Dougie Briggs | |
---|---|
EastEnders character | |
Portrayed by | Max Gold |
First appearance | 22 March 1994 |
Last appearance | 12 April 1994 |
Classification | Former; guest |
Profile | |
Occupation | ex-soldier |
Dougie Briggs, played by Max Gold, appears for several weeks over the spring of 1994, and is actively involved in the storyline that marked the introduction of EastEnders' third weekly episode, The Queen Vic Siege.
Dougie had been a paratrooper alongside Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) in the Falklands War, and meets up with him again more than 10 years later, by which time Grant is the landlord of The Queen Victoria public house. Grant allows Dougie to stay at The Vic, despite his wife Sharon (Letitia Dean)'s objections. Sharon begins to feel uncomfortable around Dougie after noticing him leering at her on several occasions, but Grant refuses to ask him to leave.
Dougie persuades Grant to help him out with a raid on a supermarket, promising him a vast financial return, but Grant starts to have second thoughts when he finds Dougie's sawn-off shotgun. After doing some investigating, Grant discovers that Dougie had been discharged from the paratroopers because psychological tests had revealed that he was psychopathic. Dougie tried to stop the Medical Officer from filing the results, and when he refused Dougie shot him in the head and then raped his wife. Realising that he has left Sharon alone in the Vic with a convicted murderer and rapist, Grant flees home and arrives just as Dougie is attempting to sexually assault Sharon. A fight ensues and Grant is knocked unconscious, after which Dougie holds Grant, Sharon and barmaid Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) hostage with his shotgun, and demands money.
The gun goes off when Grant tries to claim it and Michelle gets in the way of a stray bullet and ends up in a pool of blood on the Vic's floor. Grant overpowers Dougie, and beats him unconscious, but he is forced to leave him in the Vic while he takes Michelle to hospital. He contacts his brother Phil (Steve McFadden) to get rid of Dougie's body and gun, but by the time Phil arrives at the Vic, Dougie has escaped. Grant is convinced that Dougie will return for revenge, however he is apprehended by the police before he can get to the Vic.
Read more about this topic: Stanley Bridge (East Enders)
Famous quotes containing the word briggs:
“The area [of toilet training] is one where a child really does possess the power to defy. Strong pressure leads to a powerful struggle. The issue then is not toilet training but who holds the reinsmother or child? And the child has most of the ammunition!”
—Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)