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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 from 2003 to 2005.
 Early
life
Grantham was born in Camberwell, London and enlisted in the British Army in 1965,
at the age of 18. On 3 December 1966 he attempted to rob a German taxi driver,
Felix Reese. A struggle between Grantham and the driver followed, and Reese died
from a gunshot wound to the head. In his statement to the police following his
arrest, he claimed that he did not know the gun was loaded and it had gone off
during a struggle with the taxi driver.
He was subsequently convicted of murder, a surprise verdict after being advised
by his lawyer that a manslaughter verdict would probably be returned.
Grantham was sentenced to life imprisonment at his trial in 1967. Although he had
committed the killing in Osnabrück, Germany, he served the entirety of his
imprisonment in various 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 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, who
had also been an inmate at Leyhill. He also met actress Louise Jameson during her
visit to Leyhill in the mid 1970s; she had also encouraged him to take up
acting.
Career
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 as Kiston in a 1984
episode of Doctor Who - Resurrection of the Daleks. He then appeared as a Signals
Sergeant 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, but by the time this film was released, Grantham had found fame in
quite a different environment.
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.
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 Cluedo as Colonel Mustard, The Detectives (1993) and 99-1 (1993-4). In 1994 he
narrated Volume One of Frank Harris's erotic classic My Life and Loves. In 1997 he
produced and starred in the sci-fi mini-series The Uninvited.
He then became best known as the co-host of the game show Fort Boyard alongside
Melinda Messenger which he presented from 1998 to 2001. He also reunited with his
EastEnders co-star Anita Dobson in a one-off television film titled The Stretch
which aired on ITV in 2000 and in a 2004 British gangster film titled Charlie.
Grantham has been actively involved in fundraising for Down Syndrome charities
since his son Danny was born with the condition in 1994.
Return to
EastEnders
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 (who had last appeared 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, with the help of
former mistress Jan Collins, while the body found a year later in the Canal was
wrongly identified. Over 17 million people watched one of the most anticipated TV
events of the year on Monday 29th September as Den spoke the famous words, "Hello,
princess".
There had been much speculation in the media after Den's departure as to whether
the character really was dead. BBC bosses said that Den's return had been on the
agenda almost every year since the character's departure in 1989, and the first
offer for him to return had been made as long ago as 1991. But Grantham had turned
down every offer to return until the one made to him in early 2003, feeling that
his character did not have adequate links to the show for a comeback to be anything
more than a publicity stunt - particularly when Den's daughter Sharon was away from
the show from 1995 to 2001, which left Den without any family in the cast.
By 2003, however, his daughter Vicki had rejoined the cast and a previously
unknown son called Dennis Rickman (played by Nigel Harman) was also in the series -
the product of an affair between Den and a young woman called Paula Rickman, 30
years earlier.
Den's former on-screen wife Angie had left the show in 1988, and actress Anita
Dobson was made several offers to return to the show, but turned each one down and
felt that the character would be ruined if she made a comeback. BBC bosses finally
gave up on having Angie back in the show and the character died off-screen in
2002.
In December 2004, Dirty Den arranged a scam to get back the Queen Vic from Sam
Mitchell; 16 years after he had sold it to Frank Butcher.
Online 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". Amanda logged onto
MSN Messenger, calling herself "Halo Polisher" and was soon chatting to
Grantham.
He also allegedly dressed as Captain Hook whilst pleasuring himself, shared his
sexual fantasies about animals , 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."
He had apparently described co-star Shane Richie (who played Alfie Moon) as
"self-infatuated", but Richie subsequently stated that Grantham had been forgiven
by the cast and they were happy to joke with him about it.
Departure
from EastEnders
In November 2004, it was confirmed that Grantham would be leaving EastEnders in the
New Year. Bosses stated that the character would be killed off, but this time "the
coffin lid would be nailed shut".
On 18 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.
In his autobiography that was released in October 2006, Grantham put an end to the
rumours that he was dismissed from EastEnders by revealing that his return to
EastEnders was only ever going to be for 18 months, in order for his second demise
to coincide with the show's 20th anniversary.
Six months after Den's last appearance, he returned again, this time as a corpse.
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 October 2005, Sam's brothers Phil and Grant returned to Walford and
managed to put her in the clear by obtaining a tape-recorded confession by the real
killer, Chrissie, who was promptly arrested.
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, where he also mentions that his return to Eastenders was only ever
going to be 18 months long, as bosses want his exit to tie in with the 20th
anniversary of the popular soap. This put paid to endless speculation that he had
been forced out the show as punishment for the internet sex scandal.
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,
playing the role of 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 a few episodes in 1998 also coincidentally playing a character named
Jimmy.
In February 2007, he began a tour of the UK with the Donald Churchill play, The
Decorator. In April 2007 it was announced that he will play Private Walker in a
stage production of Dad's Army leading the Daily Mail to comment that "At least
there'll be one member of the cast who has actually shot a German" - in reference
to Grantham's killing of the German taxi driver some 40 years earlier.
Popularity
Grantham's role as Den Watts had earned him iconic status among TV fans by the time
of his first departure at the beginning of 1989, and he built on this success by
appearing in other high-profile television roles during the 1990s, though none of
these attracted the media attention or public popularity that he had enjoyed as
"Dirty Den".
He had made a handful of bit-part roles on other television programmes prior to
joining EastEnders, most notably Doctor Who, but was virtually unknown to the
British public when he made his first appeared as Den Watts on 19 February
1985.
Four days later, however, the Daily Mirror revealed that Grantham had spent a
decade behind bars for killing a German taxi driver. He had warned BBC bosses about
his murky past when agreeing to join the new series in late 1984, but they had
vowed to stand by him even after the media went public with Grantham's past.
Grantham had also volunteered to quit the show if his colleagues were unhappy with
him, but they backed him up and he remained with the show for the next four
years.
The character of Dirty Den was still an icon in the eyes of many viewers by the
time of his "return from the dead" in 2003, and Grantham was by now one of the most
recognisable actors on British television. The decision to bring back a supposedly
dead character was controversial, but it boosted EastEnders viewing figures for a
while, and the character of Den was at the centre of many notable storylines for
several months afterwards.
The internet sex scandal in May 2004 brought great public shame on Grantham,
particularly in the tabloid press. There were constant calls for him to be sacked,
but he returned after a two-month suspension without pay. Later that year it was
confirmed that Grantham would be leaving the series, and that the character would
once again be killed off - but this time there would be no comebacks. Den was
finally killed off in February 2005, and it was not until the autumn of the
following year that he silenced the speculators who were still claiming that he had
been sacked as punishment for the webcam incident, by confirming that his return to
EastEnders was only ever going to be for 18 months, to tie in with the show's 20th
anniversary
During the 2007 Christmas holiday season, Grantham appeared in the pantomime Dick
Whittington, as 'Dirty Rat'.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Leslie
Grantham - Manifesting Generator - Biography
