Anita Dobson

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Anita Dobson (born April 29, 1949 in Stepney, London) is an English television actress.

Anita's first starring role was in the 1983 sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle, but she is most famous for playing the emotionally battered and alcoholic landlady, Angie Watts, in the BBC1 soap opera, EastEnders, a role which she played from the shows inception in 1985 to 1988. Interestingly, Anita was not the first person to be cast as Angie - another actress, Jean Fennell, had already began recording when it was decided that her performance did not gel with the original idea of the character, and so Anita landed the role at the last minute. Whilst playing Angie Watts, Anita worked closely with actor Leslie Grantham, who played her adultourous husband 'Dirty Den Watts'. 30.1 million viewers tuned in on Christmas day in 1986, to witness Den handing Angie her divorce papers, 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.

Since quitting EastEnders in 1988, Anita has been asked to reprise her role numerous times, but never accepted the offer; recently she commented “Why tarnish the gorgeous creation that was Angie Watts?”. The character of Angie Watts was subsequently killed off-screen in 2002 (dying of a drink related illness) and brought home to be buried by her on-screen daughter Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), who had recently returned to the show.

Since her exit from EastEnders she has appeared in many television, film and theatre roles, including the BBC sitcoms Red Dwarf, Rab C Nesbitt and her own sitcom series Split Ends (1989), which failed to succeed and lasted for only one series. She has also starred in the BBC drama's Dangerfield (1995) and Sunburn (1999); hospital dramas Casualty (2000) and Holby City (2003), and the ITV detective series The Last Detective (2004) among others. She has also been reunited with fellow EastEnder Leslie Grantham in the Sky production called The Stretch and Five's Horror series Urban Gothic (2000). Most recently she signed up for the ITV1 police drama The Bill in 2005.

Dobson trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, whose alumni also include Terence Stamp, Hugh Bonneville, Rupert Friend, Angela Lansbury, Matthew Goode, Sue Johnston, Minnie Driver, Samantha Seagar, and Julian Fellowes.

She was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in Frozen at the Royal National Theatre: Cottesloe. In August 1986 she reached No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart with "Anyone Can Fall in Love," a song based on the theme music of EastEnders, which was written by Simon May. She has also released several other singles and albums with minor chart success.

Anita is currently playing the role of Gertrude in the English Touring Theatre production of Hamlet, at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End, following a UK tour in Autumn 2005.

She once dated her EastEnders cast mate Tom Watt who played Lofty Holloway, but is now married to Queen guitarist Brian May.

[edit] External link

• Anita Dobson at the Internet Movie Database