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The actor Leslie Grantham is better known by millions of British soap opera fans as “Dirty Den” in the long running Cockney soap Eastenders.

As an actor he has hit the headlines many times, in what can only be described as a torrid and turbulent career.

His humiliating sex scandal came about when an undercover reporter called Amanda exposed him taking part in sex sessions, which were publicised on The Internet, via a Web cam.

He has revealed that in the wake of the shame he could not be bear to look at himself in the mirror and attempted suicide three times.

“I let everyone down, my wife Jane, my children and the show. Life didn’t seem worth living,” he said.

His three pathetic bungled attempts included slashing his wrists, hanging himself and drowning, after he waded into water wearing a weighted backpack.

As he tried to hang himself in full view of his neighbours in the front garden of his home, the nylon rope stretched until his feet touched the ground!

He said: “I opened my eyes and, finding myself in Wimbledon rather than in heaven or hell, accepted that, even at suicide, I was crap.”

Funnily enough if his feet had touched the ground a little more often he may have been a different person. In reality he was better at murder than he has been at suicide.

He was a South London boy who enlisted in the army in 1965 when he was then aged eighteen.

A year later he had a tour of duty in Germany and whilst in Osnabrück, he shot dead a taxi driver. He said in his defence that he was trying to rob him and had no idea that the gun was loaded. Some defence, that was sure to have been a comfort to the man’s family.

After being convicted he was extradited back to Britain where he served ten years for the crime in Wandsworth. Ironically whilst here he joined the drama group as a diversion.

Whilst in Wandsworth he met the disgraced politician T. Dan Smith who had been convicted of bribery. Smith had been cleared of corruption charges concerning dealings with Wandsworth Council, but was later convicted on other charges of bribery involving the disgraced architect John Poulson. In 1974 he was sentenced to six years. it was Smith who encouraged Leslie’s acting ambitions.

Leslie went on to train at the Webber Douglas drama school, ironically as did Anita Dobson, who later became his on screen wife in Eastenders.

In 1984 he auditioned for EastEnders, which was due to be shown for the first time in February 1985. The character,the landlord of the Queen Vic public house, quickly became a favourite and gained him the nickname of Dirty Den, an accolade awarded as a result of the despicable way he treated his long suffering wife, Ange, played by Anita Dobson.

In 1986 the Christmas day Eastenders had 30 million people or half the population of the U.K. watching him deliver the line “Happy Christmas Ange!”; as he gave his wife divorce papers.

Soon afterwards, the character Den Watts sold his share of the Queen Vic and departed from the series in 1989. He was shot, but the death scene was never shown as the BBC at that point were confident that he would return. In the storyline a year later
a body presumed to be Den’s was found in the canal, but it was depicted on screen verbally, the body was never shown to be Den’s.

However, in September 2003, Leslie Grantham returned from the dead as a proverbial bad penny, with the words, “Hello, princess”, spoken to his daughter, Sharon.

Finally the BBC decided he had had one life too many and killed him off, but fore real this time. His disgrace was such they wanted to be certain that no amount of public pressure would resurrect him again.

A few months ago he confirmed he was writing his autobiography entitled “Life And Other Times“, for which he had been offered a substantial advance. As the book is scheduled to be released this month, I presume that this pathetic attempt at cheap publicity is part of a wider campaign to sell the book.

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