TRACY-ANN Oberman makes her epic return to the BBC this week, but what has she been doing since she left EastEnders in 2005?
Let’s take a closer look at Tracy-Ann’s life away from Walford – from her rarely seen family to a terrifying security threat.
Tracy-Ann joined the cast of EastEnders as Chrissie Watts, the second wife of ‘Dirty’ Den Watts, in 2004.
When Chrissie killed Den and buried him under the cellar of the Queen Vic, 14 million people tuned in to watch.
Speaking about her memorable character to the Daily Mail, Tracy-Ann said: “She was the Bette Davis of Walford, and considering I was only in the show for 14 months, she had a real impact.”
“I left when I was pregnant. Chrissie has now been in prison longer than most murderers, but people still ask me if she’s coming back. I never say never.”
The EastEnders villain finally made her explosive return to screens on Monday 9 September as she came face to face with her former step-daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean).
Tracy-Ann has had a busy career since leaving the soap in 2005. Alongside a memorable voice role in Doctor Who, the EastEnders alum has narrated Channel 4’s hit reality series Escape to the Chateau and appeared in shows like New Tricks, It’s a Sin, Ridley Road and Friday Night Dinner.
She has also competed on celebrity episodes of Mastermind and MasterChef and turned her hand to writing.
Tracy-Ann said working behind the scenes on projects has allowed her to have more input and shape the stories she’s passionate about telling.
“When you get past 45, you’ve seen births, deaths and marriages, you’ve kept a child alive, kept a dog alive, kept a relationship going, you’ve got more understanding of the nuance of existence, and you’ve got something to say.
“It becomes very difficult to sit there passively at the end of the phone, hoping that the great big claw that goes round will pick you. I’m lucky in that I’ve always worked, and I think of myself like saffron: I get to flavour things. But the writing and creating are so much more satisfying,” she explained.
One of the stories Tracy-Ann is most passionate about telling is The Merchant of Venice 1936, which she’s currently starring in.
In the play she plays a female version of Shakespeare’s Jewish moneylender Shylock, with the action transposed to the Battle of Cable Street in London’s East End, when the local community fought off Oswald Mosley’s British fascists.
This is an extremely personal role for her because it touches on her own “background.”
Chrissie Watts was played by Tracy-Ann Oberman and is widely considered to be one of the best villains in soap history.
The character first arrived in Albert Square in 2004 as she was looking for her estranged husband Den Watts.
After she was persuaded to give their marriage another go, she then discovered he had an adopted daughter, Sharon (Letitia Dean) alomng with two other children, Dennis Rickman and Vicki Fowler (Scarlett Alice Johnson).
Chrissie soon discovers that Den has been having an affair with the local ex-policewoman, Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny). Chrissy initially worked together with Kate as hairdressers, before she got her revenge by hacking off her hair in revenge.
Chrissie and Den reconcile and she tells him that she will kill him if he ever cheats on her again. Together, they decide to defraud Sam Mitchell (Kim Metcalfe) and her family from everything, including their ownership the Queen Vic. However, she soon feels left out by Den after he begins another affair with Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan), when he tries to get her pregnant after she lied to Dennis Rickman.
Dennis discovers the affair, tells Chrissie and she persuades Zoe to abort the baby. Together with Sam Mitchell, they concoct a plan to get their own revenge on Den and either Chrissie or Sam will get hold of the pub.
They confront him on the night of his 37th wedding anniversary with Angie. Den is unmoved and confesses all of his wrongdoings, including Chrissie’s part in defrauding the Mitchell’s. However, Sharon was waiting in the shadows and she denounces Den before leaving Watford.
Chrissie taunts Den who attacks her. In turn, Zoe then hits Den with a doorstop which belonged to Den’s sworn enemy Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). Sam and Zoe panic, but a smug Chrissie taunts Den when she is left alone with him. He grabs her leg when she delivers the fatal blow to his head with the heavy object, unaware that Sam was secretly watching her.
