Chrissie Watts

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EastEnders character

Chrissie Watts

Portrayed by

Tracy-Ann Oberman

Created by

Louise Berridge

Duration

2004–2005

First appearance

29 April 2004

Last appearance

9 December 2005

Profile

Date of birth

18 March 1968

Status

Widowed

Home

Prison

Occupation

Barmaid (previously hairdresser)

Family

Husbands	Den Watts (1999-2005)

Christine "Chrissie" Watts was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tracy-Ann Oberman.

She is perhaps best known for killing the character of Den Watts, her husband, in an episode that was watched by 14.34 million British TV viewers. She was also well-known for her paranoid character and extreme manipulation to make sure things went smoothly in her favour. She would face facts and put up a fight, rather than turn to the bottle like Den's first wife, Angie, yet proved to be just as irrational when she ended up losing it and murdering him with Pauline Fowler's doorstop.

1 Arrival and storylines
2 Revenge on Den
3 Blackmail and framing
4 Downfall
5 External links

[edit] Arrival and storylines

At the end of April 2004 (the night Laura Beale fell down her stairs to her death), tough-charactered Chrissie turned up in Walford in search of Den Watts — her husband! When their marriage turned sour, he'd sold their bar in Spain and ran off with the money, and she was here to get what was hers. Somehow, Den managed to persuade her to give their marriage another try, and to stay in Walford with him. She was shocked to be introduced to his children (she never knew he had kids), Sharon, Dennis, and Vicki and that while he was in Spain with her, he was in exile after faking his own death. She soon hit it off with Den's kids and started to work as a hairdresser in Kate Mitchell's nail salon, SophistiKate's, but tragedy was round the corner when she discovered that Den was having an affair with Kate. She confronted her work partner as she hacked off most of her hair.

Soon after, she patched things up with Kate and they worked together again, and also managed to forgive Den, although promised that she'd kill him if he ever cheated on her again. This threat would ironically come true just several months later...

After Den bought The Queen Vic (he actually worked with corrupt lawyer Marcus Christie to con Sam Hunter out of it by saying that her brother Phil needed her to sell his businesses and raise money for him, although Marcus ran off with the said cash), his former pub, his son, Dennis and (adoptive) daughter, Sharon announced over Christmas dinner that they'd started an affair again and that nothing would come between them this time.

Zoe Slater (Dennis's girlfriend) then announced she was pregnant. Dennis reluctantly chose to stand by Zoe, while Sharon fled to America. Vicki also left with her, after overhearing Den persuading Sharon to stay and revealing that he didn't love Vicki half as much as Sharon.

[edit] Revenge on Den

In January 2005, Dennis caught Den and Zoe in bed, and after being told the whole truth by Zoe, he told Chrissie (who kept quiet and didn't let on that she knew) and decided to search for Sharon.

Zoe, meanwhile, discovered that she was pregnant with Den's baby. Her "original" pregnancy had been faked under the instructions of Den, who was determined to split Dennis from Sharon.

Chrissie (secretly knowing that the unborn child was not Dennis's) persuaded Zoe that aborting the baby would be the right decision. Then, during a row with Zoe, she let on that she knew everything, but she, Zoe, and Sam Hunter (known to the public at the time as 'the three witches of Walford') came up with a plan to get revenge on Den (Chrissie for his lies and adultery; Zoe for forcing her to fake a pregnancy and then sleep with him; and Sam for losing her pub to Den in a corrupt scheme that both he and Chrissie were involved in).

Zoe saves Chrissie from Den.

Chrissie planned to intimidate Den into signing the pub over to her.

On the evening of 18 February 2005, the three women stood together in The Vic and confronted an indifferent Den. He took it in his stride and openly talked about all of his sins (including making Zoe pregnant to keep Dennis and Sharon apart, and arranging the scam which had tricked Sam out of The Vic), totally unaware that he was making Chrissie's master plan work. This plan was in the form of Sharon, who was secretly hiding in the dark shadows at the other side of the pub, listening to her father's confessions.

She appeared from the shadows, and berated Chrissie for cruelly tricking her into coming back to Walford with the lie that her father was ill. She then stormed out of the pub and Den followed her. Before getting in a taxi to the airport, Sharon told Den that her father had died a long time ago, and that she was an orphan, before fleeing Albert Square once again.

Chrissie knew that Sharon was Den's Princess - the one person he truly loved and cared about. She knew that losing Den the love of his favourite child would destroy him. When Den walked back into the pub, she taunted him that he now knew what it was like to lose what he loved most. Unable to contain his rage, Den attacked his wife and bashed her head against the fruit machine.

Chrissie kneeling over Den's body.

Zoe picked up the nearest object (a metal, dog-shaped doorstop ironically belonging to Den's long-time enemy, Pauline Fowler) and whacked Den over the head with it. He fell to the ground. Perceiving him to be dead, Zoe and Sam went out the back to lock all the doors. Suddenly Den grabbed Chrissie's leg, speaking his famous last words: "You'll never get me out of The Vic", which proved true when she picked up the doorstop and delivered the fatal blow to his head (secretly watched by Sam, who was in the doorway). The three women buried him in a hole in the pub's cellar. The hole was filled with cement the next morning.

