Age
Ethel's original character outline states that she was born in 1920. However, during the series this was altered to 1916 and for many years her birthday fell on 19 February. When Ethel came back to Walford to die in 2000, she revealed to Dot that she had lied about her age for many years. She was actually 86, not 85 (the character was aged two years, in a dramatic technique known as SORAS). Ethel died on what she claimed was the night of her 86th birthday in September 2000, and although Dot knew very well her birthday was in February, she organised a party at Ethel's request to give her one last 'birthday' before she died. February 19 is also the day that EastEnders was first broadcast.
Read more about this topic: Ethel Skinner
Famous quotes containing the word age:
“Old age and youth cannot live together.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“I do not portray the thing in itself. I portray the passage; not a passing from one age to another, or, as the people put it, from seven years to seven years, but from day to day, from minute to minute.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The sign of a Philistine age is the cry of immorality against art.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)