Ethel Skinner was the second out of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith (the first to be created was Lou Beale). Ethel was based on an elderly woman that Smith had encountered in a pub in Hackney. She had bright ginger hair, a face plied with make-up, she laughed a lot and was obviously "the life and soul of the party". She also had a little dog, Willie, who she dressed in a red ribbon, tied in a neat bow on its head. Smith felt that a character like this would be an excellent inclusion to the show. Ethel's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, "EastEnders: The Inside Story".