Joe Macer - Character Creation and Development

Character Creation and Development

The character Joe Macer, played by Ray Brooks, was introduced in August 2005 as a love interest for the long running character, Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). The characters were shown to meet at salsa classes, a relationship was quickly developed and despite Pauline's initial trepidation the year 2006 saw her marrying Joe after almost a decade since the death of her first husband, Arthur Fowler. Their marriage was an attempt to give the character Pauline a "new lease of life" and her wedding day was screened to coincide with EastEnders' 21st anniversary. Richard was openly opposed to her character remarrying, but she was eventually convinced by the executive producer and battled—successfully—for Pauline to keep her surname, Fowler.

In July 2006 however, Wendy Richard announced that she would be leaving the show. She said she made the decision to leave when the producers of EastEnders revealed that Pauline was to remarry. Richard thought it was "disloyal" of Pauline to her beloved first husband Arthur, commenting: "I think it's the most terrible shame, I really do. I thought in my heart of hearts it was wrong." Richard felt that she did not have the same chemistry with Ray Brooks, who played Joe, as she did with Bill Treacher, who played Arthur. She rejected producers' opinions that Pauline and Joe "looked good together" and felt that she and Brooks had to work very hard to turn them into a "realistic-looking couple."

Following Richard's announcement that she was quitting, the BBC announced that actor Ray Brooks was being axed from the soap in September 2006, with one insider commenting "With Pauline going, there’s not much more we could do with Ray’s character...it’s going to be a dramatic exit." Brooks was said to be "fine with the decision" having endured a "challenging working relationship with unhappy EastEnders legend Wendy Richard."

Just two months after the wedding was screened, Pauline and Joe's marriage was shown to sour after Joe's criminal past was uncovered. Their relationship steadily deteriorated throughout the year, and in episodes that aired in December 2006 Pauline ended the marriage—removing her wedding ring and informing Joe that he "was half the man that Arthur had been, that she had never really loved him and that their sex life was a sham." The resulting row saw Joe insult Pauline's family—suggesting that her "perfect marriage" with Arthur was "nothing but a fantasy" and brandishing Mark "diseased", Michelle a "slapper" and Arthur a "con"—to which Pauline responded by smashing a plate over his head. Wendy Richard has commented "It was not just the memory of Arthur that stopped the marriage to Joe being a success. He was proven to be a weak and untruthful man. That is what caused the marriage to be a non starter. Pauline was not mean to Joe, he used her…and lied to her."

The destruction of Pauline and Joe's marriage was part of the build-up to the exits of both characters. Pauline was killed off in a "shocking" and dramatic storyline, which saw her collapsing and dying in the middle of Albert Square, leaving both characters and viewers in uncertainty about the cause of her demise. The storyline—dubbed "who killed Pauline?" by the British press—continued through 2007, as first Pauline's funeral was interrupted by the police in order to perform an autopsy on her body, and then Pauline's former daughter-in-law Sonia Fowler was arrested for the murder. Following the screening of the suspected murder, bookmaker Ladbrokes listed odds on the suspects with Sonia being favourite at 2/1, Joe Macer and Pauline's son Martin both at 3/1 and outsiders Peggy Mitchell at 10/1, and Dot Branning at 20/1.

However, Sonia's arrest proved to be a "red herring" and it was later revealed that the killing blow had actually come from Pauline's husband Joe, who broke down and confessed to Dot Branning that he had rowed with Pauline on Christmas Day (off-screen) and, in a fury, struck her across the head with a frying pan, causing a brain haemorrhage that claimed her life. The plot's eventual climax in February 2007 led to the exits of several established characters connected with Pauline. This included Martin, Sonia and Joe, who was dramatically killed off after confessing to Pauline's murder—he fell out of the Fowlers' first floor window while trying to apprehend a hysterical Dot.