1987

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1987 was EastEnders' third year.

Main characters

Ranking	Character	Played by	Duration	Number of Episodes	Running total	Previous year's ranking
1	Den Watts	Leslie Grantham	Full year	97	273	3
2	Dot Cotton	June Brown	Full year	85	201	13
3	Angie Watts	Anita Dobson	Full year	84	250	6
4	Ali Osman	Nejdet Salih	Full year	82	243	9
5	Pete Beale	Peter Dean	Full year	81	252	6
6	Simon Wicks	Nick Berry	Full year	79	198	1
7	Mary Smith	Linda Davidson	Full year	78	211	15
8	Barry Clark	Gary Hailes	Full year	77	88	30
9	Ian Beale	Adam Woodyatt	Full year	76	224	10
9	Colin Russell	Michael Cashman	Full year	76	111	24
10	Kathy Beale	Gillian Taylforth	Full year	75	244	4
10	Pat Wicks	Pam St. Clement	Full year	75	98	28
11	George "Lofty" Holloway	Tom Watt	Full year	74	229	7
12	Pauline Fowler	Wendy Richard	Full year	71	247	3
12	Sue Osman	Sandy Ratcliff	Full year	71	223	11
13	Michelle Holloway	Susan Tully	Full year	69	240	5
13	Sharon Watts	Letitia Dean	Full year	69	218	9
14	Arthur Fowler	Bill Treacher	Full year	59	237	2
15	Lou Beale	Anna Wing	Full year	58	200	16
15	James Willmott-Brown	William Boyde	Full year	58	82	27
16	Ethel Skinner	Gretchen Franklin	Full year	57	194	17
17	Naima Jeffery	Shreela Ghosh	Until November	53	168	14
18	Carmel Roberts	Judith Jacob	Full year	51	64	29
19	Magda Czajkowski	Kathryn Apanowicz	From May	45	45	-
20	Tom Clements	Donald Tandy	Full year	42	65	28
20	Jaggat Singh	Amerjit Deu	January to December	42	43	-
21	Kelvin Carpenter	Paul J. Medford	Until September	38	196	8
22	Harold Legg	Leonard Fenton	Full year	35	149	21
23	Rod Norman	Christopher McHallem	From July	34	34	-
24	Darren Roberts	Gary McDonald	From July	33	33	-
24	Annie Smith	Samantha Crown	January to May & November onwards	33	105	17
25	Vicki Fowler	Emma Herry	Full year	31	67	23
25	Tony Carpenter	Oscar James	Until May	31	179	12
26	Martin Fowler	Jon Peyton Price	Full year	26	86	19
27	Debbie Wilkins	Shirley Cheriton	Until May	25	175	13
28	Donna Ludlow	Matilda Ziegler	From August	24	24	-
29	Jan Hammond	Jane How	Until June	19	46	26
30	Mehmet Osman	Haluk Bilginer	Until December	15	68	22
31	Chris Smith	Allan O'Keefe	From March	10	15	-
32	Junior Roberts	Aaron Carrington	From July	9	9	-
33	Duncan Boyd	David Gillespie	From October	8	8	-
33	Aisha Roberts	Aisha Jacob	From August	8	8	-
33	Hannah Carpenter	Sally Sagoe	Until February	8	68	22

Production

After the dramatic break-up of Den and Angie's marriage at the end of the previous year, the problem facing the EastEnders team for 1987 was simple - how to keep the Den and Angie story going despite the couple being separated. The solution was to make the pair professional rivals and the year became dominated by the tale of two pubs; The Queen Vic and the Dagmar.

Electioneering

This year also saw the most ambitious attempt yet to make EastEnders feel contemporary. References to current events such as the Boat Show or Wimbledon are used to make the programme feel up to date, but these are always very general since the programme is recorded five or six weeks before transmission. When the General Election was announced in 1987, it was felt that it would be too big a national event for the programme to ignore. The problem was that the date of the election, 11 June, was only announced early in May. At that time the programmes for early June had already been made.

A cunning plan was developed by Julia Smith and Tony Holland. First, they cut five minutes of material from each of the four episodes in the two weeks leading up to the election. These were then replaced with specially recorded election material which was shot by Julia Smith over two extra lot recording days. Some of this material was entirely new, such as representatives of each of the three major parties calling on an unimpressed Lou Beale, while other scenes were reworkings of the original scenes with added election material.

