One of the greats

Mine too .

Same here. He stole the whole show for me. What a legend. I miss him very much. RIP Mike.

Me to, the man was a legend, BRILLIANT character.

It was a lot better then Now it's,let's cram as many gay characters in as possible

Can’t watch it anymore naff characters, terrible writing all the big characters have left. I remember being so excited for the next episode and the whole family would be sitting in the lounge to tune in.

@@dougied4827 I agree and relate to all that. People say that the reason families no longer sit around the TV together to watch certain shows is because of the internet and the way technology has changed how we consume things. I guess that is partly true but I also believe that the biggest reason is that there is nothing worth watching for the whole family anymore. All of the classic shows have become unwatchable and the few shows that are decent are either aimed at kids or contain content too mature for young viewers. I also think that the main problem is that nowadays everything on TV is just a platform for somebody to push their political agendas and beliefs down viewers necks. EastEnders always touched on real life and politics but being entertaining was always the overriding goal. I tried to watch one of the recent episodes but nothing made sense and I could not get into it at all. It was like whoever writes the show nowadays has completely scrapped the past and the evolution of the characters.

Sorry for writing so much 😆 but I forgot to add that I agree with your comment about how many of the characters that made the show being gone is another reason why I can't get into the present show. But a good writer could create new characters just as interesting.

The only resemblance this show has now is in its name, it is absolute tripe now, the storylines are so far removed from real life, the acting is atrocious, even with its old cast, I recently watched a clip with Cindy Beale shouting at Bobby Beale and it was like watching panto, the acting is embarrassingly bad, the characters are wooden and two dimensional, it’s like watching Hollyoaks, I call it Hollyoaks on steroids I can’t see the show lasting after it’s 40th anniversary to be honest, not with the amount of people cancelling their TV license and quite rightly so

Yeah, it really was. The writing during that period was absolutely amazing but Mike Reid took an already wonderful character and took it to another level. He was so believable as Frank that it's hard to imagine the character is/was not a real person. That goes for a lot of the characters from back in the day. But considering how massive a personality Mike Reid was as a person it really did take a lot of talent for him to take on another persona and make it strong enough to not just seem like Mike Reid playing a role on tv.

And of course credit to Pam for creating a character equally as strong to interact with Frank.

Speak for yourself sunny Jim.😂 I am as straight as a die and I would rather spend the night with Frank Butcher than Pat.😂

Although I would take Pat over Big Mo. *shudders*😫

VultureClone right?!😏

Yeah that he made the incarnation of the evil queen

mike ried died

He was mentioned by Lou when the show started in 1985 when she was rowing with Pete/Kathy ... "How old are David and Simon now? 19? 20? But you never see 'em!"

An excellent character himself. When frank was onto him from day one for being one slippery operator then the power struggle they had in the car lot one time over the name was comedy gold.

I'm 45 now and that's a little worrying! As this doesn't feel like it was that long ago.

@@danw1374 people seem to look younger longer nowadays.

Mike Reid was 47

@@PeterShieldsukcatstripey Yeah when they stay off the drugs.

His surname is Butcher...?

Frank was not only the original Butcher but he was the first Butcher to show up on EastEnders