Leslie Grantham slams EastEnders over revising Dirty Den line

The actor accused soap bosses of "poor writing"
Unimpressed: Leslie Grantham was not happy with his catchphrase being retconned
Steve Meddle/ITV/REX (
26 July 2016

Former soap star Leslie Grantham has blasted EastEnders for handing his character’s famous catch phrase to a newcomer.

Grantham played notorious villain Dirty Den in the BBC soap and was renowned for saying “Ello Princess”.

But soap bosses gave the line to Sharon Mitchell’s biological father, Gavin Sullivan (Paul Nicholas) and said it was used by Sullivan as a secret way to communicate with her.

“I do find it strange that the show gave Den’s catchphrase to someone else,” he told Inside Soap of the decision to use the catchphrase.

“Den is still remembered and people still ask me to say, ‘Ello princess’, because it was one of those bits that made him so popular. You do feel like you own it when you’ve made such an impact.”

He added: “Obviously the show moves on and there’s a whole new generation now, but I think that’s pretty poor writing.”

Grantham played the Queen Vic landlord between 1985 and 1989 and left viewers thinking his character had died. But Den made a shock return to Albert Square in 2003 before meeting a grisly demise after being struck over the head by Chrissy in 2005.

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Grantham opened up about why his character quit Walford during a rare TV appearance on This Morning last week.

“I got bored with acting, which is a terrible thing to say,” he confessed to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford.

“As you get old there’s new people coming along. I do a couple of things… straight to DVD films, but I’ve been writing this book.”

Grantham was on the ITV show to promote his debut novel, Jack Bates And The Wizards Spell.

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