Great care had to be taken to be evenhanded in the treatment of each of the parties. Finally, a quick scene was recorded on the day after the election to reflect the result. The scene was then edited into the programme over the weekend and appeared on the following Tuesday. It was complicated, difficult, last-minute operation but it did work. Nevertheless, at the next election in 1992, it was not repeated to the same extent.

Comings 'n' Goings

In 1987, more and more characters came and went, including four originals. The first of the originals to go was Tony Carpenter. His dream of a possible permanent reconciliation with Hannah dashed, Tony had briefly returned to his old trade as a silversmith, only to find his honesty compromised when he bought some dodgy silver from Nick Cotton. Finally Tony decided to return his roots and bought himself a ticket to Trinidad.

Later in the year Kelvin also moved on, leaving Walford to begin a university course in East Anglia. As is often the case, Kelvin's final appearances were lot scenes. This is because the lot recording for each week's episodes happens typically two weeks before the studio recording of the same episodes. This enables an actor to appear in two weeks' worth of episodes 'lot only' at the end of their contract. So that is the real explanation for Kelvin shunning his leaving party - when the party was recorded Paul Medford was already out of contract! Paul, who had always entertained an ambition to be a singer/dancer, later enjoyed a long stage run in the hit show Five Guys Named Moe.

Debbie Wilkins finally left the Square in May, finding new happiness in the arms of a policeman, but this was Terry Rich rather than Roy Quick as might have been expected. Naima also left to remarry in November. A slightly less happy exit was the death of Lofty's Auntie Irene, who finally succumbed to cancer which had been killing her slowly for years.

Of course, there were also new faces to get to know. There were a number of new children - Mehmet's three kids, Emine, Rayif and Murat, appeared in February complete with pet snake Crush who promptly escaped, causing panic. Emine later got hurt by a thrown firework in the week of 5 November. Willmott-Brown brought his kids Luke and Sophie to visit Walford in March, and Carmel's life was complicated by the arrival of her brother Darren Roberts, who came complete with his children Junior and baby Aisha. Darren joined the programme at the same time as Rod the Roadie and Barry Clark's brother Graham, in a sudden influx of young men to the Square. Gary Webster, who played Graham, is now better known for his portrayal as Arthur Daley's nephew in Minder.

At the same time as these new young men appeared there was a similar batch of new young women. Tina was the young girlfriend of Ian, and she moved in with him in the basement of number 3 until her parents terminated both the arrangement and the relationship. The new woman in Den's life was Magda Czajkowski, a caterer who inspired Ian and later became involved with Wicksy. Donna was the child Kathy had given birth to after her traumatic rape at the age of fourteen. Donna's appearance had been primed by the visit of her godmother earlier in the year. The godmother, June Watkins, had told Kathy that her daughter wanted to make contact but Kathy refused to see her. Donna's entrance was planned very carefully so as not to give away her secret too quickly. We established her as a compulsive liar, telling different people different versions of her past. Even so, some quick viewers still guessed the truth.

Other visitors were less complicated. The new area manager at Luxford and Copley, Mr Sparrow, proved to be as dishonest as Den and refused to take 'No' for an answer when Den owed money. Alan McIntyre, Sue and Ali's new neighbour and landlord, was an unpleasant, anti-social man who didn't care what people thought of him while Duncan Boyd, the curate at the local church, had a simple honesty that appealed to the confused Sharon. Other new faces were Mary's mother, Edie Smith, Dagmar regular Gerry Fairweather, and Derek Taylor, who took a shine to Pauline during the Ladies Darts Team trip to Greenwich.

Frank Butcher - perhaps the most important new character of the year - only made a brief appearance in 1987. He was Pat's old flame, her first lover. Played by Mike Reid, the casting of a comedian in a dramatic role was controversial at the time, but over the years the wisdom of that decision had been proved because Frank became one of the show's most popular characters.

Viewing figures

EastEnders underwent from a prominent deal of development in 1987 in the viewing totals, due to the high resolution of the Christmas Day episode in 1986 which achieved over 30 million viewers, the stimulating work certainly didn't crawl away instantly. Although the numbers steadily dropped by each month, it most surely picked its self back up towards the end of the year.

The highest viewed episode of the year was Episode 197 (1 January 1987), just two episodes after the great successes of the Christmas day episode. The lowest seen episode of the year was Episode 248 (30 June 1987) with only 13.65 million viewers; this was a great deal of a drop for EastEnders when the average standard viewing figure was 20 million or more.

