Wellard - Reception

Reception

Wellard was voted "Best Pet" at the 2008 Digital Spy Soap Awards. His death storyline was nominated in the "Tearjerker" category at the 2008 All About Soap Bubble Awards. In 2009, a poll by magazine Inside Soap named Wellard as the UK's favourite soap opera pet. He came second in a poll to find Britain's favourite TV pet in April 2006, losing to Lassie, and in March 2008 was named the fifth best dog on television by Anna Pickard of The Guardian, behind Bouncer from Neighbours, Willy from EastEnders, Lassie and Dogtanian. It was noted in The People in July 1997 that Wellard was "a firm favourite with the soap's fans", while in August 2008, the Daily Mail deemed him "one of most well-loved characters." The dogs received fanmail from viewers hailing them as the best actors on EastEnders.

Zenna, Chancer and Kyte were occasional targets of professional jealousy from their human co-stars, and some television critics have suggested that Wellard was a better character than his owner, Robbie. When Michael Greco commented in 2002 that Wellard received better scripts than his character, Beppe di Marco, the Sunday Mirror's Ian Hyland wrote: "He should try being Robbie Jackson. Wellard gets better scripts and better girls than him." Similarly, Garry Bushell of The People compared EastEnders with rival soap Coronation Street following a 2003 scheduling clash, observing: "ITV had Richard Hillman's heavyweight murder confession. BBC1 gave us Robbie Jackson's heart-to-heart with Wellard. (Don't scoff – it's tough to play moving scenes with a dumb and soppy creature, but Wellard rose to the occasion.)". Derek McGovern of The Mirror criticised Gaffney's acting ability, observing: "Outside of Lassie movies I haven't seen a dog consistently steal scenes off a human the way Wellard used to pinch them from Dean." Gemma Bissix appeared in the show as a child actor from 1993 to 1998, playing Clare Bates. She commented on her return in 2008 that as a child, the dogs playing Wellard were better paid than she was. When Emma Barton, who played Honey Mitchell, was axed from the soap later that year, she spoke of her dismay that Wellard's death was being marketed as a bigger storyline than her character's exit. Roz Laws of the Sunday Mercury called it "particularly galling" that Barton's exit was upstaged by Wellard's death.

Hyland was critical of the 2003 storyline which saw Robbie leave EastEnders to move to Mumbai with his girlfriend Nita (Bindya Solanki) and her son Anish (Ali Zahoor). He explained that the aspect of the storyline which upset him most was Wellard being run over "so the scriptwriters could engineer the inevitable last-minute dash to the airport", questioning: "What's Wellard ever done to deserve that?" The storyline which saw Wellard threatened with euthanasia after biting Ian Beale received negative reviews from critics, deemed "bizarre" by James Desborough of The People, and the "longest, most tedious ever soap storyline" by Jim Shelley of The Mirror. Bushell simply wrote: "Wellard bit Ian Beale. Which one needs the Tetanus jab?" Tim Teeman of The Times called it the "daftest" storyline of the year, comparing it to a similarly ill-received and long-running storyline given to the unpopular Ferreira family.

Wellard's death drew generally favourable reviews from critics. The Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith deemed Wellard to have "died with great dignity Not, as a lesser dog might, making a meal of it." Grace Dent, also of The Guardian, wrote that she was an "emotional mess" when Wellard was euthanised, calling him "one of the true old guard of EastEnders". Andy Bollen of the Sunday Mail deemed it a shame Wellard had been killed off, calling him "the most convincing actor on the soap", while The Mirror's Maeve Quigley called Wellard's death sadder than that of human character Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord) shortly afterwards. Wise similarly opined that Wellard upstaged most of the cast, and that his death was more of a "tear-jerker" than the return of Jim Branning (John Bardon) who had been absent after suffering from a stroke. The Mirror's Kevin O'Sullivan commented: "a canine Oscar to the hound who played Wellard – the pedigree chum whose sad demise after 14 years of fouling Walford's pavements was genuinely moving." Shelley wrote that it signified the "eath of the best actor in the show", and the South Wales Echo published the obituary:

In contrast, however, Laws felt that EastEnders was becoming too depressing, noting that Wellard's death came at the same time Jase was murdered and Honey and her husband Billy (Perry Fenwick) broke up, writing: "I feel like slitting my wrists when I tune in now. There's only so much gritty realism we can take in our soaps, and EastEnders is really overloading us at the moment."