Once my young son and daughter are in bed I can begin to relax a little. Me and my partner watch BBC’s Eastenders religiously. My partner is from South East London, and well I just love a good story.
Good Friday last year, Walford’s longest-serving character Ian Beale, lost his daughter, Lucy. She died after a row with several people throughout the square. It has taken ten months for the reveal to air. Which has been pain staking for me because I cannot switch off my mind from these types of story lines! A whodunit! Only four members of the production team know who is guilty.
The BBC are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Eastenders this week, which is why there is such a big story with an enormous marketing campaign. There have been trailers and online snippets here an’ there. In the square alone in the last ten months there have been four births, three marriages and three deaths (not including Lucy, which would make four deaths). There have been deliberate house fires, heroin overdoses, sisters turning out to in fact be mothers, abusive lesbian relationships, rape, sabotaged brake lines and brain haemorrhage’s. Like I say, I love the stories!
Lucy died on 18th April 2014. Lucy was found on Walford Common. Police quickly found that she didn’t actually die there,
By the 25th of April Police were asking questions in the square.
Lee Carter was one of the first in a long line of suspects. His alibi was the Mitchells’ housewarming party. Lee was having a fling with Lucy in the week or so running up to her death. Once again Lucy had caused another reason for Whitney to not like her very much. As Whitney was seeing Lee. Before Lee went to the Mitchells’ he saw Lucy in a heated discussion with Billy Mitchell.
Billy Mitchell was supposed to be going into business with Lucy but Lucy being the manipulative mare that she is played billy for the fool that he is!
Whitney Dean developed feelings for Lee however on the day of Lucy’s death Whitney discovered that Lucy had been sleeping with Lee. Whitney and Lucy were previously involved in a cyber bullying incident whereby Lucy was insulting Whitney. At Lucy’s funeral Whitney left a card saying “Rot in hell” which was found by Tamwar Masood. DI Keeble was made aware of suspicious activity on Lauren’s laptop after Whitney asked for Lucy’s password and deleted arguments between them.
Lauren Branning stated that she went to Ronnie and Roxys house warming party then returned home, but evidence arose when Arthur aka Fatboy was watching a video on his phone from that night. Jane gives Lauren an alibi when she backed up her story by revealing that she had seen Lauren walking away and not going in.
Jane Beale claims to have been looking out of the Masood’s window and saw Lauren standing outside the Beale’s house and walking away again.
Ian Beale was troubled by Lucy’s behaviour just days before she died. Cindy being the jealous little sister grassed Lucy to her dad for having cocaine in her jewellery box. Ian told Lucy she was his favourite child in a heated argument over the coke. Lucy’s twin Peter overheard this. Lucy chased after an upset Peter. Ian’s alibi was that he was at the restaurant. He was in fact with Rainie the prostitute aunt of Lauren and Abi.
Peter Beale having heard his father and twin Lucy’s row, ran off. Stating in his alibi that he wanted some time alone, but Lucy followed him. Later Jane reads texts from Lucy’s phone that was a message to Peter for coke. He later confessed to being her dealer.
Max had been having a secret affair with Lucy. In a heated confrontation a few days before she died Lucy fell to the floor with a head injury. This and another incident were captured on CCTV and was seen by David Wicks. The evidence was destroyed. Max’s alibi was that he was home all night except five minutes to walk to dog which is confirmed by Abi. Abi and max were seen cleaning up Lucy’s blood from the car lot by Abi’s gran, Cora who phoned the police.
Abi Branning revealed she had sent her father Max an anonymous email of a picture of him kissing Lucy. Abi was unstable during her interview with the police and stated in her alibi she was at home with max all night apart from when he was walking the dog. Lauren was stalked by Abi wearing a weeping angel mask when she became uncomfortable with Lauren dismissing her problems in favour of her own. Abi then attempts to drown Lauren.
Jay Brown doesn’t really have a motive but CCTV has come to light of him on the same bus as Lucy the night she died. The CCTV also shows him follow Lucy when she left the bus. He burned the hat he was wearing and buried Lucy’s missing phone and purse.
Denise Fox was engaged to Ian but had planned to leave him because he is selfish and her own family needed her. After hearing of Lucy’s death she didn’t leave Ian. It was Denise that found Lucy’s purse and phone in Patrick’s allotment. Denise confided in Masood and together they told Ian.
Cindy Williams was jealous of Ian favouring Lucy. She revealed the coke to Ian and then on Christmas Day unwrapped Lucy’s jewellery box which was under the tree, noted as a present for Beth.
Lola Pearce at the time was Peter’s girlfriend however the “twin-thing” took over. Lola was jealous of peter’s infatuation in Lucy’s life. She and Billy attended the wedding when Emma Summerhayes was supposedly meeting the killer in the park.
