Nellie Ellis

Nellie, the cousin of Lou Beale (Anna Wing), first appears in Walford in December 1993 for the funeral of Lou's son Pete Beale (Peter Dean). When she falls and breaks her hip the following month, Lou's daughter Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) 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.^[7] Nellie and Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) often go drinking together but have little in common and usually end up arguing. She befriends her much younger in-law Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) and cousin David Wicks (Michael French); the latter only begins spending time with her so she will invest money in his car business. She also has a cat named Mandoo. Mandoo goes missing in July 1996 and Nellie searches for her. David's son Joe Wicks (Paul Nicholls) finds Mandoo dead next to the metal fencing that has recently been erected around the Children's Playground.

Joe takes Mandoo home and hides her in a box under his bed. Once Mandoo is discovered by David, Joe finds Nellie and tells her that he has buried Mandoo and that he found her and she was already dead, but delayed telling Nellie as he did not want to upset her.

She is often seen criticising Pauline's husband Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher), 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 (Cate Fowler). Before Nellie returns to Walford, she and George's partner Doreen (Olga Lowe) 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 (Tommy Eytle), but despite flirtations, the relationship remains platonic. When Jules starts getting back pains from sleeping on his sofa (Nellie has his bed), 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 Fowler (Susan Tully) gets Nellie residence in sheltered accommodation with Ethel, much to Nellie's chagrin. Following this, Nellie shows up occasionally in Walford for visits. She is last seen attending Ethel's funeral in September 2000 and sends a wreath to both Pauline's funeral in 2007 and Lucy Beale's (Hetti Bywater) funeral in 2014 but does not attend.

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."^[8] In 2026, Michael Adams from Radio Times called Nellie "beloved" and opined that she had an "unusual friendship" with Ethel.^[9]