FOWLER FLEW THE COOP
Early EastEnders staple Bill Treacher has died aged 92, continuing a rough year for Walford. Treacher was the first to be cast for the soap, ably portraying working-class garden lover Arthur Fowler in a role the series creators described as “ordinary but not dull”. The lovable loser Fowler was often beleaguered by his nagging wife Pauline and mother-in-law Lou Beale on top of his inability to secure lasting employment, and his garden escapism was unable to prevent the unforgettable Christmas 1986 nervous breakdown in which he wrecks his living room. Other driving Fowler storylines included his grappling with his son’s HIV diagnosis, his affair with Christine Hewitt and the resulting fight with Pauline, and multiple imprisonments. Treacher left the show in 1996, and Fowler was killed off via a cerebral hemorrhage inflicted by wounds in a prison riot. Rather more mundanely, an ataxia diagnosis announced in 2015 increased deadpooler interest in Treacher, but it was the COVID/pneumonia double whammy that finished him off. It’s no harm no Fowler for 15 teams, including the expected theme teams, Grobler’s Stiff Ones, Lard Bazaar, and joker points for BREATHLESS IN SEATTLE and Soylent Green Is You.
Bill Treacher
4 June 1930 – 5 November 2022, aged 92
15 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 5 POINTS, 🃏 (x2) 10 POINTS)