Pauline Fowler

Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between the first episode on 19 February 1985 and 25 December 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer Julia Smith as one of EastEnders' original characters. She made her debut in the soap's first episode on 19 February 1985, and remained for twenty-one years and ten months, making her the second-longest-running original character to appear continuously, surpassed only by her nephew Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). Since then, she has been surpassed by Letitia Dean who plays Sharon Watts. Pauline has featured in archive footage twice since her departure: in 2010, celebrating the show's 25th anniversary, and in 2025, celebrating the show's 40th anniversary.

Pauline is a member of the Beale family. Her storylines focus on drudgery, money worries, and family troubles. The matriarchal stalwart of the fictional London community of Albert Square, she is at first portrayed as a loving, doting, very family-oriented mother. In later years, however, she becomes a more stoic, opinionated battle-axe who alienates her relatives through overbearing interference. Pauline is married to the downtrodden Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher); when she finds out he had a one-night stand with Christine Hewitt (Elizabeth Power), she hits him with a frying pan. Their marriage remains rocky until his death in 1996. She is used for comedic purposes in scenes with her launderette colleague Dot Cotton (June Brown), and scriptwriters included many feuds in her narrative, most notably with her daughter-in-law, Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy), Queen Vic Landlady Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor), who cruelly announced to the public that Pauline’s son Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) has AIDS, and Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), a family friend who got her daughter Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) pregnant at 16. A famous episode in 1986 which includes Pauline discovering that Den is the father of Michelle's baby, drew over 30 million viewers, and was listed at number 36 in The Times 1998 list of "Top 100 cult moments in Film". Richard announced Pauline's retirement from the serial in July 2006, and the character was killed off in a "Whodunit?" murder storyline, with Richard making her final appearance on 25 December 2006.

Pauline was a staple in the UK press during her time in EastEnders, representative of the symbiosis between Britain's soaps and tabloid newspapers. Widely-read tabloids such as The Sun and Daily Mirror, would routinely publish articles about forthcoming developments in Pauline's storylines. Critical opinion on the character differs. She has been described as a "legend" and a television icon, but was also voted the 35th "most annoying person of 2006" (being the only fictional character to appear on the list). and Julia Smith (1927–1997). Holland had drawn on his own London background for inspiration, naming three of the original characters after his own relatives, specifically his aunt Lou and her children, Holland's cousins, fraternal twins Pete and Pauline. This family setup of a woman named Lou Beale, with twin children Pete and Pauline, was recreated on-screen as the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers.

Pauline's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appears in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story.

Casting

thumb|211x211px|Wendy Richard (pictured) played Pauline consistently for twenty-one years.

From the beginning, Smith considered the role ideal for Wendy Richard, with whom she had worked on the 1960s BBC soap, The Newcomers;  Holland and Smith decided to approach her about the role, even though their casting policy was not to use "stars"—Richard was already well known in the UK for playing glamorous roles, such as Shirley Brahms in the successful sitcom Are You Being Served? At their first meeting, Tony Holland informed Richard that they were planning a programme that would not "duck social issues but would be a hard-hitting drama including teenage pregnancy, drugs, racial conflict, prostitution, rape, mental illness, homosexuality, alcoholism, and muggings among its subjects." In order to carry such controversial storylines, Richard was told that "powerful characters to whom things just naturally happened" had been invented, and two families, the Fowlers and the Beales, were to form the core of the soap's narrative. In her autobiography, Richard states, "If I accepted, my character was to be Pauline Fowler. A middle-aged mother of two teenagers, with a late baby on the way, Pauline worked part-time at the launderette, voted Labour and supported Arsenal. She was married to Arthur, who was out of work and was really a bit of a failure, not much good at anything in life." Richard thought it sounded like a challenging role.

There were initial fears that Richard's glamorous image would not work for the character and Smith also feared that Richard would be apprehensive about playing Pauline, who would be anything but glamorous, but these fears were swept aside when Richard announced that she was sick of glamour and wanted to play her own age. Richard has commented, "although it would be such a huge transformation of my screen image, it was after all my twenty-fifth year in showbusiness, and I'd realised that I couldn't go on playing dolly birds forever ... I knew right away I would be mad to turn down the part of Pauline." From September 1984, Richard was involved in pre-production of the series, covering every angle, from hair, costume design and make-up to organising the set interior of her character's screen house. Richard has said that Pauline had been given extensive biographical detail, including minute specifics, such as her fictional time of her birth: "It was vital that we should get to know our own characters intimately and so the cast initially sat together in family groups to learn our lines and bond with our 'relations' ... it was essential to develop the rapport that families, who'd been together for years, would naturally have." Richard's casting was considered to be "a giant leap of faith" by co-creators Holland and Smith, but one that ultimately "landed on its feet",