Duff Duff Count

• Please note: We have calculated the Duff Duffs based on which character/s appeared at the end of an episode in frame.

Character	Solo	Group	Total	Julia's Theme
Den Watts	9	4	13	Yes
Angie Watts	9	3	12	Yes
Pat Wicks	5	3	8	No
Sharon Watts	5	3	8	Yes
Pete Beale	4	3	7	No
Michelle Fowler	5	2	7	Yes
Pauline Fowler	3	3	6	Yes
Simon Wicks	1	5	6	Yes
Kathy Beale	5	1	6	No
Lofty Holloway	3	2	5	No
Mary Smith	5	0	5	No
Colin Russell	4	1	5	No
Dot Cotton	2	3	5	Yes
Sue Osman	2	3	5	Yes
Lou Beale	2	1	3	No
Mags Czajkowski	1	2	3	Yes
Arthur Fowler	3	0	3	Yes
Ethel Skinner	1	2	3	Yes
Carmel Roberts	1	1	2	No
Naima Jeffery	1	1	2	No
Tony Carpenter	1	1	2	No
Ali Osman	0	2	2	Yes
Annie Smith	0	2	2	No
Debbie Wilkins	0	2	2	No
Jan Hammond	0	2	2	No
James Willmott-Brown	1	0	1	No
Rod Norman	1	0	1	No
Barry Clark	0	1	1	No
Ian Beale	0	1	1	No
Charlie Cotton	0	1	1	No
Darren Roberts	0	1	1	No
Junior Roberts	0	1	1	No
Terry Rich	0	1	1	No
Duncan Boyd	0	1	1	Yes
Aunty Irene	0	1	1	No
Frank Butcher	0	1	1	No
Oxley	0	1	1	No
Roly	0	1	1	No
Farrukh Jeffery	0	1	1	No
Hannah Carpenter	0	1	1	No
Brad Williams	1	0	1	No
Donna Ludlow	1	0	1	No
Non Character	1	0	1	No
Unknown Figure	1	0	1	No

