nellie ellis, played by elizabeth kelly, was introduced as the interfering relative of pauline fowler (wendy richard) in 1993 and appears regularly until 1998. she makes a further guest appearance in 2000 for the funeral of ethel skinner (gretchen franklin). nellie has been described as a "pantomime baddie". her name precedes her in the soap before her initial appearance as she is frequently used as an excuse for pauline to leave the soap's setting to visit her. author kate lock described nellie as stingy and an interfering old busybody. she stated, "when stingy nellie wasn't giving arthur (bill treacher) grief, she was flirting in a button-up sort of way with jules tavernier (tommy eytle)."