Lucy Beale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Hetti Bywater as Lucy Beale (2012) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Portrayed by |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duration | 1993–2010, 2012–2015, 2019–2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First appearance | Episode 926 16 December 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last appearance | Episode 6072 31 January 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Introduced by |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spin-off appearances | EastEnders: E20 (2010) The Ghosts of Ian Beale (2014) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Melissa Suffield as Lucy Beale (2010) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lucy Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The character was played by Eva Brittin-Snell (from 1993 to 1996), Casey Anne Rothery (from 1996 until 2004), Melissa Suffield (from 2004 to 2010), and Hetti Bywater (from 2012 to 2015). Lucy was introduced in December 1993 as the baby daughter of Ian (Adam Woodyatt) and Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins). She was the twin sister of Peter Beale (Thomas Law/Ben Hardy/Dayle Hudson), and had three half siblings, older brother Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell), younger sister Cindy Williams (Mimi Keene) and younger brother Bobby Beale (Eliot Carrington/Clay Milner Russell).
From 2004, when the role was recast to the older Suffield, storylines featuring Lucy focused upon her teenage rebellion. In 2010, Suffield left EastEnders, after she was allegedly axed due to "unruly behaviour." On 14 November 2011, it was announced Lucy would be returning in 2012 with Bywater taking over the role. She returned on 12 January 2012.[1] Her storylines have included teenage pregnancy, abortion, cheating in her exams, struggling to cope when Ian has a mental breakdown and runs away, feuding, taking over Ian's businesses, and multiple relationships, including an affair with her best friend's father, Max Branning (Jake Wood).
On 21 February 2014, it was announced that Lucy would be murdered, starting a dark chapter for the Beale family and a whodunit storyline that would run until the show's 30th anniversary in February 2015 when the identity of the murderer would be revealed.[2] The "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" storyline was billed as the soap's biggest whodunnit, and was EastEnders' biggest marketing campaign to date.[3] Bywater returned in a flashback episode on 19 February 2015 to explore unanswered questions about the night Lucy died.[4] The same episode revealed that Lucy's 10-year-old half-brother Bobby was her killer, after 10 months of secrecy regarding her demise. The character reappeared as hallucinations in 2019 and 2020, portrayed by a body double and using archive footage.