Was watching H&A and thinking how Alf was defined by his relationship with Ailsa for 12 years, but he has since been on screen for another 16 years and Ailsa would never have been known to young viewers.

Who else has there been? Off the top of my head Harold Bishop, whose wife Madge died in 2001, he stayed for another 7 years as a regular.

Phil Mitchell.

His most defining partnership is still "Grant and Phil" not "Phil and Kathy/ Shirley/ Sharon".

Max EE?

Masood. Pauline. Kathy. Max.

Debbie in Emmerdale

Who's defining relationship was Jasmine who left in 2009 so 7 years.

Rita (Len)
Audrey (Alfeh)

Roy from Corrie, although I think it's wrong that he's with Cathy.

Ian Beale is still in the show 18 years since Cindy left

Stacey. Her character still thriving after Bradley's death

I would have said Hilda Ogden - who stayed after Stan died.

Also a couple of ED ones:

Betty - who stayed after Seth went
Diane - who stayed after Jack went

What a great thread

I'd say one partnership on EE that was defining though not in a good way was Little Mo and Trevor.

Obviously there story was horrible compared to other examples of couples who loose their husband/wife however their partnership was defining and little Mo continued on after Trevor was gone.

I wouldn't have put Diane on the list. Jack and Diane as a couple weren't in the same league as say Alf and Ailsa and Harold and Madge who as characters were defined by their relationship with each other. Diane was just the last in a long line of women romanced by Jack Sugden before his death.

Do these count? Masood was in the show 2007-2016 but Zainab has only been absent for 3 years.

Likewise Max hasn't survived that long without Tanya.

3 years to me feels like the minium they can class.

I think when all is said and done, Martin will be Stacey's defining relationship.

Unfortunately, as she's become a bore since being with him.

I think it's more to do with the fact the character has grown up and had two kids etc Do you still want Lacey to be playing the teenage wild child at age 30+

I blame SOC for that, because the actors work really well together. I think James Bye was even better than Lacey was during her psychosis storyline at the beginning of the year so the talent is there to make them good.

Dot Cotton has continued on for decades after Ethel Skinner left/became recurring.

Lacey isn't a very strong actor in the every day storylines IMO, I don't think SOC is to blame.

I do agree her character has progressed, which is nice, but it's time she was written out. She's not working anymore.

I've always said this about her. She's fine in the big emotional stories but not very believable in every day scenes. Maybe it's more the character of Stacey than it is the actress. Stacey doesn't strike me as the type to settle down into domestic bliss. She's always been a loud mouth chavvy skank who can't keep her knickers up.

Ian has lasted two decades without Cindy, and survived for 16 years without Kathy.

Sharon also survived without Den and Angie, survived after her marriage to Grant ended, and is still going strong ten years after Dennis was murdered.

These two are the definition of dynamic characters. Whereas Phil's characterisation took a turn for the worse after Grant left so I don't think he can be included.