EastEnders in popular culture special episode of "A Question of Sport", "A Question of EastEnders", was screened in 2000 to mark the show's fifteenth anniversary. A sketch in a 1995 episode of "A Bit Of Fry And Laurie" is set in the Fowlers' kitchen, with Fry, Laurie, Imelda Staunton and Clive Mantle parodying the speech and mannerisms of the characters of Pauline Fowler and Pete Beale. The dramatic drums at the end of every episode were parodied by "SMTV Live" in a "Friends" spoof entitled "Chums". The name "EastEnders" is spoofed in a series of pornographic films called "RearEnders", which also spoof the "EastEnders"
Pauline Fowler retirement from the serial in July 2006, and the character was killed off in a "whodunnit?" murder storyline, with Richard making her final appearance on 25 December 2006. Pauline was a staple in the UK press during her time in "EastEnders", representative of the symbiosis between Britain's soaps and tabloid newspapers. Widely read tabloids, such as "The Sun" and "Daily Mirror", would routinely publish articles about forthcoming developments in Pauline's storylines. Critical opinion on the character differs. She has been described as a "legend" and a television icon, but was also voted the 35th "most annoying person of 2006" (being