Leonard Fenton, who has died aged 95, was approaching 60 when he joined the original cast of EastEnders in 1985 as Dr Harold Legg, the friendly Jewish GP and much-loved pillar of the community. He continued in the BBC soap for 34 years, appearing in more than 250 episodes.
The character was six years older than Fenton and widowed during the second world war when his wife was killed by a bomb. He was already at retirement age in the first episode, but he continued to serve the fictional Walford’s residents – and enjoy reminiscences with Dot Cotton (June Brown), Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) and Lou Beale (Anna Wing). In the serial’s early days, he helped Sue Osman (Sandy Ratcliff) come to terms with the cot death of her baby and humoured the hypochondriacal Dot.
