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Anita Dobson, Lady May is an English actress and singer. She is best known for playing landlady Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from the show's inception in 1985 unti…
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Anita Dobson, Lady May (born 29 April 1949) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for playing landlady Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from the show's inception in 1985 until 1988.
Anita Dobson, Lady May is an English actress and singer. She is best known for playing landlady Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from the show's inception in 1985 until 1988. She achieved a top five hit in the UK singles chart in 1986 with "Anyone Can Fall in Love", a vocal version of the theme music of EastEnders, and briefly reprised her role for the show's 40th anniversary in 2025.
Anita Dobson, Lady May (born 29 April 1949) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for playing landlady Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from the show's inception in 1985 until 1988. She achieved a top five hit in the UK singles chart in 1986 with "Anyone Can Fall in Love", a vocal version of the theme music of EastEnders, and briefly reprised her role for the show's 40th anniversary in 2025.
Dobson's other television roles include Cath in the 1989 ITV sitcom Split Ends and Mrs Flood, later revealed to be the Rani, in Doctor Who from 2023 to 2025. In 2003, she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress for the National Theatre production of Frozen. She has also starred in the West End as Mama Morton in the musical Chicago (2003) and Gertrude in Hamlet (2005), making her RSC debut in the 2012 revival of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Her film appearances include Darkness Falls (1999) and London Road (2015).
Dobson was born 29 April 1949 in Stepney, London. She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Dobson appeared in several series in the early 1980s including the Jim Davidson sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle (1983). She is best known for playing the emotionally battered and alcoholic landlady Angie Watts in BBC1 soap opera EastEnders, a role she played from the show's inception in 1985 until 1988. Dobson worked closely with actor Leslie Grantham, who played her adulterous husband 'Dirty Den Watts', landlord of the Queen Vic. On Christmas Day 1986, 30.15 million viewers tuned in to witness Den handing Angie divorce papers. After Dobson left EastEnders in 1988, BBC executives made numerous offers for her to return, but she did not accept any of them; she later commented: "Why tarnish the gorgeous creation that was Angie Watts?"
Dobson reprised her role for EastEnders's 40th anniversary, making a surprise one-off appearance as Sharon's hallucination in an episode broadcast on 19 February 2025.
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Dobson appeared in Red Dwarf (1993), and her own sitcom series Split Ends (1989). She has also made guest appearances in the BBC dramas Dangerfield (1995), Ghosts (1995), Sunburn (1999), and Hotel Babylon (2007), and the ITV detective series The Last Detective (2004) among others, along with the films Sweet Revenge (1998), and Darkness Falls (1999). She was also reunited with fellow EastEnders star Leslie Grantham in a Sky production called The Stretch, and Five's horror series Urban Gothic (2000).
Dobson guest starred in the ITV1 police drama The Bill in 2005, and appeared in the radio Doctor Who serial Blood of the Daleks. Dobson has also played five different guest characters in the BBC medical drama Casualty, appearing in episodes in October 2000, July 2009, July 2011, March 2013 and October 2017; she also had two guest roles in Casualty's sister series, Holby City, in September 2003 and December 2014 respectively. Dobson featured in the film London Road (2015), and appeared alongside Simon Callow in the Gold comedy series The Rebel (2016-2017).
On 20 January 2023, it was announced that Dobson would be guest starring in the fourteenth series of Doctor Who as the mysterious Mrs Flood. The episode was broadcast on Christmas Day 2023. On 27 April 2023, Dobson appeared in an episode of the BBC series Inside No. 9, "Mother's Ruin", as Frances. She returned as Mrs Flood in Doctor Who for multiple episodes in both the 2024 and 2025 seasons, and in the episode "The Interstellar Song Contest" it was revealed that Mrs Flood was an incarnation of Doctor Who villain the Rani.
Dobson has also performed as a singer, with varying degrees of chart success. In August 1986 she reached No. 4 in the UK singles chart with "Anyone Can Fall in Love", a song based on the theme music of EastEnders, which was written by Simon May. The song was produced by Queen guitarist Brian May, who later became her husband. She has also released several other singles and albums with minor chart success.
On stage, Dobson has starred in repertory at Salisbury Playhouse in Shaw's Pygmalion in 1980; the 1981 Ray Davies/Barrie Keeffe musical Chorus Girls at the Theatre Royal Stratford East; and as Hazel Fletcher in the short-lived musical Budgie with Adam Faith in the West End in 1988. She appeared in a revival of the Tom Stoppard play Rough Crossing and played a holocaust survivor in My Lovely Shayna Maidel. She also played Mama Morton in the West End musical Chicago.
Dobson played the role of Gertrude in the English Touring Theatre production of Hamlet, at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End, following a UK tour in the autumn of 2005.
In 2012, Dobson played the role of Mistress Quickly in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
From September 2016 to January 2017, Dobson appeared as Madame Morrible in the musical Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London.
In May and June 2018, Dobson starred in Katy Brand's new comedy-drama 3 Women at the Trafalgar Theatre, playing the role of Eleanor alongside Debbie Chazen and Maisie Richardson-Sellers.
In June 2019, Dobson joined Trevor Nunn's West End revival of Fiddler on the Roof at the Playhouse Theatre, playing the role of Yente, alongside Maria Friedman taking on the role of Golde, until the production's closure in November 2019.
On 6 September 2011, it was announced that Dobson would take part in the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing. In the launch show of the ninth series on 10 September 2011, it was revealed that she would be partnered by Robin Windsor. She was eliminated on 27 November 2011 after Windsor had been unable to dance for a week due to an injury. Dobson therefore rehearsed and danced the Cha Cha Cha and the Swingathon with Brendan Cole.
In Week 6 Jennifer Grey guest judged for Goodman.
For her time on EastEnders as Angie Watts, Dobson received the Pye Award for Outstanding Female Personality.
In 2003, Dobson was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her perfo
