Life after ‘EastEnders’

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 13

Life after ‘EastEnders’

From

GILLIAN WAINWRIGHT

in Britain

Now she has turned her back on “East Enders Dirty Den, Anita Dobson, formerly Angie, is starring in a six-part television comedy series “Split Ends.” In it she runs a hairdressing salon and has two men competing for her attention — top stylist David played by Peter Blake and her successful American businessman boyfriend Clint, played by Harry Ditson. She also has to' cope with her interfering mother. It is now a year since Dobson quit the role of Angie for a stage musical, “Budgie,” with Adam Faith. In three years “East Enders gave her fame and fortune as Den’s fiery wife in the Queen Vic pub in Albert Square. She took three holidays in Hong Kong, Greece and Switzerland to wean herself away from Angie’s vivid make-up and silkyclad legs. "I still love Angie to death,” she said. "How could I not? I lived with her seven days a week, six of them acting and Sunday spent learning the lines. But something inside me said I had to make the move.

“In the first year of ‘EastEnders’ we took off like a rocket. In the second year we reaped the rewards and awards. But in the third year I began to feel something tugging me in another direction. If I had gone on it would have been difficult for me to do anything else afterwards. I knew I had to obey the tug and Julia Smith, the producer was wonderful about it.”

The door was left open for her return. She simply, ran off to Spain with one of Den’s friends. Dobson is not bothered though. “I felt I ought not to hold on to mummy’s apron strings. I didn’t want a safety valve. I wanted to take the risk and commit myself to a new venture with every ounce of energy in my body.”

Anita Dobson herself is a true East Ender. She came from Rhodeswell Road, Limehouse, and now lives in Wapping, with mother and father in the flat below. She has been engaged four times but never married. She was 14 when she was first in love with a lad of 16. The wedding dresses were made, the banns called and the honeymoon booked, when she got cold feet and backed out. Of her romance with Brian May of the pop group Queen, who left his wife for her, she said, “We are together. He makes me happy.” Approaching 40, Dobson is not planning a family. She said, “I love children but I’ve always thought that what will be, will be. You can only play the cards God gives you. Women have had children when they were 45, so I’m not ruled out.”