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
Arthur Fowler Arthur Fowler Arthur Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", played by Bill Treacher from 1985 to 1996. The father of the Fowler family, Arthur was essentially a good man, but he made some foolish choices and he always ended up paying dearly for them, also being bossed to the brink of insanity by his mother-in-law and wife, Lou Beale (Anna Wing) and Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). During his time in Albert Square he had an affair with another woman, suffered with mental disorder, was sent to prison twice and eventually died of a brain haemorrhage