Episodes

#	Ep. No.	Date	Director	Writer	Duff Duff	Viewers (millions)
197	1	1 January 1987	Garth Tucker	Charlie Humphreys	Sharon Watts	28.00
198	2	6 January 1987	Tony Virgo	Michael Robartes	Arthur Fowler	25.10
199	3	8 January 1987	Tony Virgo	Gerry Huxham	Pete Beale	25.60
200	4	13 January 1987	Nicholas Prosser	Bill Lyons	Michelle Fowler Pauline Fowler	27.10
201	5	15 January 1987	Nicholas Prosser	Juliet Ace	Tony Carpenter Hannah Carpenter	27.15
202	6	20 January 1987	Garth Tucker	Tony McHale	Den Watts	24.20
203	7	22 January 1987	Garth Tucker	Robin Allen	Sue Osman	26.90
204	8	27 January 1987	William Slater	Michael Robartes	Kathy Beale	24.00
205	9	29 January 1987	William Slater	Gerry Huxham	Kathy Beale	24.10
206	10	3 February 1987	Chris Clough	Maureen Chadwick	Sue Osman	23.05
207	11	5 February 1987	Chris Clough	Charlie Humphreys	Angie Watts	23.80
208	12	10 February 1987	Romey Allison	Tony McHale	Colin Russell	23.40
209	13	12 February 1987	Romey Allison	Bill Lyons	Pat Wicks	23.75
210	14	17 February 1987	William Slater	Jane Hollowood	Jan Hammond Den Watts	24.25
211	15	19 February 1987	William Slater	Mark Wheatley	Pat Wicks	24.65
212	16	24 February 1987	Chris Clough	Rosemary Mason	Kathy Beale	24.90
213	17	26 February 1987	Chris Clough	Charlie Humphreys	Den Watts	26.70
214	18	3 March 1987	Romey Allison	Gilly Fraser	Annie Smith Dot Cotton	25.45
215	19	5 March 1987	Romey Allison	Liane Aukin	Pete Beale	25.65
216	20	10 March 1987	William Slater	Michael Robartes	Lou Beale	24.65
217	21	12 March 1987	William Slater	Ayshe Raif	Pete Beale	24.50
218	22	17 March 1987	Chris Clough	Bill Lyons	Lofty Holloway	23.75
219	23	19 March 1987	Chris Clough	Jane Hollowood	Angie Watts	23.85
220	24	24 March 1987	Romey Allison	Rosemary Mason	Jan Hammond Den Watts	23.40
221	25	26 March 1987	Romey Allison	Charlie Humphreys	Den Watts	24.05
222	26	31 March 1987	Gareth Tucker	Susan Boyd	Lofty Holloway Aunty Irene	22.85
223	27	2 April 1987	Gareth Tucker	Tony McHale	Angie Watts	24.35
224	28	7 April 1987	Tom Kingdon	John Maynard	Angie Watts	22.20
225	29	9 April 1987	Tom Kingdon	Gilly Fraser	Kathy Beale	22.05
226	30	14 April 1987	Henry Foster	Bill Lyons	Pete Beale Oxley Debbie Wilkins	20.65
227	31	16 April 1987	Henry Foster	Tony McHale	Kathy Beale	20.35
228	32	21 April 1987	Garth Tucker	Bill Lyons	Sharon Watts	19.15
229	33	23 April 1987	Garth Tucker	Bev Doyle	Den Watts	18.80
230	34	28 April 1987	Tom Kingdon	David Hopkins	Sharon Watts Simon Wicks	19.05
231	35	30 April 1987	Tom Kingdon	Rosemary Mason	Ethel Skinner Annie Smith Sue Osman	20.70
232	36	5 May 1987	Henry Foster	Tony McHale	Mary Smith	18.55
233	37	7 May 1987	Tony Virgo	Bill Lyons	Michelle Fowler Pauline Fowler Pete Beale	18.55
234	38	12 May 1987	Garth Tucker	Gilly Fraser	Mary Smith	20.70
235	39	14 May 1987	Garth Tucker	Jane Hollowood	Debbie Wilkins Terry Rich	22.90
236	40	19 May 1987	Tom Kingdon	Charlie Humphreys	Pat Wicks	17.45
237	41	21 May 1987	Tom Kingdon	Billy Hamon	Den Watts	20.20
238	42	26 May 1987	Henry Foster	Rosemary Mason	Tony Carpenter	17.70
239	43	28 May 1987	Henry Foster	Gillian Richmond	Dot Cotton	18.75
240	44	2 June 1987	Romey Allison	Gilly Fraser	Sharon Watts	19.10
241	45	4 June 1987	Romey Allison	Liane Aukin	Arthur Fowler (No Duff Duff, Julia's Theme)	19.45
242	46	9 June 1987	Mike Gibbon	Juliet Ace	Sharon Watts	18.25
243	47	11 June 1987	Mike Gibbon	Sarah Daniels	Roly Lofty Holloway	18.75
244	48	16 June 1987	Nick Prosser	Michael Robartes	Arthur Fowler	18.45
245	49	18 June 1987	Nick Prosser	Rosemary Mason	Den Watts	18.85
246	50	23 June 1987	Henry Foster	Jane Hollowood	Unknown figure, cutting plants outside The Dagmar	18.75
247	51	25 June 1987	Henry Foster	Tony McHale	Angie Watts	21.15
248	52	30 June 1987	Mike Gibbon	Bill Lyons	Den Watts	13.65
249	53	2 July 1987	Mike Gibbon	Charlie Humphreys	Ethel Skinner Dot Cotton (Julia's Theme)	13.85
250	54	7 July 1987	Nicholas Prosser	Juliet Ace	Simon Wicks	16.75
