EastEnders in popular culture special episode of "A Question of Sport", "A Question of EastEnders", was screened in 2000 to mark the show's fifteenth anniversary. A sketch in a 1995 episode of "A Bit Of Fry And Laurie" is set in the Fowlers' kitchen, with Fry, Laurie, Imelda Staunton and Clive Mantle parodying the speech and mannerisms of the characters of Pauline Fowler and Pete Beale. The dramatic drums at the end of every episode were parodied by "SMTV Live" in a "Friends" spoof entitled "Chums". The name "EastEnders" is spoofed in a series of pornographic films called "RearEnders", which also spoof the "EastEnders"
Pauline Fowler 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,