Watts family
When "EastEnders" began in 1985, the soap focused primarily around the affairs of three families: the Beales, Fowlers, and Watts. However, much of the show's early success stemmed from the drama surrounding the Watts, especially the antics of Den, who as owners of the Queen Vic pub (the show's most prominent set) were usually in the limelight. This prominence, at a time when "EastEnders" was at its most prolific in terms of both the media and audience, meant the Watts became perhaps "EastEnders" most eminent family and the characters known even to those who did not watch the show. Such was their success that producers went ahead with an experimental episode format centring on just Den and Angie, during which Angie lied about having cancer; so successful was the airing that it has since been repeated, and the format expanded to include "three" and "four-handers" (between 3 and 4 characters). Such episodes are highly prestigious and feature only the most popular and prominent characters in the show; thus, all the Watts, aside from Vicki, have featured in such episodes.
Barry Clark (EastEnders)
Colin and Barry were two of the most controversial characters of their time — mainly because gay-orientated content was still relatively rare on prime time television during the mid-1980s. Gay characters that existed were usually farcical camp parodies, created purely for comic relief, such as Mr. Humphries in the situation comedy, "Are You Being Served?". Although "EastEnders" was not the first UK, televised soap to include a gay character — Channel 4's "Brookside" had that distinction — the portrayal of an openly gay male — let alone a homosexual relationship — on a prime time, pre-watershed BBC programme was unheard of before Colin and Barry's introduction. The licence-funded BBC held a far greater audience share than the commercially-funded Channel 4, thus public reaction to "EastEnders"' gay characters was much stronger and more widely documented in the British press.