251	55	9 July 1987	Nicholas Prosser	Gilly Fraser	Ali Osman Sue Osman	17.35
252	56	14 July 1987	Romey Allison	Michael Robartes	Simon Wicks Farrukh Jeffery Naima Jeffery	20.85
253	57	16 July 1987	Romey Allison	Bill Lyons	Den Watts	20.05
254	58	21 July 1987	Mike Gibbon	Jane Hollowood	Mags Czajkowski	18.45
255	59	23 July 1987	Mike Gibbon	Tony McHale	Barry Clark Ian Beale Pete Beale Sharon Watts	18.70
256	60	28 July 1987	Nicholas Prosser	Gilly Fraser	Mary Smith	17.65
257	61	30 July 1987	Nicholas Prosser	Bill Lyons	Michelle Fowler	18.80
258	62	4 August 1987	Chris Lovett	Juliet Ace	Simon Wicks Pat Wicks	17.60
259	63	6 August 1987	Chris Lovett	Charlie Humphreys	Pat Wicks	17.80
260	64	11 August 1987	Henry Foster	Jane Hollowood	Michelle Fowler	18.25
261	65	13 August 1987	Henry Foster	Shirley Cooklin	Michelle Fowler	17.40
262	66	18 August 1987	Tom Kingdon	Tony McHale	Mags Czajkowski Simon Wicks	18.95
263	67	20 August 1987	Tom Kingdon	Michael Robartes	Simon Wicks Mags Czajkowski (Julia's Theme)	18.65
264	68	25 August 1987	Chris Lovett	Bill Lyons	Pete Beale	17.60
265	69	27 August 1987	Chris Lovett	Charlie Humphreys	Pauline Fowler (No Duff Duff)	16.70
266	70	1 September 1987	Henry Foster	Juliet Ace	Colin Russell	17.95
267	71	3 September 1987	Henry Foster	Gilly Fraser	Non Character (TV)	17.60
268	72	8 September 1987	Tony Virgo	John Maynard	Pat Wicks Frank Butcher	17.95
269	73	10 September 1987	Tony Virgo	John Maynard	Pat Wicks	18.35
270	74	15 September 1987	Tom Kingdon	Carl Rigg	Colin Russell Kathy Beale	17.90
271	75	17 September 1987	Tom Kingdon	Tony McHale	Colin Russell	18.20
272	76	22 September 1987	Chris Lovett	Michael Robartes	Lofty Holloway	18.15
273	77	24 September 1987	Chris Lovett	Jane Hollowood	Michelle Fowler	19.30
274	78	29 September 1987	Henry Foster	Bill Lyons	Sharon Watts	19.80
275	79	1 October 1987	Henry Foster	Charlie Humphreys	Den Watts Angie Watts	19.60
276	80	6 October 1987	Tom Kingdon	Mark Wheatley	Lou Beale	20.75
277	81	8 October 1987	Tom Kingdon	Rosemary Mason	Rod Norman	19.80
278	82	13 October 1987	Mervyn Cumming	Jane Hollowood	Mary Smith	21.00
279	83	15 October 1987	Mervyn Cumming	Gilly Fraser	Angie Watts	20.45
280	84	20 October 1987	Julia Smith	Tony Holland	Sue Osman Ali Osman	20.45
281	85	22 October 1987	Julia Smith	Tony Holland	Pauline Fowler	19.85
282	86	27 October 1987	Garth Tucker	Michael Robartes	Charlie Cotton Dot Cotton	22.60
283	87	29 October 1987	Garth Tucker	Tony McHale	Dot Cotton	21.80
284	88	3 November 1987	Steve Goldie	Bill Lyons	Donna Ludlow	22.85
285	89	5 November 1987	Steve Goldie	Juliet Ace	Angie Watts	19.95
286	90	10 November 1987	Mervyn Cumming	Tony Holland	Darren Roberts Carmel Roberts Junior Roberts	22.75
287	91	12 November 1987	Mervyn Cumming	Charlie Humphreys	Pauline Fowler	22.35
288	92	17 November 1987	Garth Tucker	Gilly Fraser	Naima Jeffery	22.85
289	93	19 November 1987	Garth Tucker	Juliet Ace	Lofty Holloway	22.85
290	94	24 November 1987	Steve Goldie	Jane Hollowood	James Willmott-Brown	22.45
291	95	26 November 1987	Steve Goldie	Bill Lyons	Angie Watts	22.45
292	96	1 December 1987	Mervyn Cumming	Bill Lyons	Brad Williams	20.80
293	97	3 December 1987	Mervyn Cumming	Tony McHale	Den Watts	21.55
294	98	8 December 1987	Garth Tucker	Liane Aukin	Carmel Roberts	21.40
295	99	10 December 1987	Garth Tucker	Michael Robartes	Angie Watts Pat Wicks	21.35
296	100	15 December 1987	Steve Goldie	Michael Robartes	Colin Russell	20.75
297	101	17 December 1987	Steve Goldie	Gilly Fraser	Angie Watts	19.85
298	102	22 December 1987	Tom Kingdon	Jane Hollowood	Ethel Skinner	21.40
299	103	24 December 1987	Tom Kingdon	Charlie Humphreys	Mary Smith	23.20
300	104	25 December 1987	Matthew Robinson	Jane Hollowood	Pauline Fowler Lou Beale	25.20
301	105	29 December 1987	Julia Smith	Bill Lyons	Duncan Boyd Sharon Watts	20.60
302	106	31 December 1987 - Part 1	Julia Smith	Jane Hollowood	Angie Watts Den Watts	22.60
303	107	31 December 1987 - Part 2	Julia Smith	Jane Hollowood	Michelle Fowler	19.85

