Leslie Grantham, most famous for playing Dirty Den in EastEnders, is currently starring as Pte. Walker in Dad’s Army at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford. He took a break between rehearsals and performing to visit the museum today.
We invited Leslie to view our EastEnders25 display, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of one of Britain’s best-loved television programmes. It’s part of our year-long Soap Season, dedicated to examining the impact, popularity and longevity of British soap opera.
Looking casual, Leslie arrived in the TV gallery accompanied by Claire Thomas, Assistant Curator of Television. The museum’s Photographer, Media Developers and I ran around with cameras while Leslie chatted to Claire about the EastEnders props on display.
The opportunity to photograph Leslie on the ‘bench of tears’, holding the dog doorstop which killed Dirty Den, or sitting next to Den’s gravestone, was too good to miss. We were joined by a photographer from the Telegraph & Argus and a reporter from Pulse Radio.
View more photographs on our Flickr account.
Soap Season began in February with the launch of the EastEnders25 display, and is set to continue throughout summer 2010 with an exciting programme of events and activities.