After months of build-up, a week of semi-live shows, and countless bets being placed at the bookies, we finally know the answer to the question…
…“Who killed Lucy Beale”.
EastEnders has celebrated it’s 30th birthday in true EastEnders showdown style.Over the past three decades the soap has bought us some of televisions most memorable characters, fantastically dysfunctional families and headline-grabbing storylines. Over the years we’ve learnt that Albert Square is also a dangerous place to live. More than 100 characters have been killed off since the first episode was aired, more often than not killed by someone they knew.
Much of the action has focussed around the Queen Vic, home to some of the soaps most famous families, including Den, Angie and Sharon Watts, Peggy Mitchell and her thuggish sons Grant and Phil and, more recently, Mick Carter played by hardman actor Danny Dyer who got to show off his fighting credentials in the 30th anniversary shows.
The tangled romantic lives of the Walford residents have kept a nation gripped, highlights including Den serving Angie divorce papers on Christmas Day, Janine making sure husband Barry Evans came to a messy end, Max Branning and his numerous inappropriate affairs and the immortal “Riiiiiiiiiicky’ screeched across the square by Bianca. There have been weddings and divorces galore, with Ian Beale and Phil Mitchell clocking up the most marriages at four wives each.
As well as the light-hearted (Pat Butcher and those earrings) the soap has won plaudits over the years for sensitively tackling some of societies biggest issues. In the 1980s we saw Mark Fowler announcing to his parents Pauline and Arthur that he was HIV positive. A nation watched appalled at the domestic violence suffered by Lil Mo at the hands of her husband Trevor. Kat Slater revealed she had been sexually abused by her uncle Harry, later giving birth to his daughter. Assisted dying was poignantly portrayed as Ethel asked her old friend Dot to help her with an overdose of morphine.
Even Robbie Williams has appeared in the show, spotted making a phone call in the Queen Vic in a cameo appearance.
So what better way to celebrate such a landmark than with a classic soap whodunnit. Spoiler alert, if you still don’t know: It was baby-faced Bobby who killed Lucy. Here’s to another 30 years in the Square.