Storylines

January

• Pauline knows that Arthur, who is so distracted that he doesn't feel anything when hot tea is spilt on his lap, must go to a hospital.
• Naima gives her cousin Rezaul, who is sent by her family to 'sort out' the shop, a chilly reception.
• The local attacker stalks Sharon but Den rescues her.
• Mary, still picking up men in The Vic, is beaten up but tells Sue that 'professional' girls did it to warn her off. Later she tells health visitor Carmel that a client struck her.
• Dot reluctantly sees Dr Legg's new partner, Dr Singh, who prescribes hormone treatment for her menopausal problems.
• Kelvin celebrates turning eighteen with a noisy party and a stripogram.
• Mehmet swindles Kathy and Michelle out of the money for a large batch of jumpers.

February

• Den, Pete and Tony give Mehmet a beating.
• Pat, Sue and Carmel warn Mary that Annie might be taken into care. She leaves the child alone again, but luckily Ethel and Dot step in.
• Willmott-Brown leaves the brewery to run The Dagmar.
• With Angie and Sharon away, Jan offers to help at The Vic and proves to be a disaster. She tries to fire Pat and does sack, Pauline.
• Barry and Nick Cotton smash into Ali's car; Colin makes Barry report it to the police.
• The 'Ripper' viciously attacks Pat, leaving her unconscious in the gardens. Wicksy and Pete are suspects, and Pete angrily hits a police officer.

March

• Another woman is attacked, and again Pete has no alibi.
• Colin is frantic when he discovers his Filofax is missing; Barry has hidden it as a joke.
• Kathy starts training for the Samaritans.
• Willmott-Brown says 'yes' when Angie asks for the job of manageress at The Dagmar.
• Sharon is becoming keen on Wicksy.
• Ian is keen on Tina.
• Arthur, home for a break from the hospital, angers Pauline by confiding in Mary.
• Sue finds a lump in her breast and Debs insists she goes to the clinic. Tests there show it's harmless.
• When Dot sees Barry and Colin's single set of sheets in the laundrette, she concludes, to her horror, that they are gay!

April

• Den and Jan argue. She leaves, saying she'll marry Dario.
• Kathy refuses a request to meet her illegitimate daughter.
• When the 'Ripper' attacks Debs in the laundrette, Pete catches him.
• Det. Sgt Terry Rich takes statements and later asks Debs out. Soon they're engaged.
• Sharon and Wicksy go away for a 'dirty' weekend which turns out to be very clean, although Angie and Den don't believe it; they're furious.
• Angie wants half of everything that Den owns. This turns out to be debts, some of which are owed to Sparrow, the new man at the brewery.
• Mary again leaves Annie, who throws a cot blanket over the electric fire and starts a blaze.

May

• Mags Czajkowski gives Den catering advice and soon they're having an affair.
• At his trial, Arthur is sentenced to twenty-eight days in prison for theft.
• Pauline and Michelle start to pay people the money they lost through the Christmas Club.
• Pete is fined two hundred pounds for hitting the policeman.
• Mary's mother arrives and takes Annie back to Stockport.
• Dot and Ethel, who have been living together, are to swap council houses with Tom. Then Ethel asks Pat to move out from Dr Legg's so she can have her old room back.
• Michelle refuses to accept Den's money for Vicki's first birthday present. Pauline eavesdrops, and it confirms her theory that Den is Vicki's father.
• Tony tells Kelvin he's returning to Trinidad.

June

• Angie is shamed into admitting her heavy drinking after Sharon videotapes her at The Dagmar.
• A video jukebox that Den hires attracts drugs pushers.
• Police capture the son of a member of The Firm, the local mafia ring, for drug dealing, but The Firm force Den to frame an innocent boy instead.
• Barry worries that his summer flu is the first symptom of Aids. He tells his brother Graham that he's gay, but it comes as no surprise.
• Arthur, now out of prison, begins work at The Dagmar but his first wage packet is stolen; Sue has a whip-round for him.
• Tom and Arthur, each tending pub window-boxes for London in Bloom, are again in competition. The Dagmar wins second prize.
• Ian and Tina set up home together.

