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
Martin Fowler (EastEnders) teenage children, Mark Fowler (David Scarboro) and Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully), and Arthur is unemployed. Lou gives them the choice of either giving the child up for adoption, having an abortion or the family moving out of her home, but she is won round when the family organise a holiday for her to Clacton. The baby’s first christening is postponed when he is diagnosed with gastroenteritis and Lou is delighted when he is finally christened Martin Albert Fowler. When Pauline discovers Arthur had an affair with Christine Hewitt (Elizabeth Power), she bans Arthur from seeing Martin, but they reconcile. Arthur