When Dirty Den Watts gave his alcoholic wife a present in the Queen Vic on Christmas Day 1986, 30 million viewers were watching. “This, my sweet,” Den snarled at Angie, “is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce.”
It’s easy to be wise after the event, but Angie’s mistake was to get drunk on the Orient Express on the way back from the couple’s second honeymoon in Venice and then blab to the barman that she didn’t really have only six months to live. Den, naturally, overheard this admission and realised that Angie had dreamed up the lie to bring her philandering husband (who had made 16-year-old Michelle Fowler pregnant, earning the enduring rage of her mum, Pauline) back into something like conjugal felicity.
