EastEnders trouble. Co-creator Tony Holland was from a large East End family, and such families have typified "EastEnders". The first central family was the combination of the Fowler family, consisting of Pauline Fowler, her husband Arthur, and teenage children Mark and Michelle. Pauline's family, the Beales, consisted of Pauline's twin brother Pete Beale, his wife Kathy and their teenage son Ian. Pauline and Pete's domineering mother Lou Beale lived with Pauline and her family. Holland drew on the names of his own family for the characters. The Watts and Mitchell families have been central to many notable "EastEnders" storylines, the show
EastEnders episodes in Ireland BBC was forced to issue an apology for causing offence. In 1997, "EastEnders" aired a storyline in which the character Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) discovers that she has a long-lost sister, Maggie Flaherty (Olivia Shanley). In the storyline, Pauline's now-deceased mother Lou Beale had given Maggie up for adoption shortly after her birth, as she was born out of wedlock. Maggie is first said to be the result of an illicit affair Lou had with an Irishman 60 years earlier, but although Maggie is initially thought to be Pauline's half-sister, it later transpires that they share the same father too;