July

• Den throws out an umbrella, which is one that Tom gave Dot. It costs him forty-three pounds in taxi fares for Ethel to replace it.
• Naima's family sends another cousin, Farrukh, and she expects to dislike him but doesn't.
• Angie and Sharon move into the flat above The Dagmar.
• Wicksy, tired of Sharon, fancies Mags.
• Brad tells Den he must travel to Morocco as a courier for The Firm.
• The Vic's and The Dagmar's football teams prepare for an 'unfriendly'.
• Sue and Ali learn they may be evicted by Saeed's cousin, Ashraf Karim because the flat is to be sold. Ali gambles the café's takings to raise the deposit but loses the money.
• Carmel moves into one of the [[Carpenter family tree|Carpenters]' flats, helped by her brother Darren and hampered by his son Junior.

August

• Den sacks Wicksy for chatting up Mags. Luckily there's a job for him at The Dagmar.
• Mags drops Den and moves into Kelvin's flat. A level results mean he'll soon be off to university.
• Lofty talks to Michelle about their having a baby.
• Michelle confides to Den that she's already bored with Lofty and offers to go away with him.
• Mary's new friend Rod offers to clean her flat, so it will be suitable for Annie's return.
• The Vic football team win only after Den insists they play dirty; Colin and Mags are shocked. On the other hand, The Vic Ladies' Darts Team wins their match in a fair fight.
• Donna Ludlow, the secret daughter of Kathy, arrives.

September

• On the Darts Team's outing to Greenwich, Pauline meets Derek Taylor, who takes a shine to her and later turns up in The Vic.
• Pat meets her old flame, Frank Butcher, who proposes marriage.
• Den gives Donna a job at The Vic, but when Pete questions her about her past, he's puzzled.
• Dr Legg hires Darren to paint the surgery. Darren sub-contracts Rod but Carmel ends up paying a proper painter to do it.
• Tina's parents find out she's living with Ian and take her home.
• Dot, who has recently been stung on the bottom by a bee, is a success at organising Ozcabs.
• Lofty excitedly thinks Michelle is pregnant; she's relieved to find she isn't.
• Sharon gets Den and Angie together, and they end up in bed.

October

• Mary is upset when her parents arrive without Annie.
• Willmott-Brown is grumpily cleaning off the anti-yuppy graffiti that has been daubed on his house and The Dagmar.
• On her eighteenth birthday, Sharon goes to church and meets a nice young man, Duncan, the curate.
• Barry takes Donna to a disco.
• Arthur borrows money to take Pauline on the town and spend the night in a hotel.
• Sue tells Ali she's pregnant, and there's no mistake this time.
• Wicksy is living with Mags, but she's having no luck in buying a place of her own.
• Ethel foresees a dark man in Dot's life. Sadly there are two - Charlie and Nick, who meet for the first time.

November

• Angie, tiring of The Dagmar, returns to The Vic where womanless Den invites her away for the weekend. Cheered by this, she plots to use Darren to make Den jealous. Darren won't play ball, and Den finds out.
• Colin, having trouble with his design work, also has problems with jury service. Den, on Brad's orders, tries to blackmail him to acquit the defendant in a gangland trial; he refuses.
• Ethel has another fall, and Dr Legg talks to her about sheltered housing.
• Charlie sells Ian cheap salmon for The Vic's Bonfire Night snacks; food poisoning strikes all around.
• Mary's father brings Annie back.

December

• Darren is stashing porn videos in Carmel's flat.
• Colin's flat is burgled but the police are more interested in his gay relationship than the crime.
• Rezaul catches Charlie shop-lifting. Both he and Dot appear in court on the same day. After it's reported in the Gazette, Dot's agony is made worse because she's sacked from the laundrette for it.
• Sharon asks Duncan if they can get engaged.
• The Dagmar yuppies finally wear Angie down. She storms out and goes back to The Vic. Den and she agree to become business partners there.
• Colin, realising it's over with Barry, sends him home to confront his father.
• On Christmas Eve, Mary's father kidnaps Annie and crashes his car while drunk. Thankfully the child is unharmed.
• Michelle tells Pauline she's pregnant.

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