Willy is tracked down to his new owner, Mr Pavasars (Sydney Arnold), who has renamed him Rasputin.

Lou Beale (Anna Wing) fetches him back and returns Willy to his rightful owner.

When Ethel falls and breaks her hip, Willy stays with Dot Cotton (June Brown), and they find each other a strain.

First Ernie Mears (Ken Wynne) and then Benny Bloom (Arnold Yarrow) want to marry Ethel, but only if she will get rid of Willy.

[2] Willy is a touch sensitive, and when Dr. Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton) makes several remarks about "dog mess" in the Square, Ethel fears it upset him to the extent that he can't perform at all.

After succumbing to old-age, Willy falls ill in 1992 and Ethel makes the heart-breaking decision to put him down.

From the beginning it was decided that the pensioner Ethel Skinner was to have a Yorkshire Terrier named Willy (after her dead husband).