Gretchen Franklin, whom EastEnders fans will always fondly remember as Ethel Skinner, died on July 11, 2005, peacefully at her home in Barnes, London, four days after her 94th birthday.
Gretchen was very special to me in the 11 years that we were friends, especially since she was the first EastEnders cast member to advocate support for the Walford Gazette with the powers that be at the BBC and the series' management.
In 1994 during a visit to London, Gretchen's long-time agent, Barry Burnett, told me that Gretchen would be very happy to see me at her home, and he gave me her phone number. The first time I called her I was amazed how much she sounded like Ethel, who was part of the original cast from the very first episode in February 1985.
Following our first interview at her home (published in issue No. 7, reprinted here on pages 7-9 in its entirety), Gretchen was flabbergasted to learn that I had been "banned" from the set. Gretchen immediately called the EastEnders executive producer to register a protest, vouching for my good intentions to help publicise the show, but couldn't get him to change his mind.
Hanging up, Gretchen winked and said, "It's too bad that I'm not working this week because you could have come with me as my dog minder. They wouldn't have any say in that!" That rebellious streak was evident in her portrayal of Ethel, right up to her last visit to the Queen Vic nearly five years ago.
It was our love of dogs that cemented our relationship. Gretchen took an interest in our family dog, Elvis. Gretchen told me that at one time she had a "dachsie" too, named Hymie." When I returned to the U.S., I sent her a photo of my wife Teri pushing a pram with our then newborn son Jake. Gretchen loved how Elvis in the snapshot was jumping up Teri's leg trying to get her attention. The last time I spoke to Gretchen, three weeks before her death, she sounded spry as ever, and she brought up that photo again. I told her how our children now enjoy a new mini dachshund named Nelly, and that made her happy.
Since I work for a British-owned company, at least once and sometimes twice a year I would have reason to be in London, and I'd always set aside time for a visit to Gretchen.
I'd ritually take the Tube to the Hammersmith station and then walk a mile across the Hammersmith Bridge, which hovers over the Thames, and then hang a right turn to her road, which was off the Barnes High Street.
I'd always bring flowers bought at the tube station's florist and the latest issue of the Gazette, which Gretchen immensely enjoyed so that she could keep up on her former colleagues. I once talked her into watching a BBC1 Omnibus episode of EastEnders with me, which made her somewhat uncomfortable for reasons she never explained. But she did it for my sake, for which I am still grateful. Occasionally, she would remark about the actors on-screen, such as how she thought Lucy Speed (Natalie) was very talented and could be doing things other than EastEnders, or that Martine McCutcheon (Tiffany) had a lovely singing voice-so Gretchen wasn't surprised that Martine landed the lead in My Fair Lady in the West End.
Gretchen once gave me the phone number of Anna Wing (Lou Beale), who she said would be eager for an interview with me in the Gazette, and it turned out she was.
Gretchen once told me how fond she was of Ross Kemp (Grant), who danced with Ethel in the Vic on the Mitchell brothers' arrival, I reminded her. She reminisced that once on a particularly sweltering day at the studio, when the air conditioning in the dressing rooms wasn't working, Ross stuck a long broomstick to keep her door open so she could get some fresh air-an anecdote that Wendy Richard also remembers.
Following 9/11, Gretchen told me tales of World War II, of how the German Blitz forced Londoners underground down in the tube for several years to avoid the bombs. She told me how she was fond of American servicemen during the war (perhaps not unlike Ethel).
She also told me of happier times when she was on the stage in the West End, but sometimes would be jealous of shows that were doing better business next door or across the street.
She told me details of her personal life, such as how her husband died fairly young and was a writer, Caswell Garth. She mentioned that she could have remarried many times and had plenty of offers, but preferred living alone. I never asked her if she regretted not having children, but she always wanted to see photos of my son and daughter.
She mentioned in a letter (see below) once that Jake was also the name of one of Leslie Grantham's (Den Watts) sons, a name that she thought was "quite fashionable" but she thought his other son's name, Spike, was dreadful. I regret Gretchen never had the opportunity to meet my daughter, now seven years old, but she commented that "Annie's quite the looker," based on the photographs she had seen of her.
Gretchen once told me how it was quite a long time before the BBC would send a private car for her, even though she was well into her seventies when the series began. Using public transportation, it would have taken her a grinding, two-hour journey to reach the studio in Borehamwood/Elstree, north of London.
Of her opening scene in the Beatles' 1965 movie Help, she told me how Paul McCartney was her favourite and "the only polite one." She also told me how she enjoyed being in the obscure film Return to Waterloo, written and directed by the Kinks' leader Ray Davies, one of my rock heroes.
The naughty side of Gretchen sometimes came out when she would share gossip she read in the tabloids about the personal lives of EastEnders actors and their occasional transgressions. "I'm glad I'm a cracking bore," she once wrote me in a letter, as if to suggest that she'd hate the attention rom the tabloids.
Of her return to EastEnders about four years ago, she told me how the experience was very fulfilling professionally and how much she enjoyed working with then-executive producer John Yorke, whose idea it was to bring back Ethel to the storyline.
She didn't mind that the plot involved Ethel dying, which I thought was extraordinary given her advanced age.
When WLIW threatened to cancel EastEnders last January, one of my first thoughts was that I might not get to see Ethel die, since I didn't yet have digital cable when those episodes first aired in the U.K. and on BBC America nearly five years ago. I found it extraordinary that Gretchen ended up dying a few weeks after U.S. public TV viewers watched Ethel's last moments of life-it was as if she had held on for our benefit.
The last time I saw Gretchen was in June 2004 when I visited her at Queen Mary's Hospital, where she was recovering from a fall. I said, "I guess there won't be any champagne." During our annual visits at her home, there was always a bottle waiting for me when I arrived at her home at 11 a.m. (even though I told her I was not much of a drinker). Gretchen might have a sip or two herself, and I would end up putting away the whole bottle over the course of two hours or so.