Nellie, the cousin of Lou Beale, first appears in Walford in December 1993 for the funeral of Pete Beale. When she falls and breaks her hip the following month, Lou's daughter Pauline Fowler lets her stay with her family so she can be cared for until she is better. Not wanting to live alone in Ilford, Nellie emotionally blackmails Pauline and offers her a cash loan; Pauline feels obliged to allow her to move in. Nellie and Ethel Skinner often go drinking together but have little in common and usually end up arguing. She befriends her much younger in-law Cindy Beale and cousin David Wicks ; the latter only begins spending time with her so she will invest money in his car business. She also has a cat named Mandoo, who is found dead under Joe Wicks's bed. She is often seen criticising Pauline's husband Arthur Fowler, who tries in vain to get her to move out. Nellie's husband had left her for a woman named Doreen and because Arthur cheated on Pauline, Nellie resents him. For forty years, Nellie had not divorced George and he had never asked for a divorce. He dies in November 1994 and Nellie attends his funeral, resulting in some conflict with George's daughter Louise. Before Nellie returns to Walford, she and George's partner Doreen find closure and she resolves her differences with Arthur. Following this, Nellie decides to move out of the Fowlers' home to give them space to rebuild their marriage. She briefly moves in with fellow pensioner Jules Tavernier, but despite flirtations, the relationship remains platonic. When Jules starts getting back pains from sleeping on his sofa, Nellie attempts to manipulate the Fowlers into letting her return by pretending that she has had various accidents to gain sympathy. This almost works until Pauline's daughter Michelle Fowlergets Nellie residence in sheltered accommodation with Ethel, much to Nellie's chagrin. Following this, Nellie shows up occasionally in Walford for visits. She attends Ethel's funeral in 2000 and sends a wreath to Pauline's funeral in 2007 but does not attend.
Creation and development
Nellie, played by Elizabeth Kelly, was one of two characters introduced by Executive ProducerLeonard Lewis in December 1993, the other being David Wicks. They were the beginning of an array of new characters introduced to accommodate the advent of EastEnders' screening of three weekly episodes, early in 1994. Nellie was introduced as the relative of Pauline Fowler, and made a brief appearance for Pete Beale's funeral, before moving to the soap's setting of Albert Square in 1994. Nellie resided with the Fowlers and her primary purpose initially was to antagonise Pauline's husband Arthur Fowler. Writer Colin Brake has suggested that Arthur found Nellie to be an "interfering old lady", reminiscent of Pauline's deceased mother Lou Beale "at her worst". Nellie has been described as a "pantomime baddie". Her name preceded her in the soap before her initial appearance as she was frequently used as an excuse for Pauline to leave the soap's setting to visit her. Author Kate Lock described Nellie as stingy and an interfering old busybody. She stated, "When stingy Nellie wasn't giving Arthur grief, she was flirting in a button-up sort of way with Jules Tavernier." On-screen Nellie remained living with the Fowlers until she was rehoused late in 1994. Following this, Nellie appeared sporadically as a semi-regular character until 1998. She and several of the other semi-regular pensioner characters, including Ethel and Jules, were not used throughout the tenure of executive producerMatthew Robinson. However, Nellie returned under executive producer John Yorke for a one-off appearance in September 2000 for Ethel's funeral, which was her last appearance to date.
Reception
In 2003, a reporter suggested that the storyline concerning Nellie's problematic rehousing in 1994 was tedious and "was probably then that the nation realised that its favourite soap had finally run out of entertaining and original storylines."
