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Article: Obituary: Gretchen Franklin.(Features)
- Article from:
- Daily Post (Liverpool, England)
- Article date:
- July 14, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 MGN Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN THE early days, when Eastenders hoped to combine the folksiness of Coronation Street with a sharper view of modern life, her pug Willy provided the light relief, his name allowing the scriptwriters to slip in puns of the sort found on holiday postcards.
Gretchen Franklin and her Willy were inseparable in rather the same way as Ena Sharples and her hairnet had been for the earlier generation of Street viewers.
Before the coming of sensational, violent and gloomy story-lines, supposedly mirroring society's changes, both soaps found their heart in the gossip of women, a little jaded by experience.
Thus Gretchen Franklin was ideally cast as Ethel ...