Marge Green - Creation and Development

Creation and Development

Writer Colin Brake has suggested that 1989 was a year of big change for EastEnders, both behind the cameras and in front of them. Original production designer Keith Harris left the show, and co-creators Tony Holland and Julia Smith both decided that the time had come to move on too; their final contribution coincided with the exit of one of EastEnders' most successful characters, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). Producer Mike Gibbon was given the task of running the show and he enlisted the most experienced writers to take over the storylining of the programme, including Charlie Humphreys, Jane Hollowood and Tony McHale.

According to Brake, the departure of two of the soap's most popular characters, Den and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), had left a void in the programme, which needed to be filled. In addition, several other long-running characters left the show that year including two original cast members, Sue and Ali Osman (Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih) and their family; Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler); Carmel Jackson (Judith Jacob) and Colin Russell (Michael Cashman). Brake has indicated that the production team decided that 1989 was to be a year of change in Walford, commenting, "it was almost as if Walford itself was making a fresh start".

At the time, the programme had come under criticism in the British media for being too depressing, and according to Brake, the programme makers were determined to change this. In 1989 there was a deliberate attempt to increase the lighter, more comic aspects of life in Albert Square. This led to the introduction of some characters who were deliberately conceived as comic or light-hearted. Such characters included Julie Cooper (Louise Plowright); Trevor Short (Phil McDermott), the "village idiot", and his friend, northern heartbreaker Paul Priestly (Mark Thrippleton); wheeler-dealer Vince Johnson (Hepburn Graham); Laurie Bates (Gary Powell), who became Pete Beale's (Peter Dean) sparring partner and Marge Green played by veteran comedy actress Pat Coombs.

Brake describes Marge as a "well-meaning, slightly batty older lady" who he said worked well in partnership with the much tougher older character Mo Butcher (Edna Dore). Marge has been described by author Hilary Kingsley as an innocent spinster "who yearns for love and deserves it." Referring to the character's role as Walford Brownie's Brown Owl, Kingsley says, "She was always more of a mouse than an owl, a funny, easily flustered frump who was scared of men and the modern world because she'd hidden away from both for most of her life Poor Marge was put upon by her domineering nintey-three-year-old mother Friendless, except for Tibby, her mother's cat " Describing her backstory, Kingsley said, "In her youth, she was briefly engaged to a soldier but he married her best friend." Coombs, described by Kingsley as one of Britain's best comedy actresses, was already a known comedy actress in the UK and reportedly "relished" the role.

Brake suggests that humour was an important element in EastEnders' storylines during 1989, with a greater amount of slapstick and light comedy than ever before. He has classed 1989's changes as a brave experiment, and has suggested that while some found this period of EastEnders entertaining, many other viewers felt that the comedy stretched the programme's credibility somewhat. Although the programme still covered many issues in 1989, such as domestic violence, drugs, rape and racism, Brake reflected that the new emphasis on a more balanced mix between "light and heavy storylines" gave the illusion that the show had lost a "certain edge".

By the end of the year, EastEnders had acquired a new executive producer, Michael Ferguson, who had previously been a successful producer on ITV's The Bill. Brake has suggested that Ferguson was responsible for bringing in a new sense of vitality, and creating a programme that was more in touch with the real world than it had been over the last year. A new era began in 1990 with the introduction of the Mitchell brothers, Phil (Steve McFadden) and Grant (Ross Kemp), successful characters who would go on to dominate the soap thereafter. As the new production machine cleared the way for new characters and a new direction, a number of characters were axed from the show at the start of the year. Among them was Marge, as well as many other characters that had been introduced to the show in 1989. By March 1990 they had all gone. Brake has said that Pat Coombs was upset to be leaving the programme so soon, but with the show's new direction there was no place for characters "whose prime function was to be comic relief".