Despite knowing her innocence, Chrissie allowed Zoe to believe that she had delivered the fatal blow. Consequently a power struggle broke out between Sam (who wanted her pub back in return for her silence) and Chrissie with each woman trying to gain control of Zoe.

Chrissie claimed that Den had run off with another woman and attempted to make her story convincing by throwing his clothes into the street and engaging in a bogus phone conversation with him in front of a packed pub. She successfully managed to remove Zoe from the Square and Sam's descent into binge-drinking and depression enabled her to exploit her.

[edit] Blackmail and framing

Sam took the doorstop and hid it under the sink in her flat, and began to blackmail Chrissie by saying that, unless she didn't hand over the pub, she would tell Zoe the truth. Despite months of threats, Chrissie eventually stood up to Sam, which led to her telling Zoe everything. She punched Chrissie before confronting her, and fled to Spain after admitting to her mum, Kat, that Chrissie had killed Den and that was why she was so keen to leave.

The heat was on for Chrissie as Dennis and Sharon had returned to Walford in search of their father. Kat often made snide remarks and Sam grew frustrated as she was now out of work, struggling to pay the rent and hadn't got The Queen Vic back, so, as Dennis and Sharon got married, she smashed up Den's grave, in the hope that Chrissie would finally be sent down for his death. This backfired and Sam found herself being arrested on suspicion of murder as Den's bloodstains were found under her sink (from the doorstop that she had stolen after Den's killing) and her constant changing of her story (she still didn't tell the whole truth, and tried to eliminate herself from the scene of crime so that she wouldn't be sent down). Chrissie made Kat get her cousin, Stacey, to make a false alibi by saying that Zoe and Chrissie spent had a watched a video together on the night Den died, otherwise Chrissie would drag Zoe down into the mess.

Sam's mother, Peggy Mitchell, returned to Walford to free Sam, and slapped Chrissie during Den's funeral. The slap caused Chrissie to fall into Den's grave, on top of the coffin.

Peggy also met an old nemesis, Johnny Allen, and revealed the so-called 'do-gooder's' past secrets, such as chopping a prostitute's fingers off, and battering and stamping on a man who had made a spelling error on a birthday cake, although this was overheard by Johnny's daughter, Ruby, who severed all ties with her father, leading to an infuriated Johnny to pay a man to attack Peggy, though she was saved just in time by her sons, Phil and Grant, who had returned to the Square.

Chrissie and her boyfriend, Jake Moon (to whom she'd already confessed the murder), planned to sell the pub to Johnny Allen (and a mystery second buyer) and flee the country, although the Mitchell brothers taunting strained Chrissie, and even managed to convince Sharon of her guilt after arranging a visit with Sam in prison. They also tried to break Stacey's alibi, but to no avail.

When everything looked doomed, Jake and Chrissie had an argument in Johnny's club, Scarlet's, in which she made intimate references to murdering Den. This was caught on CCTV by Johnny who informed Jake, who told Chrissie, who went to Johnny and begged him not to show anyone the tape. She also asked if she could get the money for the Vic right at that minute. Johnny took advantage of her and said the only way she could get the money and go free was if she slept with him. Johnny leaned in and kissed her and she started crying, saying she couldn't hurt Jake. Johnny told her that since she hadn't slept with him, she wouldn't get the money. Then Johnny told the Mitchells about the tape.

[edit] Downfall

Meanwhile, Chrissie discovered that Ian was buying the pub, and she and Jake made a quick sale of £25,000 on 8 November 2005 to Ian before quickly fleeing the Square straight after. Unfortunately for Jake and Chrissie, at Stansted airport, they turned around to see Sharon, with Phil Mitchell and Grant Mitchell standing opposite them with the police. She punched Chrissie, who was then arrested for Den's murder. While in the interview room, Chrissie said that she would only co-operate with them in exchange for a meeting with Sharon. This was earned, and she tried to make Sharon realise why she killed her father, but to no avail. She also revealed that she forged Den's signature on the document in which Den handed over the pub to Chrissie, thus The Queen Vic legally belonging to Sharon, as Den's next of kin.

On 5 December 2005 Jake Moon went to visit Chrissie in jail and asked her to marry him. However, when she found out that he had lost the £25,000 that was to be her bail money, she stormed out of the visiting room after calling Jake an idiot.

Enraged, Chrissie began plotting revenge on Sharon for sending her to prison by trying to force her to testify in court about what Den was 'really' like, wanting to see Sharon crumble at confessing how he cheated and supposedly beat her mother (which he never did). But after a week in prison, she gave up and sacked her solicitor, Mr. Cockeren, and decided to plead guilty to murder. Her last appearance was walking into her cell with a contented smile.