the brighter people in Walford, that didn't stop Michelle making some huge mistakes during her time in Albert Square...
and Martin
Martin Fowler (EastEnders)
Martin Albert Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by James Alexandrou from 1996 to 2007.The role was previously played by Jon Peyton Price from early life as a baby in 1985 to 1996, just before Martin's teenage years began.-Storylines:Martin is the younger son...
as well as Pauline's mother Lou
Lou Beale
Louise Ada "Lou" Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anna Wing. The character is played by Karen Meagher in the 1988 EastEnders special, Civvy Street, set during the Second World War....
(until her death in 1988).
Arthur worked as a skilled labourer in a local toy factory for 15 years until he was made redundant in 1984. At age 43, he had no prospects for steady employment and his main source of support was state benefits. His inability to hold down a steady job was of paramount concern to his interfering mother-in-law, Lou, and Arthur was often on the receiving end of her sharp tongue.
1985–1990
Arthur's greatest pleasure was gardening and in 1985, he obtained a spot in the local allotmentAllotment (gardening)
An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
, which he would regularly use as a foil to escape his nagging wife and his equally nagging mother-in-law.
Over the years Arthur found a steady stream of odd jobs to keep him occupied. He worked for Tony
Tony Carpenter
Tony Carpenter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Oscar James.Happy go lucky Tony tried to carve himself a successful business and steady home for his family, but nothing he did was ever good enough for his nagging wife.-Storylines:Trinidadian born Tony, married...
as a carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
's helper, deliveryman and as a road sweeper in the Turpin Road Market. For a brief period in 1986, he was also employed by Walford Cleaning Services to clean the local schools.
Arthur initially had a distant relationship with his son, Mark, and was unable to keep him in check when he turned to crime in 1985. After some time apart Mark returned to the Square with the news that he was HIV positive in 1991. Arthur had a difficult time accepting his son's illness and his lack of education concerning HIV led him to react in trepidation. Mark eventually helped him come to terms with his status, and he and Arthur enjoyed a close relationship in the following years.
Lofty Holloway
George "Lofty" Holloway is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tom Watt. Lofty is one of the serial's original characters, making his first appearance in the third episode, 26 February 1985....
. Desperate to provide his daughter with a wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
that the family could be proud of, Arthur decided to dip his fingers into the Walford residents' Christmas Club savings scheme that he had been running.
With Christmas fast approaching, Arthur realised that he would have to do something to explain the lack of money in the account to everyone in Walford that contributed. At the beginning of November, Arthur announced to the members that he'd withdrawn the money, then foolishly staged a fake burglary at his house and told the police that the Christmas Club money had been stolen.
However, Arthur's attempts to make the robbery look legitimate failed abysmally, and it took the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
no time at all to realise that it was an inside job. When questioned by the police, Arthur soon confessed and after his arrest he became severely morose, withdrawn, and depressed. This culminated in Arthur finally having a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
on Christmas Day and smashing his living room to pieces in a violent rage. By early 1987, Arthur had become so despondent that he was admitted to hospital.
He returned to the Square the following Spring just in time to stand trial for the theft of the Christmas Club money. Despite Arthur having the whole community behind him, he was sent to prison for 28 days. After his release he succeeded in making things even worse by borrowing money from a loan shark
Loan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
.
1991–96
In 1991, Arthur started his own gardening business and was awarded a contract to maintain the Albert Square gardens. This led to Arthur being employed by lonely divorcee Christine HewittChristine Hewitt
Christine Hewitt is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Elizabeth Power. Introduced in 1992 as a lonely divorcée who became besotted with married Arthur Fowler while he tended her garden...
. Christine and Arthur soon became friends and this led to Christine getting a job as Arthur's gardening assistant. In May Pauline was called away to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
to care for her brother, Kenny, who had been involved in a car accident. In Pauline's absence Christine became a regular visitor to Albert Square and it was clear to everyone that she was becoming very fond of Arthur. By Christmas of that year Arthur and Christine had embarked on an affair, meeting up and kissing in alleyways at any chance they got.
