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
Pauline Fowler states, "If I accepted, my character was to be Pauline Fowler. A middle-aged mother of two teenagers, with a late baby on the way, Pauline worked part-time at the launderette, voted Labour and supported Arsenal. She was married to Arthur, who was out of work and was really a bit of a failure, not much good at anything in life." Richard thought it sounded like a challenging role. There were initial fears that Richard's glamorous image would not work for the character and Smith also feared that Richard would be apprehensive about playing Pauline, who would be anything but glamorous,