In 1986, Den discovers that Angie lied to him about having six months to live and got revenge by giving her divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986, which was watched by over 30 million viewers.

Den soon became involved in storylines that mostly contributed to the character's magnanimous and "bad boy" persona, such as Den impregnating 16-year-old Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) – which resulted in a long-standing feud with Michelle's mother Pauline (Wendy Richard); teaming up with Pete Beale (Peter Dean) to force their enemy Nick Cotton (John Altman) out of Walford for causing trouble around the square; romancing with his mistress Jan Hammond (Jane How); and getting revenge on business rival James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde) for raping Pete's wife Kathy (Gillian Taylforth).

Despite turning down several offers to return, Grantham reprised the role 14 years later in a highly publicised week in September 2003, where Sharon discovered that Den had survived his shooting and had fled to Spain afterwards.

Additionally, Den establishes a rivalry with Sharon's ex-boyfriend Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) that ends with him framing the latter for armed robbery; forms a friendship with Dot Cotton (June Brown); has sex with Phil's ex-wife Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) and his sister Sam (Kim Medcalf) as revenge; and cons Sam into relinquishing her ownership of The Queen Vic back to him.

Grantham left in 2004, and Den was ultimately killed off for good on 18 February 2005, during the show's 20th anniversary episode, when he is was fatally bludgeoned to death by Chrissie, which was watched by 14.34 million viewers.

Den Watts and his wife Angie (Anita Dobson) are landlords of The Queen Victoria public house in Albert Square, Walford.

He gets Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully), the 16-year-old best friend of his adoptive daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean), pregnant – but she refuses to name the father, fearing repercussions for Den and herself.

For many years the secret is kept hidden but Michelle's mother, Pauline (Wendy Richard), is one of the first to realise the truth, igniting a feud between her and Den, which intensifies when he admits to her in January 1988 that he is indeed Vicki's father, and she slaps him in response.

Feeling guilty about her lie, Angie gets drunk on the way home via the Orient Express and admits to a barman that she is not dying, unaware that Den has overheard her drunken confession.

Den has a fling with The Queen Vic's caterer, Magda Czajkowski (Kathryn Apanowicz), but is scorned when she eventually opts to date the much younger Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) instead.

He sells The Queen Vic to Pat and her fiancée Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) and takes over Strokes wine bar, which he runs with Joanne Francis (Pamela Salem).

In the intervening years, Sharon and Vicki grow up, although not always living in Walford, and in early 2003, they discover that Den has a son he did not know of, Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), who joins them in Albert Square.

To rebuild his family, Den attempts to regain The Queen Vic from the Mitchells just before Christmas 2004, by blackmailing their lawyer Marcus Christie (Stephen Churchett) into convincing Sam that Phil, who is still on the run, needs immediate money.

In a rage, Den violently throws Chrissie against a fruit machine and is only stopped by Zoe, who hits him over the head with an iron doorstop in The Queen Vic, and believes she has killed him.

It is then that both the Mitchell and Watts families found themselves entangled in a conflict with Den's old friend, Johnny Allen (Billy Murray), a local mob boss who recently usurped Andy from his position as Walford's reigning crime kingpin; on the night of Den's murder, Johnny killed Andy by throwing him off a motorway flyover, although the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.

Following Chrissie's arrest, she is later sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty, and Den is finally given a proper burial in his "original" grave next to Angie.

In 2015, it is revealed that Den was once in a gang which included Phil's father Eric Mitchell, along with his partner-in-crime Gavin Sullivan (Paul Nicholas) and their associates: Henry Hubbard and Ted Hills (Brian Croucher).

The character of Den was originally going to be called Jack[3] and he, his wife and adopted teenage daughter were to be the occupants of the soap's local pub, now famously known as The Queen Vic.

[3] The Watts family were seen by Holland as integral to the show's success, partly because he had already guessed that the pub was going to be a monstrous battleground where emotions would run high on a regular basis, and also because the occupants would be providing the majority of the drama.

Den's clashes with Angie brought EastEnders to a peak of popularity and removed rival soap Coronation Street from the top of the ratings chart.

Early on in the series, the character of Den became central to the programme and was the focus of a controversial storyline involving the teenage pregnancy of Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully).

Four possible suspects were seen leaving the Square in the early half of the episode: Tony Carpenter (Oscar James), Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson) and Den Watts.

[5] The finishing touch was the use of an alternative end title music, a variation of the normal one which replaced the dramatic drum beats with a longer, gentler piano solo introduction.

One such cartoon showed the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, telling her cabinet that the best way to alert the country to the dangers of AIDS was to give the disease to Den.

Jan had been a powerful off-screen presence for the first year, a menacing voice at the end of the telephone, which severely affected the mood of both Den and Angie and kept the audience on edge every time the phone rang.

After being abducted by a group of gangsters who ambushed the taxi taking him to court, Den escaped from his captors and returned to the famous canal (in Alperton) for one last rendezvous with Michelle.

[5] However, after 14 years presumed dead, executive-producer Louise Berridge made the highly controversial decision to reintroduce the character to the series and reunite him with his daughter Sharon, played by Letitia Dean.

[9] Despite claims from the British press that the plot was unrealistic and that it questioned the show's credibility, Den's return sparked a huge increase in ratings for the last few months of 2003.

[17] In the short story Brief Encounter: Mistaken Identity by Gary Russell, published in Doctor Who Magazine Edition 174, the mercenary Lytton meets Den Watts in the Queen Victoria and mistakes him for Davros's adjutant Kiston.

In the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, Bryn, played by Rob Brydon, mentions that he stopped watching EastEnders when Den returned to the show in 2003.