Storylines
Alcoholic Angie shares a love/hate marriage to her womanising husband, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), and refuses to let him go even during their rockiest times. They had been married since 18 February 1968 - exactly 17 years before the series begins - and together they run and live in The Queen Victoria public house on Albert Square. Angie and Den dote on their spoilt, teenage, adopted daughter, Sharon (Letitia Dean), who carries on loving them despite her resentment of Den's affairs and Angie's binge drinking. Angie is good at putting on a front for the customers, dressing to kill, screeching outrageously with the girls, but inside she is a mess. Despite all her bravado, all she really wants is a happy marriage with Den, who she never stops loving, despite the fact that he treats her terribly.
Den and Angie start 1985 by celebrating their seventeenth wedding anniversary, but it soon becomes clear that their marriage is a sham. Behind the scenes of their great business partnership, there is not much of a relationship going on. Den has been having an affair with his posh mistress Jan Hammond (Jane How) for a while, a fact that Angie is all too aware of. Early in the year, Den even manages to wrangle a holiday to Spain with Jan, under the pretext that he is checking out a possible time-share holiday home purchase. With Den gone, Angie does what she always does in times of trouble, and turns to alcohol to drown her sorrows. She also sets about trying to seduce the men of Walford in a bid to get back at her philandering husband. Lofty Holloway (Tom Watt), Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) and even Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) are all subject to Angie's not-so-subtle flirting, but her only successful conquest is local builder, Tony Carpenter (Oscar James). Tony falls for Angie, but she is only using him to get back at Den. The affair is conducted in secret, but they are caught in a passionate clinch in the middle of The Vic by Sharon. Angie has to bribe her daughter to ensure her silence, and even informs her about Den's infidelity. Sharon is disgusted that both her parents are guilty of adultery. Upon Den's return from his holiday, Angie calls off the affair, but it isn't long before Sharon givse Den the impression that her mother has been up to no good. Den confronts Angie, and she admits to the affair, but unfortunately for her, Den isn't concerned about her infidelity, more about his reputation, which upsets Angie even more.
Although Angie tries to stop drinking, her attempts always fail dismally and by the end of the year she is arrested for drink-driving when she crashes Den's car on the way home from a darts match. 1986 brings more trauma for Angie when Den's mistress, Jan, starts to frequent The Vic. The physical arrival of Jan sends Angie's marriage into further decline as she is unable to contain her jealousy and anger. Angie becomes so depressed that she takes a near lethal cocktail of booze and pills in an attempted suicide. By chance, Den returns home early following an argument with Jan, discovers Angie and rushes her to the hospital where she has her stomach pumped. Angie recovers, but is left shaken when she discovers how close to death she actually came. Upon recovering, Angie decides to play Den at his own game and so she begins another affair with Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson). Den is furious when he discovers them in bed together, but his rage is short-lived as he has more pressing things on his mind, such as the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Vicki Fowler. Angie's affair with Andy only lasts a month, ending when Andy reunites with his ex-girlfriend Debbie Wilkins (Shirley Cheriton). Andy dies in a road accident shortly afterwards.
As the year moves on, Den decides that he wants to leave Angie so he can marry Jan. He finally gets round to telling Angie his intentions in October, after which Angie becomes distraught. Desperate to hold on to her husband, she announces that she is terminally ill and only has six months to live. Upon hearing this, Den becomes wracked with guilt, and so decides to revise his plans and stay with Angie. He sets about organising a second honeymoon for them in Venice. However their holiday is ruined, when Jan arrives, and upon seeing her and Den together Angie goes straight back on the gin that she'd not long given up. On the way home from Venice on the Orient Express, a drunk Angie tells the barman all about her big lie. Unfortunately for Angie, Den overhears every word, and from that moment on he reverts to his original plan to leave her, although he decides to wait a while before letting Angie know that he knows about her lie. On Christmas Day that year, Den decides to get his revenge. Thinking that her marriage is safe, Angie is happier than ever, that is until Den informs her that he'd heard her conversation with the barman on the Orient Express, and he then serves her divorce papers as a Christmas present (this episode had the highest amount of viewers the show has ever seen since its 1985 arrival - 30 million). In response, Angie and Sharon pack their bags and walk out of the pub, choosing to take the route through the public area to cause Den the most embarrassment possible.
