Ethel Skinner
| Ethel Skinner | |||||||||
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A promotional image of Ethel Skinner played by Gretchen Franklin
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by |
Gretchen Franklin Alison Bettles (flashback) |
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| Duration | 1985–1997, 2000 | ||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 1 19 February 1985 |
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| Last appearance | Episode 1999 7 September 2000 |
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| Created by | Julia Smith and Tony Holland | ||||||||
| Introduced by | Julia Smith (1985) John Yorke (2000) |
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| Book appearances | The Flower of Albert Square | ||||||||
| Spin-off appearances |
CivvyStreet (1988) | ||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Occupation | Cleaner | ||||||||
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| Brothers | Howard Lewis |
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| Sisters | Trish Lewis |
| Husband | William Skinner (until 1970) |
| Other relatives | Kerry Skinner |
Ethel May Skinner is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gretchen Franklin. Ethel also features in a 1988 EastEnders special, entitled CivvyStreet, set on Albert Square during the Second World War, played by Alison Bettles.
Ethel is an EastEnders original character and in the early years she can always be found wandering the square with her adored pug Willy. She and Dot Cotton (June Brown) are lifelong friends, and although they wind each other up, they are completely dependent on each other. In fact Ethel trusts Dot so much that she even asks her to help her die in 2000, after she is diagnosed with inoperable cancer.
Ethel Skinner is one of the original characters that appears in the first episode of EastEnders in 1985 and her early history is depicted in EastEnders spin-off, CivvyStreet. Ethel lived in Albert Square for most of her life, remaining there through the Second World War, and even witnessing the death of her entire family, who were wiped out by a doodlebug. This tragic event sent a young Ethel into shock and subsequently she developed eccentric behaviour. She began dressing outrageously, wearing garish make-up, flirting with anyone in trousers, and knocking back Gin - traits that lasted well into her old-age. Ethel's husband William (Ian Brimble) had died and she never really recovered from it - she even named her pug dog after him, 'Willy', or "my little Willy" as she often calls him.
Ethel had never had children, a fact that she regretted in her old-age and so Willy became her surrogate child, and she loves him dearly. Willy goes everywhere that Ethel goes and so she is devastated when he is kidnapped in 1986. She searches for him everywhere and even holds a seance to see if she can contact him, but Willy is nowhere to be found. Detective Roy Quick (Douglas Fielding) works on the case and eventually finds Willy in the possession of an old Latvian refugee, who has renamed him Rasputin. Willy is returned to an overjoyed Ethel, although she has to pay the man in order to get him to relinquish ownership. Ethel has been a lifelong friend of Lou Beale (Anna Wing) and Dot Cotton (June Brown) and the trio remain close in their old-age. They can often be found reminiscing or gossiping in The Queen Victoria public house, where Ethel also regularly thrills the punters with her repartee, her version of the cancan, or her plain sense of fun. Out of the three Ethel is the most light-hearted and she is never frightened to stand up to the over-bearing Lou and interfering Dot. She has her run-ins with both over the years, and yet their friendship endures right to the last.
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