Leslie Grantham
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Leslie Michael Grantham (born April 30, 1947, in Camberwell, England) is a British actor best known for playing "Dirty" Den Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 1989 and again in 2003 to 2005.
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[edit] Personal life
Grantham was born in Camberwell, London and enlisted in the British Army in 1965, at the age of 18. On 3 December the following year he shot dead a German taxi driver in his cab while attempting to rob him and was convicted of murder.[1][2] In his statement to the police following his arrest, Grantham claimed that he did not know the gun was loaded and it had gone off during a struggle with the taxi driver.
Grantham was then sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 11 years. Although he had committed the killing in Osnabrück, Germany, he served the full length of his sentence in British prisons. This was because soldiers and officers convicted of any criminal offence that warrants a sentence of over three months are automatically transferred to HM Prison Service, since they are also automatically dishonourably discharged. Grantham was released in 1977, having served just over 10 years. While he was in Leyhill Prison, he acted in several plays for inmates and members of the public, and edited the prison newspaper. He was encouraged to get more involved in acting professionally by disgraced politician T. Dan Smith whom he met at Leyhill.
[edit] Career
[edit] Early Work
On release from prison Leslie decided to pursue an acting career and trained at The Webber Douglas drama school (as did Anita Dobson, but not at the same time). He became good friends with the actress Louise Jameson, best known for her role as Leela in Doctor Who and made his first television appearance in a 1984 Doctor Who serial, Resurrection of the Daleks. He then appeared as a Signals Seargant in episode 12 of the mini TV series The Jewel in the Crown. He also wrote a play entitled A Reason To Live, which won the Gloucester Drama Festival award for best original play. In 1985 he made a brief appearance in the film Morons from Outer Space.
[edit] EastEnders first stint
In 1984 he auditioned with the BBC for a part in its new soap opera EastEnders, which was due to go on air in February 1985. Grantham had auditioned for the role of market trader Pete Beale, but when the series went on air he got the part of Dennis Watts. The character, landlord of the Queen Victoria public house, quickly became a national favourite and gained the nickname Dirty Den mostly because of the way he treated his wife Angie, played by Anita Dobson, and at the age of 39 he fathered a child with 16-year-old Michelle Fowler.
On Christmas Day 1986, Grantham's character served his on-screen wife with the divorce papers, with the famous line - "Happy Christmas Ange" and the episode was watched by a record 30 million viewers - over half the British population. In 1988 the character Den Watts sold his pub to Frank Butcher and gradually drifted out of key storylines until finally departing in February 1989. Den had got involved with The Firm and his only option was to flee the square. Viewers watched a mysterious gunman shoot at Den with a gun hidden in a bunch of daffodils, before hearing a splash. A shot depicting Den's death was cut from the final scene, as the show's producers hoped that Grantham might one day be persuaded to return to the role. The following year, a body believed to be Den's was found in the canal, although again, not shown on screen.
[edit] Other Work
From 1989 to 1990 he played Danny Kane in the crime television series The Paradise Club alongside Don Henderson. He went to appear in many more television series such as The Detectives (1993) and 99-1 (1993-4). In 1994 he narrated Volume One of Frank Harris's erotic classic My Life and Loves.[1] In 1997 he produced and starred in the sci-fi mini-series The Uninvited.
He became best known as the co-host of the popular game show Fort Boyard with Melinda Messenger which he presented from 1998 to 2002. He reunited with his EastEnders co-star Anita Dobson in a one-off television film The Stretch in 2000 and in a 2004 British gangster film Charlie.
[edit] EastEnders second stint
In September 2003, 14 years since his character was supposedly killed off Leslie Grantham returned to EastEnders in a plotline that could be said to have stretched the soap's credibility as his 'Den Watts' character (initially bumped-off in 1989) arrived at the nightclub now owned by his adoptive daughter Sharon.
It had been revealed he survived the shooting and fled to Spain, while the body found a year later in the Canal was wrongly identified. Over 17 million people watched Den return with the words, "Hello, princess". Just over a year later, Dirty Den arranged a scam to get back the Queen Vic from Sam Mitchell; 17 years after he had sold it to Frank Butcher.
