Dirty Den `back' for anniversary

Classic episodes of EastEnders, featuring the Queen Vic favourites Dirty Den and Angie, are being shown as part of the series' 10th anniversary celebrations, the BBC will announce today.

The line-up includes the most-watched show in the soap opera's history - when Den slapped divorce papers on Angie as an unseasonal Christmas surprise. The feuding couple, played by Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson, catapulted EastEnders to the top of theratings with a record audience of just under 30 million at Christmas 1986.

Other vintage episodes being rerun include the October 1985 teaser which revealed that Dirty Den was schoolgirl mother Michelle's seducer. The opening 1985 episode will also be shown.

The broadcasts are part of a birthday package, ``10 Years in Albert Square'', to mark EastEnders completing its first decade on 19 February.

Only six of the original cast remain and this will fall to three by the end of the year with the departure of Arthur (Bill Treacher), Michelle (Susan Tully) and Sharon (Letitia Dean). That leaves just Kathy (Gillian Taylforth), her son Ian (Adam Woodyat)and her ex-sister-in-law Pauline (Wendy Richard).