Zoe is left unaware of the true extent of what happened that night and Chrissie allows her to think that she killed Den. The trio hide the body in the Vic, before Sam confronts Chrissie about what she truly saw. Sam demands that the ownership of the pub goes back to the Mitchell family.
Sam tells Zoe the truth about the murder and Zoe leaves Walford. but she tells Kat (Jessie Wallace) about the killing. Sam gets drunk on Sharon and Dennis’ wedding day, digs up den’s body in the hope that Chrissie will be sent down. But Chrissie feigns greif as she comforts Sharon over her dad’s death. Sam tells the police about the murder, but when Den’s blood is found under Sam’s sink, complete with her changing story, she gets the blame. Chrissie also convinces Kat to get Stacey (Lacey Turner) to give a false alibi to the police that Zoe and Chrissie were with Kat her that night.
Sam’s mother Peggy (Barbara Windsor) returns to Walford and slaps Chrissie who falls into Den’s grave at the funeral. The matriarch also accuses her of murder by framing her daughter. Stacey soon learns the truth and she stars blackmailing Chrissie for money. In return, she then forms a relationship with Jake Moon (Joel Beckett) and she attempts to sell the Queen Vic to Jake’s gangland boss Johnny Allen (Billy Murray).
After making a series of mistakes, she plans to free the country with Jake. Before then, they have an argument at Johnny’s nightclub, where Chrissie confesses how she was the one who killed Den with the doorstop. Johnny then tells Phil and Grant about the tape but Chrissie and Jake are already on their way out of the country. However, they were almost stopped by Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) and Billy (Perry Fenwick) informs the police. At the airport, she finds herself confronted by Sharon and is arrested by police after an exchange of words and a punch to the face.
Chrissie only co-operates with the force in exchange for a meeting with Sharon, as she tries to get her to understand why she killed Den. In the meantime, Sam is released on bail but flees to Brazil with Phil’s help. Jake visits her in prison and proposes to her. However, she discovers that he’s lost the £25,000 that was to be her bail money and she calls him an ‘idiot’ before storming out. She then decides to get revenge on Sharon for sending her to prison. She attempts to force her to testify in court about what Den was like as Chrissie thinks that Sharon will crumble. But still looking at Sharon like a step-daughter she calls off her plan, fires her solicitor and pleads guilty to the murder. She is then sentenced to life imprisonment.
The actress explained: “My great-grandmother Annie, my grandmother Faye and her brothers Lesley and Alf were all on the frontline in Cable Street.”
This is a very important role to Tracy-Ann who has become a passionate campaigner against antisemitism.
In 2016, she quit her Labour Party membership after former London mayor Ken Livingstone made claims that Hitler was initially supportive of the Jewish people before he “went mad and ended up killing six million” of them.
Along with Countdown’s Rachel Riley, Tracy-Ann began calling out anti-Jewish language online and was a vocal critic of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.
However, it caused a lot of backlash online.
“We got really horrible, nasty, sexualised responses,” she said.
Tracy-Ann continued: “It was a huge amount of abuse, and what was so upsetting is that I come from a background that was pure Labour. But people could see what was happening to me, and later to Rachel, in real time on my timeline and it opened their eyes.”
But she maintained that she’s proud of standing up for what’s right.
“I did what I did because I felt I didn’t have a choice. Nobody else was doing it. They [her attackers] thought actresses want to be liked and that if they shamed me and criticised me enough, I’d just go away. But I wouldn’t.
“There may have been mistakes along the way, but I do think that I did a valuable service. People still say antisemitism doesn’t exist, especially on the left, but I think my experience proves it does,” she added.
Off the screen, actress and writer Tracy-Ann has a close relationship with her daughter, who she shares with her music producer husband Rob Cowan.
Tracy-Ann gave birth to their now-teenage daughter Anouska when she was 36.
She enjoys a close relationship with Anoushka, who is named after great-grandmother Annie.
Speaking about their relationship, she said: “When you have one daughter, your relationship is very intense and close.”
“They are your best friend and worst enemy. It’s a really tight relationship.”
However, Tracy prefers to keep her life with her family out of the spotlight.