[edit] Internet sex scandal
In May 2004 a Sunday newspaper printed photographs of Grantham exposing himself and masturbating whilst sucking his finger in a sexually-suggestive manner via a webcam from his dressing room to an undercover reporter named "Amanda". He also allegedly dressed as Captain Hook whilst pleasuring himself, shared his sexual fantasies about animals[3], insulted several cast members of EastEnders (including Shane Richie, Wendy Richard and Jessie Wallace) and made comments regarding the poor quality of the scripts. Grantham released a statement which read, "I am wholeheartedly ashamed of my behaviour and feel that I have let down my colleagues, as well as my friends and family." He also added, "In some small recompense I intend to make a donation to charity as a mark of my apology." His co-star Shane Richie, whom Grantham had allegedly called "self-infatuated", subsequently stated that Grantham had been forgiven by the cast and they were happy to joke with him about it.
[edit] Departure from EastEnders
In February 2005, 16.2 million viewers tuned in to view his character's second demise, this time at the hands of new wife, Chrissie who hit him over the head with a dog-shaped iron doorstop after he attacked her during an argument. Grantham's departure from the soap was reportedly the result of adverse newspaper publicity generated by the actor's Internet sex scandal months earlier for which he had initially received a suspension from the programme, although he has stated that he did not want to renew his contract.
Six months after Den's last appearance, Sam Mitchell was arrested after being caught digging up a body in the basement of the Queen Vic. The body was quickly identified as Den's, and Sam was charged with his murder. In the end, Sam's brothers Phil and Grant managed to put her in the clear by obtaining a tape-recorded confession by the real killer, Chrissie.
[edit] Life after EastEnders: 2005 onwards
Grantham has since appeared in two UK tours of Beyond Reasonable Doubt, a stage adaptation of a Jeffrey Archer play, alongside Simon Ward and Alexandra Bastedo, and remains a popular Christmas pantomime villain. He directed and starred in a pantomime of Peter Pan at the St. Albans arena during Christmas 2005, which was a sell-out and received excellent reviews.
In January 2005 a newspaper report claimed that Grantham was in the process of writing his autobiography, which he denied. However in June 2006 he confirmed he was in fact working on the book, titled Life And Other Times, for which he had been offered a "substantial sum" by Timewell Publishing. The book went on sale in bookshops across the UK on 18 October 2006. He discussed his book in an interview with Digitalspy,[4] where he also mentions that his return to Eastenders was only ever going to be 18 months long to tie in with the 20th anniversary of the popular soap.
In October 2006 it was announced that, in his first television role since leaving Eastenders, he would appear in the long-running ITV1 police drama series The Bill, portraying a bank robber named Jimmy Collins on the run from prison. The episode aired on February 8, 2007. This was Leslie's second appearance in The Bill as he previously appeared in 1998 for a few episodes.
[edit] Trivia
- Grantham lives in South West London with his wife, actress Jane Laurie, and their three sons - Michael "Spike" (born 1987), Jake (born 1989) and Danny (born 1994).
- He is a keen cricketer and often plays in celebrity tournaments. In March 2006 it was announced that he would be a contestant in a celebrity poker tournament on Challenge TV alongside another former EastEnder, Michael Greco.
- He is a keen football supporter and follows West Ham United. During his first spell in EastEnders, Den would attend West Ham games to be met with the chant "There's only one Den Watts". He revealed this in his autobiography.
[edit] Selected filmography
- EastEnders (1985-1989, 2003-2005)..... "Dirty" Den Watts
- Charlie (2004) .... Richard
- Heartbeat (2002) ..... George East
- The Stretch (2000) ..... Terry Greene
- The Bill (1998)..... Jimmy Smith / (2007) .... Jimmy Collins
- Fort Boyard (1998-2002)..... Boyard
- The Uninvited (1997)..... Philip Gates
- 99-1 (1993-4) ..... Mick Raynor
- The Detectives (1993) ..... Danny Kane
- The Paradise Club (1989-1990) .... Danny Kane
- Alas Smith & Jones (1986)
- Morons from Outer Space (1985) .... Motorway Policeman
- Dramarama (1984)
- The Jewel in the Crown (1984) .... Signals Sergeant
- Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks (1984) .... Kiston
[edit] External links
- Official Leslie Grantham Website
- Leslie Grantham Website
- Leslie Grantham at the Internet Movie Database
- Audio Interview at BBC Wiltshire
[edit] Notes
- ^ My Life and Loves, Audio BookAccessed March 6, 2007
