EastEnders 40th anniversary sees Walford celebrate as Billy and Honey Mitchell tie the knot. With the duo walking up the aisle for the first time over two decades ago, theirs is certainly one of Walford’s most protracted romances. But love comes in all shapes and sizes in E20, from young passion burning brightly, to soulmates constantly wrong-footed by circumstance or torn apart by tragedy.
Read on as we recall the Walford couples who have made our hearts soar…. Kat and Alfie Moon. When her dad Charlie promised a young Kat there was a man in the moon who would always watch over her and look after her, she wasn’t expecting him to be a wide boy cockney charmer in a floral shirt. But that’s what she got, and if ever there was a man for Kat, it’s Alfie Moon.
Over the years, the rollercoaster pair have spent more time apart than they have together, even their initial courtship was months of will they/won’t they and false starts. Dramas have included infidelities (her with Alfie’s cousin Michael and him with Kat’s cousin Hayley. Talk about keeping it in the family), as well as illness, financial disasters and parenting headaches. We’ve seen them marry twice, raise three children and have as many bust ups as they’ve had belly laughs.
However, something special happened back when this pair first laid eyes on each other back in 2003, and the spell was an eternal one. When they finally reunited last year, nothing felt more right. Let’s hope they can now bask in the moonlight forever.
Pat and Frank Butcher. Pat and Frank’s romance spans some five decades, beginning way back 1958 in sunny Clacton, when a young Frank Butcher fell for Pat Harris, the freshly crowned Miss Butlins. Sadly, Frank was promised to someone else, so it was to be 30 years before they finally got it together, buying The Vic and marrying with a big cockney-style knees-up.
But while Pat was a fighter in life, Frank was made of lesser stuff, prone to making a swift exit when the going got tough. Eventually they both tried to move on with new spouses – Pat with car dealer Roy Evans and Frank with Peggy Mitchell – but realised they couldn’t be apart. However, a plan to elope together saw Frank get cold feet. Just a shame Peggy had already found his discarded goodbye letter, which brought some unexpected fireworks on bonfire night.
Their final meeting came on the sombre occasion of Frank’s daughter Janine’s trial for murder, but the spark was still there as they fell into bed. Frank may have died in 2008, but we know he lived in Pat’s heart until she passed away two years later.
Jay and Lola Pearce-Brown. As Walford's tragic love stories go, Jay and Lola’s is one of the most heart wrenching. This pair took a lot of wrong turns on this road to happiness, only for it to be cruelly snatched away when they eventually arrived. Having both had difficult upbringings, cheeky teen Jay and the streetwise Lola had a connection from the beginning. However, circumstances never saw them get a clear run at love, with Lola falling pregnant by Jay’s best mate Ben and Jay falling for Abi Branning.
However, over the years they always seemed to end up back in each other’s orbit and 2022 saw the planets finally align. The pair’s happiness was to be short-lived with the news that Lola had an incurable brain tumour. Jay and Lola married and soon set about making as many of the memories fate was determined to rob them of as possible, before Lola said her final goodbye with Jay and little Lexi by her side.
Dot and Jim Branning. Forget the sexy young things, one of EastEnders’ most touching love stories featured two sixty-somethings worried that they’ve left it too late for a second bite of the love cherry. God fearing Dot and beer-loving Jim were certainly an odd combination, but Jim put everything into wooing his ‘Dorothy’. There wasn’t a dry eye up and down the country when he finally won her round with a proposal on the London Eye. Their 2002 wedding was certainly an uplifting occasion. Well, for Jim anyway. He popped a Viagra on the wedding night only to discover an exhausted Dot had opted for a Horlicks and a bit of shut eye!.
Jamie Mitchell and Sonia Jackson. Walford’s answer to Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie found his very own Kate Winslet in neighbour Sonia Jackson. However, the pair’s relationship nearly sunk several times, not least when Sonia unexpectedly gave birth to pal Martin’s baby on the sofa as Jamie watched on in disbelief.
Following a couple of broken engagements, love won through but it was just as the pair were stronger than ever that tragedy struck. Jamie was mowed down by a car outside the tube station and died in hospital on Christmas Day 2002. As the Square celebrated Honey and Billy’s wedding, Sonia held Jamie in her arms as he faded away.
Linda and Mick Carter. Teenage sweethearts Mick and Linda were Albert Square’s true couple goals. They loved each other, supported each other and of course totally fancied the pants off each other. The woes of Walford may have tried to drag them down, with Linda embarking on an inadvisable dalliance with Max Branning and Mick an even more inadvisable one with Janine Butcher, but their love triumphed in the end.