Angie begins 1987 by securing herself a job as the manageress of The Vic's rival drinking establishment, The Dagmar. Owner, James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde), is only too happy to have Angie's expertise on board for his new, suave wine bar. Angie and Den continue to row constantly and in a bid for revenge, Angie vows to take Den 'to the cleaners' for her divorce settlement. In retaliation, Den installs his mistress, Jan, as the new landlady of The Vic, which only infuriates Angie even more. However, Den and Jan's cohabitation eventually leads to the end of their relationship, when Den decides that Jan is too posh for him, and so by the summer of that year orders her to leave.
The Vic is floundering without Angie, a fact that she seems to delight over, and the sheer pleasure of watching Den suffer is all she needs to make her 'grin and bear' The Dagmar's yuppie clientele. However, behind her front, Angie is a wreck, drinking more heavily than ever and going on 'over the top' shopping sprees. By May of that year the divorce papers finally come through, but it seems that neither Den nor Angie are coping without each other, and although they both profess to be pleased about the divorce, it is obvious to everyone else that they are far from happy. Seeing her parents' misery, Sharon decides to intervene by setting up a dinner date between them, which ends with them having sex. Angie and Den decide to keep their reconciliation quiet for a while, but by the end of the year, Angie finally loses her patience with The Dagmar clientele, and after slapping one of the customers in the face, she marches over to The Vic and offers to come back to work, but only as a business partner this time and not a wife.
Angie begins 1988 with a health scare when she is rushed to hospital with kidney-failure; brought on by her excessive alcohol abuse. Upon her recovery Angie decides to take a well-earned holiday to Spain with her friends, Sonny and Ree. This leads to Angie and Sonny falling in love and embarking on an affair. Sonny makes arrangements for them to start a new life together, running a bar in Spain.
Angie returns to Walford (with her plans still secret) and tries to show interest in Den's plan to move the location of The Vic, but it is plain to see that her mind is elsewhere. Den soon realises that she is seeing someone else, and although he doesn't care that she is with another man, he is concerned for the state of his business. Den visits a solicitor and returns with papers protecting himself and his business should Angie decide to leave him again. Angie decides to leave in May of that year, still under a cloak of secrecy and only divulging her plan to leave on the night of her departure. Unfortunately for Angie, Den cruelly informs her that he has srrsnged things so that she wont be able to get a penny out of him. After their final showdown Angie gets into her taxicab and leaves Walford.
This is Angie's last appearance. Later that year, while Den is in prison, Sharon decides to join Angie in Spain and arrives unannounced, only to learn from Sonny that Angie has left him and moved to the United States. It is subsequently revealed that she moved to Miami where she remarries in February 1991. Sharon joins Angie in 1995 after the breakdown of her marriage to Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp).
In 2001 Sharon returns to Walford, and in April 2002, news reaches London that years of heavy drinking have finally caught up with Angie and she has died from cirrhosis of the liver, at the age of 52. Despite having remarried, Angie had requested to be buried next to Den, which Sharon does for her when she returns her body to London in order to reunite her two 'dead' parents. Sharon's new club is renamed Angie's Den in her and Den's honour.
In fact, the body thought to be Den's is actually that of the mysterious Mr. Vinnicombe, the boss of The Firm - who ordered Den's assassination. 14 years after Den's disappearance, it turns out that he had not died after all, and had faked his own death in order to get away from the gangsters who had been employed to kill him. However, Den eventually meets his demise at the hands of second wife Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman) in February 2005. A body found under the basement of the Queen Vic six months later is quickly identified as Den's, and he is buried in his 'original' grave next to Angie.
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