There have been so many scenarios thrown in the mix. With that many suspects it was bound to happen. There are also many other characters that could have played a part.
Prior to all the flings with Max, the thing with Jake and her sexual tendencies towards Lee, Lucy was working for Janine Butcher alongside Danny Pennant.
Now Janine being the bitch she is slept with Danny to spite her husband Michael. Lucy also had a thing with Danny and between them they stole money and even ended up stealing from each other, as I remember. So despite the long list of suspects no one has considered Danny or Janine!
We all know Janine has previous with three of her four husbands now dead and she was falsely accused of killing Laura many moons ago.
Wednesday nights episode was the Beale wedding. Lauren wrote a wedding card to Jane telling her she knows what happened to Lucy and that she was killed at home.
Later in the episode Jane starts to act a bit weird. Noticed by the wedding guests and her husband. Jane sneaks home. Where we see her on the phone but we don’t know to who or why she’s on the phone. The camera then switches to the pub where Pam is checking with her husband Les to see if he got sorted as he puts his phone away, implying Jane and himself were talking. However we quickly learn her son Bobby has left the wedding with friend Masood because Jane called him. (There is nothing to say she didn’t call more than one person mind) Masood is asked to take Bobby to his for the night. As she closes the door behind them Ian and Cindy walk in as he asks if everything is ok Peter burst through the door shouting “Lauren’s told me, Lucy was killed here. It was one of you!” Insinuating that a Beale murdered Lucy!
Meanwhile at the Branning’s house Tanya (Abi & Lauren’s mother) is probing Abi for the truth behind her dodgy behaviour. Having heard in the previous episode that Max thinks that Lauren knows who killed Lucy but Max himself has it wrong when he tells Abi that he thinks Lauren’s knows she killed Lucy!
Tanya gets it out of Abi. A confession that she didn’t kill Lucy but she wanted to. She wanted her dead and she hated her!
Now that to me means that it was not Lauren, because she has the information and knows who did kill her. It wasn’t Peter because he wouldn’t have been so shocked by Lauren’s information. It was not Abi she hated Lucy but is a bit of a wimp so couldn’t have done it, not alone anyway. It wasn’t Max as he strongly believed Abi did it. Lee was at the Mitchell’s party. Jay was meeting Ben who was hiding from his family, but they are not completely out of he picture.
DC Emma Summerhayes informed Ian of Lucy’s death and that the police were treating it as suspicious. Ian then identified the body and had to break the news to Jane, Denise, Peter, Cindy and Bobby. It is then that it is revealed Lucy died due to a head injury. When Lauren reopens LB Lettings for business, she discovers an email intended for her but Lucy read it on the night of her death. The sender is asking that they meet. Lauren suspects it was sent by the killer. Lauren arranges to meet the person herself and is shocked to discover it is her former lover Jake. He tells Lauren that he had arranged to meet her at the cafe, but instead found Lucy there. On the day of Lucy’s funeral Abi confronts her father Max about his affair with Lucy. Abi admits to sending the email and photo of the two together. Lee tells his family that he saw Billy arguing with Lucy on the night she was murdered. Lee confronts Billy who confesses to stealing fish from Ian’s fish and chip shop, and using a key to enter Jake’s flat to steal electricity. Pam who finds photographs of Lucy underneath his fridge. Billy tells her the photographs are Peter’s. He then bins the photographs. I believe that billy was lying. But I’m not sure why yet.
Further on in the story Emma is removed from the case when her sexual relationship with Max is exposed. (Max called the police himself).
Lauren is repeatedly followed by DS Bryant acting under the orders of the head of the investigation DI Samantha Keeble. Max says, “Whatever happened on Good Friday stays between us” to Abi. Denise finds Lucy’s phone and purse buried in Patrick’s allotment. She takes them to Ian. Ben pleads with him, admitting that they found a bag containing a phone and purse abandoned on Good Friday.
Wednesday night’s “duff duff” left a few unanswered questions floating around my household (and probably many others too)
1. Jane was acting rather strangely towards well everything last night. Was she covering for Bobby? Is that why she got Masood to take Bobby with him?
2. Phil returned with a desperate need to talk to Ian but wouldn’t tell Ian what he found out because Ben was there. Was it because Kathy isn’t dead?
3. Why is Lauren aborting Peter’s baby? is it because she doesn’t want to be apart of the Beale’s family because she thinks it is one of them? does she suspect Peter? Or is she guilty by association because a Branning killed Lucy?
4. Abi and Max were arguing, the doorbell rang – no one answered the door! Who was at the Branning’s door? and why?
5. Pam and Les are up to something but what?
6. Why was dean seen lurking? Well I actually know that he is back to cause havoc in the pub and kidnap Nancy.
I did publish this early Thursday before the reveal and flashback but I came to find that it hadn’t saved and I have now ran out of time to get my views across.