It wasn't long before Christine began to crave more commitment from Arthur, and when he refused she decided to get a job at Kathy Beale's café so she could be as close to him as possible. The affair continued, unknown to anyone, until Kathy caught them both kissing and forced a confession from Christine. Faced with the threat that Pauline may soon find out about his seedy shenanigans, Arthur began to cool their romance. Meanwhile, Christine, sensing that she was losing Arthur, became slightly loopy and she began to drink heavily, stalk him round the square and attempt to buy the affections of his youngest son, Martin, which only sought to infuriate Arthur.
Arthur was forced to move in with his son, Mark, and he spent the rest of the year desperately trying to convince Pauline that it was her he wanted. Pauline and Arthur eventually reconciled when he helped her deal with the death of her beloved brother, Pete
Pete Beale
Peter "Pete" Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Peter Dean. He made his first appearance in the programme's first episode, on 19 February 1985. The character was created by Tony Holland, one of the creators of EasEnders; he was based on a member of...
. The affair was never allowed to be forgotten, however, particularly when Pauline's aunt Nellie
Nellie Ellis
Nellie Ellis is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Elizabeth Kelly. Nellie was introduced as the interfering relative of Pauline Fowler in 1993 and appeared regularly until 1998...
came to lodge and discovered his escapades.
In 1995 Arthur was elected secretary of the allotment committee, and started raising money to create a new eco-friendly, urban garden, which was named the flowering wilderness fund. Arthur attended a funeral later that year and ran into an old friend, Willy Roper
Willy Roper
Willy Roper is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michael Tudor-Barnes from June 1995 to June 1996.Villainous Willy was dubbed "Wicked Willy" by the British press after he framed Arthur Fowler for embezzlement, leading to his wrongful imprisonment...
, who took a keen interest in Arthur's financial dealings. By the end of the year Arthur had managed to raise twenty thousand pounds for the garden, and this was enough to tempt Willy to crime.
Willy was the sole carer of his senile mother, and desperate to get the funds to pay for her placement at a nursing home, he decided to con Arthur into signing the fund money into various accounts, and then left Arthur to face the music when the money was declared missing. For a second time, Arthur was faced with a police investigation and with all the evidence stacked against him, he was soon arrested and ended the year behind bars. This was too much for Arthur, who was unable to face the prospect of serving a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit, and upon his imprisonment he suffered a mental breakdown and refused any contact with his family.
Not content with putting Arthur in prison, Willy spent the beginning of 1996 trying to woo Pauline in his absence, even taking her on holiday to Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
. However, this served to be Willy's undoing, after Mark correctly figured out that his real motive was to put the stolen money in an off-shore account under a false name. The evidence continued to stack up when Pauline discovered counterfeit credit cards on Willy. Willy was eventually arrested and charged, and Arthur was cleared. However, before they could pass on the good news, they were told that Arthur had been involved in a huge prison riot. Arthur was released the next day, but he had received a nasty blow to the head in the riot, although no one realised the seriousness of his injury until it was too late. Only a few days after his release in May 1996, Arthur suffered a brain haemorrhage on the allotments, and died the next day in hospital.
Arthur's funeral was delayed pending an inquest, but the jury eventually returned a verdict of accidental death, much to the disgust of Mark and Pauline, who felt that the prison services neglected to seek proper medical help for Arthur.
A bench was placed in dedication to his memory in Albert Square
Albert Square
Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is ostensibly located in the equally fictional London borough of Walford in London's East End. The square's design was based on the real life Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after the real...
, the dedication is entitled "Arthur Fowler: He loved this place".
On 12 June 2007 after Pauline's death Dot Cotton and Ian Beale
Ian Beale
Ian Albert Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985...
buried her ashes at Arthur's grave, leaving them together again.
In July 2011, Authur's bench is moved from the Gardens by Christian Clarke
Christian Clarke
Christian Clarke is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by John Partridge. He made his first appearance on 17 January 2008.-Storylines:...
