Date of Birth : Apr 29th 1949
Dobson trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
Dobson’s first starring role was in the 1983 sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle, but she is most famous for playing the emotionally battered and alcoholic landlady, Angie Watts, in the BBC1 soap opera, EastEnders, a role which she played from the show’s inception in 1985 to 1988.
Dobson was not the first person to be cast as Angie – another actress, Jean Fennell, had already began recording when it was decided that her performance did not gel with the original idea of the character, and so Dobson landed the role at the last minute. Whilst playing Angie Watts, Dobson worked closely with actor Leslie Grantham, who played her adulterous husband ‘Dirty Den Watts’. 30.1 million viewers tuned in on Christmas day in 1986, to witness Den handing Angie her divorce papers, giving the soap its highest ever episode rating, which has yet to be beaten by any other plotline from any other soap in the UK.
Since quitting EastEnders in 1988, BBC bosses made numerous offers for her to return, but she never accepted any of the offers; recently she commented “Why tarnish the gorgeous creation that was Angie Watts?”. Bosses finally gave up hope of ever tempting her to return, and in 2002 the character of Angie Watts died off-screen of an alcohol-related illness and brought home to be buried by her on-screen daughter Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), who had recently returned to the show.
Since her exit from EastEnders she has appeared in many television, film and theatre roles, including the BBC sitcoms Red Dwarf, Rab C Nesbitt and her own sitcom series Split Ends (1989), which failed to succeed and lasted for only one series. She has also starred in the BBC drama’s Dangerfield (1995) and Sunburn (1999); hospital dramas Casualty (2000) and Holby City (2003), and the ITV detective series The Last Detective (2004) among others, along with the film Sweet Revenge (1998). She has also been reunited with fellow EastEnder Leslie Grantham in the Sky production called The Stretch and Five’s Horror series Urban Gothic (2000). Most recently she signed up for the ITV1 police drama The Bill in 2005 and had appeared in the radio Doctor Who serial Blood of the Daleks.
Anita, is married with three children to ‘Queen’ legend Brian May.
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