Whereas most of the other female characters in EastEnders were portrayed in a somewhat more glamorous working-class way, Pauline Fowler was the exception to the rule, being the sole character to represent the "homely and domestic" side of the Beale family. As the serial progressed, the character altered from her original outline. Instead of being the jolly, warm character she was during the show's early years, she became a sombre battle-axe, and in the Evening Gazette she was described as "the Boadicea of battle-axes." The initial change in her demeanour is traced back to the death of her mother, Lou Beale (Anna Wing), a fierce dowager, who ruled over her family with a "rod of iron". Following Lou's screen funeral in July 1988, Pauline retorts, "Shut up Arthur Fowler, no one interrupts Pauline Beale when she's in full flow", a line that was used similarly by Lou in the episode that preceded her own death. This parallel symbolised the transference of the family's matriarchal role from Lou to Pauline. Wendy Richard indicated that both she and show creator Julia Smith had always intended for Pauline to become like her mother,

Early storylines

In the first episode, it is revealed that Pauline, aged 40, is pregnant with her third child. The character's pregnancy quickly became a prominent storyline within the series. Pauline, against her mother's opposition, is determined to keep the baby. The storyline was used to spread a public message on the increased risk of genetic defects in late pregnancies, with Pauline undergoing amniocentesis tests. The storyline culminates with the birth of the serial's first baby, Martin, in July 1985.

Pauline's early storylines concentrate on family and money troubles: coping with her husband Arthur's redundancy, mental breakdown and imprisonment; eldest son Mark's delinquency; and daughter Michelle's teenage pregnancy.

Pauline's exit in December 2006 was described by The Times critic, Tim Teeman, as a landmark episode and a "significant sayonara". He described scenes between Pauline and Dot as "the most moving in a soap this year" and added that "it was a delight to finally alight on an episode ... that was so satisfying."

To mark Pauline's 22-year reign in EastEnders, Wendy Richard was awarded with a 'Lifetime Achievement' award at The British Soap Awards in May 2007. The award was presented by Todd Carty, who played her on-screen son Mark. Carty described Richard as the "heart and soul of EastEnders" and hailed her as an inspiration to everyone in the EastEnders cast. Richard was moved to tears when she collected the award.

In popular culture and other media

When the series was launching in 1985, since Wendy Richard was the most recognisable actor from the original cast, she and her character Pauline were used heavily to promote EastEnders in the media. Wendy Richard, in character as Pauline, was chosen to narrate a special "dial-a-soap" service for EastEnders. Run by British Telecom, the facility allowed people who had missed an episode to ring a number and get an instant update, up to 88 seconds long. It was the first television show to provide such a service. Between 1985 and 2006, Pauline was featured in much EastEnders-related merchandise and promotional material, including calendars, cast-cards, annuals, novels, a knitting pattern book and a greeting card.

The well-known character of Pauline Fowler has also been referenced in various television programmes, unrelated to the EastEnders universe. In 1997 she was mentioned in an episode of the successful BBC drama This Life. Two key characters, Anna and Ferdy, watch an episode of EastEnders on television and mock Pauline's hysterics and her well-documented tendency to wear cardigans. The character was also regularly spoofed in the BBC comedy sketch show, The Real McCoy (1991–1995). One of the show's recurring sketches featured a spoof version of EastEnders, with black comedians taking over roles of well known EastEnders characters, who frequent a pub called Rub-a-Dub. The comedian Llewella Gideon played the role of Pauline. The sketches placed considerable emphasis on the character's high-pitched voice and her tendency to whine. The character's fashion sense has also been referred to in BBC Two sitcom Beautiful People (2008).

Notes

References

Brake, Colin (1995): EastEnders: The First 10 Years: A Celebration BBC Books,
Lynch, Tony (1986): EastEnders Special BBC Books,
Miller, Hugh (1986): EastEnders, Book Two: Swings and Roundabouts. Inner Circle Books.
Smith, Julia; Holland, Tony (1987): EastEnders: The Inside Story BBC Books, .
Smith, Rupert (2005): EastEnders: 20 years in Albert Square BBC Books,
Wiggins, Lizzie (2000): Wendy Richard ... No "S": My Life Story Simon & Schuster Ltd,