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 Leslie Grantham, who played Den, added "from then on it was out and out war, which was great!" An array of confrontations between Den and Pauline occur, as she tries to force him to leave Walford and keep him away from her family. The feud appears to end in 1989 when the character Den is shot and presumed dead, but it is ignited once again in 2003 when Den is re-introduced, 14 years after he supposedly died. 2005 saw Den killed off for the final time, and although Pauline is not directly responsible for killing him, the item used to