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
Pauline Fowler by a proportion of viewers, as Pauline was voted the 35th most annoying person of 2006 in a BBC Three poll, being the only fictional character to appear on the list. In a Radio Times poll of over 5,000 people in 2004, 13% chose Pauline Fowler as the soap character they would most like to see retired. She came third in the poll, behind "EastEnders"' Den Watts (17%) and "Coronation Street's" Ken Barlow (15%). Although it had been suggested that Pauline's presence in "EastEnders" was largely peripheral for some time, the news of her departure in 2006 was met with