EastEnders' Angie Watts return was a masterstroke – and not just because it finally brought Anita Dobson back

It's easy to forget that Angie was only on screen for just over three years of the BBC One soap, being written out in 1988 after Dobson quit the role.

The impact of Angie Watts, and particularly her fiery and toxic marriage with her husband 'Dirty' Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), made television history and remains seared into the memory of British pop culture forever.

Sadly, Angie was killed off-screen in 2002 as the character's groundbreaking battle with alcoholism claimed her life, with cirrhosis of the liver killing her. Daughter Sharon returned to Walford from America to lay her mother to rest.

Speaking to Radio Times magazine in 2010, Dobson revealed she agreed with the choice to kill Angie: "When my agent rang me and told me that they were going to kill her off, I said, 'Good.' It was time. They had asked me so many times if I'd go back and I'd always said, 'Never say never,' but realistically it was never going to happen."

So, of course, it felt like Angie would never grace our screens again, but the 40th anniversary saw us treated to a ghostly vision of Angie that finally saw Dobson reprise the role after 37 years away.

Aside from the wonderful surprise element of the appearance and Dobson's agreeing to return being massive enough, there were some other key elements which truly made this moment sing.

Firstly, the setting for the return - not just the Queen Vic pub itself, Angie's stage during her 'performance' in the show's early years, but the fact that she approached an injured Sharon on the wreckage of the stairs of the Queen Vic pub.

Those stairs were not just the setting of Angie's most iconic moment - the ratings-smashing divorce paper serving of Christmas 1986 - but many an emotional moment from Angie's tenure, often stained with tears and with a gin in hand.

Additionally, not only was Angie just the right figure to appear for the 40th, but it also positioned her daughter Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) rightfully in the spotlight.

One of only three original cast members currently in the show, Sharon is one of the most iconic figures in soap history, and she herself is the true child of the Queen Vic - raised there, a landlady for multiple tenures of her own, and one of the most quintessential soap opera figures of all time.

In fact, it could be argued that Sharon Watts is soap opera incarnate - a family woman who has endured endless trauma, marriage, affairs, motherhood, and more tragedy than most people face in a whole lifetime. Despite this, Sharon remains the ultimate survivor, and this ghostly encounter with her late mother Angie underlined that.

Angie herself proclaims to Sharon, "We are fighters, Sharon!"

The apparition of Angie willing her tragic heroine of a daughter to fight on and live felt just the right way to utilise her.

The moment was a tearjerker, too, because as anyone who has lost a parent knows, such a conversation with your lost guardian would act as the most moving wish fulfillment.

The script also perfectly captured the voice of the melodramatic but earthy Angie of yesteryear, so the words from Kevin Rundle and the light-of-touch direction from Lance Kneeshaw can't be overpraised.

Finally, soaps are constantly evolving and looking to embrace new styles and format changes, but one could argue there have been too many breaks in traditional storytelling in recent years across all of the big three soaps - with 'special episodes' and 'event weeks' becoming all too frequent, even when executed well.

In recent years, EastEnders rarely breaks from format in comparison to other soaps, and when it does it has been understated and impactful - take the sole use of a single flash-forward for The Six two years ago or the recent heartbreaking psychosis episode for Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).

This feels like another strong example of that - closest in resemblance to the exemplary final encounter of a dying Peggy Mitchell (the late Dame Barbara Windsor) and the ghostly apparition of best pal Pat Evans (Pam St Clement) in her final scenes, penned by the mighty Sarah Phelps. It spoke to the characters, their strength, and their history.

And all soaps have taught us time and time again that the genre thrives on strong female characters, and, of course, history and Angie Watts's comeback is the living and breathing example of that.

Read More

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EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7:30pm on BBC One and from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

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