8. Den And Angie Divorce In Eastenders (1986)
Den Watts was the original landlord of The Queen Victoria and thus was always a very important character in the show, alongside his wife Angie, who had been with Den since she was just 15. Although they often showed themselves to be deeply in love, Den also engaged in various affairs and so their relationship was very tempestuous; he even had a mistress named Jan when the show began. The couple had an adopted daughter, Sharon, as well as Den's son Dennis, although he was unaware that Dennis existed at this time. Angie developed alcoholism because of her knowledge of Den's ongoing affair with Jan and as time went by, she struggled more and more to hide the jealousy and depression that it caused her, even attempting suicide at one point in the soap. After her failed suicide attempt, Angie confided in Den that she only had 6 months to live and Den re-considered his move to force her to leave permanently, instead planning to stay with her and be loyal to her until her death, re-building their relationship somewhat. Den, of course, could not stay entirely loyal and soon liaised with Jan whilst he was on a second honeymoon with Angie in Venice. It was on the return journey from this trip that Angie gave away the truth of her lie that she was not dying after all, to a barman on the Orient Express whilst she had been drinking. Unbeknownst to her, Den also overheard this conversation and, after biding his time, served Angie with divorce papers on Christmas Day, shocking audiences across the world, which were always accustomed to them as soap's first couple, even if it wasn't always the happiest relationship. Angie and Sharon soon got one up on Den though, packing their bags and leaving through the front entrance of The Queen Vic, silencing all of the singing Patrons as they did so. Whilst many of the other moments on this list involve the deaths of much loved characters, this is a miserable moment because it charts the breakdown of one of soap's original and much loved relationships. That Den could wait until Christmas Day to reveal his intentions to Angie came as even more of a shock, with this being perhaps the first instance of a brilliant, yet miserable, storyline to come out of a soap on Christmas Day, when audiences expected a happy festive episode. If you're still divided as to how bleak Eastenders really went back then, that wasn't the only moment from this list to come from that exact same Christmas Day...