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 character, remaining one of her defining traits even after his death in 1996. The dynamics of the relationship were clear from the beginning of the programme, with Pauline depicted as the matriarchal force that holds the Fowler family together, while Arthur is depicted as weak, emotionally unstable and easily dominated by the stronger females of his family. Writer Jacquetta May, who once played Rachel Kominski in the programme, has commented that "[Pauline and Arthur] represented the matriarchal relationship of strong woman/weak man ... Arthur, only sporadically employed and disabled by a breakdown, often behaved like a little boy, while Pauline