(John Partridge
John Partridge
John Partridge may refer to:*John Partridge , British portrait painter*John Partridge , English astrologer*John Partridge , English actor, singer and dancer...
) who took it home to Roxy Mitchell
Roxy Mitchell
Roxanne Lizette "Roxy" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, portrayed by Rita Simons. Roxy arrived in Walford with her sister Ronnie on 24 July 2007 and decided to move permanently to Walford from Ibiza where they ran a bar together. Roxy is the younger of the two...
(Rita Simons)'s flat to sleep on. Dot Branning
Dot Branning
Dorothy "Dot" Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by June Brown since 1985. In a special episode entitled EastEnders: Dot's Story a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in flashbacks. Dot first appeared in EastEnders in July 1985 as the mother of...
(June Brown
June Brown
June Muriel Brown, MBE is a British actress, best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders and for making other high profile television appearances on shows such as Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Minder, The Bill and...
) finds the gardens destroyed and blames it on neds. Jean Slater
Jean Slater
Jean Elaine Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gillian Wright. She appeared in December 2004 briefly and in December 2005. She returned as a recurring character in June 2006 and returned again as a regular character from November 2006...
(Gillian Wright
Gillian Wright
Gillian Wright, is an English actress who is best known for portraying the role of Jean Slater on the long running BBC soap opera EastEnders...
) is left upset as her plants she had planted months previously had been destroyed.
Creation
Arthur Fowler was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony HollandTony Holland
Anthony John "Tony" Holland was an English television screenwriter best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Early career:...
and Julia Smith
Julia Smith
Julia Smith was an English television director and producer.- Early career :London-born Smith became involved in television production when she directed the series Suspense in 1962...
. Arthur was a member of the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers
The Beale/Fowler family
The Beale/Fowler family is a fictional family in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.For many years before the show began, the Beale family consisted of head of the family, Albert, his wife, Lou Beale, and their three children, Kenny and twins Pauline and Pete...
, and Holland took the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Arthur's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story
EastEnders books
This is a list of books about or relating to the British soap opera EastEnders.-Non-fiction books:* EastEnders: The Inside Story* Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience* EastEnders Special...
.
- "Rock-solid and reliable. Has an instinctive (unintellectual) wisdom...He cries openly at funerals, loves his wife, is strict with his children, doesn't drink a lot, supports Arsenal, votes Labour and would never walk down the street carrying flowers. He worked in a factory - but was made redundant, and has been unemployed for a year." (page 54)
Bill Treacher
Bill Treacher
Bill Treacher is an English actor. Most famous for playing Arthur Fowler on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, for 11 years, from 1985-1996.-Early life:Treacher grew up in the East End of London...
had been the first actor Holland and Smith had thought of to play the character, in fact, Arthur had almost been invented with him in mind. Both had worked with Treacher before on the popular BBC drama Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
. His qualities as an actor were exactly the ones they wanted for the "very difficult" part of Arthur: "Warmth, directness and an ability to be convincingly ordinary without being dull".
Development
Arthur was initially scripted to be an extremely depressed character, which stemmed from his inability to find employment and provide sufficiently for his family. Arthur's fall into depression was considered to be an extremely risky storyline to portray, as his decline was to take place over a lengthy period of time. His loss of pride (resulting in theft of the residents Christmas clubChristmas club
The Christmas club is a savings program that was first offered by various banks during the Great Depression. The concept is that bank customers deposit a set amount of money each week into a special savings account, and receive the money back at the end of the year for Christmas...
money) and the deterioration of his health as a result, was an important issue that Tony Holland wanted to get right. His character had "to reach the gutter" before he could be put on the "straight and narrow again". The deteriorating situation was to be shown graphically, with "no punches pulled". His eventual harrowing breakdown and destruction of Lou Beale
Lou Beale
Louise Ada "Lou" Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anna Wing. The character is played by Karen Meagher in the 1988 EastEnders special, Civvy Street, set during the Second World War....
's living room was written by Tony Holland and aired on Christmas Day 1986. Holland and Smith initially feared that the audience may not be able to tolerate so much doom and gloom at Christmas, however that same episode went on to pull in 30.1 million viewers, giving the soap its highest ever episode rating, which has yet to be beaten by any other plotline from any other soap in the UK.
