EastEnders created the Beale and Fowler family, drawing on his own background. His mother, Ethel Holland, was one of four sisters raised in Walthamstow. Her eldest sister, Lou, had married a man named Albert Beale and had two children, named Peter and Pauline. These family members were the basis for Lou Beale, Pete Beale and Pauline Fowler. Holland also created Pauline's unemployed husband Arthur Fowler, their children Mark Fowler and Michelle Fowler, Pete's wife Kathy Beale and their son Ian Beale. Smith used her personal memories of East End residents she met when researching Victorian squares. Ethel Skinner was based on
EastEnders in popular culture Belinda Owusu (Libby Fox), host Mark Rhodes dressed up as Pauline Fowler, clutching a stuffed toy dog and grimacing at the camera, for a game. In 2006 in the Doctor Who episode Army of Ghosts Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell in "EastEnders", where she bars a ghost whom she presumes to be Den Watts from The Queen Victoria. Watts, presumed killed in 1989, returned to the soap in 2003, before being killed a second time in 2005 after being written out of the show. For Red Nose Day 2007, Aardman Animations created a "Creature Comforts" style short featuring the dog