It was initially decided that Arthur would not go to prison for stealing the Christmas club money, until a legal advisor to the programme suggested that EastEnders would not be portraying a likely outcome. In reality he would probably get twenty-eight days in prison, so that others could be taught a lesson, and so that is what happened on-screen. The episode where Arthur was sent to prison was written by Bill Lyons, and dominated by Arthur's trial. A special court set had to be hired, but it was too large to fit into the regular EastEnders studio at Elstree
Elstree
Elstree is a village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire on the A5 road, about 10 miles north of London. In 2001, its population was 4,765, and forms part of the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, originally known simply as Elstree....
, and needed an extra studio. The episode cut back and forth between the trial and the regular goings-on in the Square before climaxing with the shock decision of the judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, who told Arthur that, as he had betrayed people's trust he must be seen to be punished, and she sentenced him to twenty-eight days.
Arthur being 'sent down' ended up being a favourable outcome for Bill Treacher, as it allowed him time to recuperate. The gruelling schedule of the last two years and the emotional investment that was needed to play such a depressed character for such a lengthy period had taken its toll on him. Treacher said "The breakdown story really got to me. One night I came home, had a drink and just started weeping. I had so many sad letters from people with nervous breakdowns. So many people wanted to end it all."
During 1989, Holland and Smith left EastEnders and executive producer Mike Gibbon took control, heralding a new era for the show. Humour became an important element in the storylines during 1989, partly due to media criticism which had been labelling the show as depressing. There featured a greater amount of slapstick and light comedy than had previously been seen, and this led to a certain amount of criticism from some fans and critics, who suggested that the credibility of the show was being stretched. Such storylines included Arthur's unlikely success on a fictional television game show Cat and Mouse. The episode was written by Tony McHale and, despite the criticism, it is considered by EastEnders writer Colin Brake
Colin Brake
Colin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who...
as "one of the funniest and most outrageous episodes" of EastEnders ever aired". The fictional game show even used video game music from past Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
titles.
One of the big storylines in EastEnders in 1992 was Arthur's infidelity with the lonely divorcée Christine Hewitt
Christine Hewitt
Christine Hewitt is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Elizabeth Power. Introduced in 1992 as a lonely divorcée who became besotted with married Arthur Fowler while he tended her garden...
. The storyline built up slowly and was conceived by the writer Tony McHale. The audience had witnessed Arthur and his wife Pauline
Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional London borough of Walford. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between 1985 and 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer...
rowing many times, but they were generally seen as the most stable of all couples ever featured in the show, and so the storyline involving Arthur's extramarital affair came as a huge shock to viewers. The British press labelled the storyline "The Bonk Of The Year" and it finally reached its climax on-screen in September 1993. The scripwriters had many conferences about ways in which Pauline would find out about the affair; should she work it out herself or should some third party tell her the truth? In the end it was felt that Arthur should decide to tell her himself, which he did in a shocking episode that saw Pauline turn violent and hit Arthur in the face with a frying pan. This episode (written by Tony McHale and directed by Keith Boak) was chosen by writer Colin Brake as the episode of the year in EastEnders: The First Ten Years
EastEnders books
This is a list of books about or relating to the British soap opera EastEnders.-Non-fiction books:* EastEnders: The Inside Story* Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience* EastEnders Special...
.
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
promoting the campaign. Eventually the truth came out and Arthur was released. However, a gash to the head he had sustained in prison led to a brain haemorrhage and Arthur died suddenly in 1996 shortly after his release. Off-screen Bill Treacher had asked to be written out of the series after eleven years playing Arthur, saying: "By the time I finished, even the sound of the theme music was making me feel ill. I felt depressed." Although it was his decision to leave the soap, Treacher was shocked that the show’s bosses chose to kill Arthur off. He has said: "I certainly didn’t ask them to kill him. Oh no, because you never know, you might need to come back and earn a few grand."