Lou Beale
Lou Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anna Wing. Her first appearance is in the first episode, which was broadcast on 19 February 1985, and her last is in episode 362, first shown on 26 July 1988, after which the character was killed off. The character is played by Karen Meagher in the 1988 EastEnders special, CivvyStreet, set during the Second World War. She appears in 232 episodes.
Lou Beale was the first EastEnders character to be created by series co-creator Tony Holland, taking the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background.
Lou is the archetypal East End matriarch throughout EastEnders' first three years. An intimidating force within the local community, she is the dowager of Albert Square's central family, the Beales and Fowlers. Never afraid to speak her mind, and woe betide anyone who manages to get on her wrong side, Lou has the respect of her friends and family, even if they do find her a bit of a nuisance at times.
Character creation and development
Background
The creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, had always intended the programme to be primarily based around a large family "in old East-end tradition". By the 1980s, such families were on the decline in the East End. Natives had begun to emigrate out of East London to the wider area around Ilford, Romford, Chelmsford and Eastbourne. However, there were still some that refused to uproot and leave the area that had been home to many generations of their family.To construct the focal family, Holland and Smith were helped considerably by Tony Holland's recollections of his own East End background. Lou was the first EastEnders character to be created. She was based on Holland's aunt Lou Beale, one of four sisters from a large Walthamstow family. Lou was mother to his cousins Peter and Pauline and married to Albert – a family set-up that would eventually be recreated on-screen and would go on to be forever hailed as the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers. Peter Batt, who was one of the original scriptwriters of EastEnders, has stated that elements of Lou Beale were based on his mother.
Lou was the first character created by Smith and Holland for the show. Her original character outline as written by series creators Julia Smith and Tony Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story:"A lively 70 year old. Archetypal East-end mother-earth figure. Fat, funny, sometimes loud, often openly sentimental. An obsessive view of family...she can be a stubborn cruel "old bag" when she wants to be, sometimes keeping "atmospheres" going for months. It was always Lou's house that was used for the big family celebrations. Especially Christmas. Twenty or more people crammed into a tiny house. Five sisters wedged into a minuscule kitchen; drinking gin and orange; wearing funny hats; all wearing aprons; laughing raucously and trying to cook a huge dinner at the same time. Lou's house was also the meeting place for the family Sunday teas. Ham, or tinned salmon salad. Bread and butter. Jelly and tinned cream. And, tea...the changing face of the area is a constant source of fear to her, but then she doesn't go out much. She prefers to be at home, or on a trip down memory lane: day trips to Southend – the Kursaal, Rossi's ice-cream and a plate of cockles; one wonderful week's holiday in a caravan in Clacton; fruit picking in Essex; Christmas; weddings; street parties...She has a soft spot for her son, Pete...".
Casting
The actress Anna Wing, who was now 70 years old and had been acting since the late 1930s, auditioned for the role. She was so keen to play the part that she turned up for the audition clutching her birth certificate to prove she was a Hackney greengrocer's daughter and implored the producers to give her the job. When she first read for the part Holland and Smith felt that "she overacted terribly", but on the second reading she "brought the performance down considerably". There were initial fears over whether an actress of her age would have the stamina to survive EastEnders' gruelling schedule, but when asked if she'd like to be in a popular soap, Wing replied "All my life I've been an actress, now I want to be a household name!"Wing was set to appear in a stage play of Adrian Mole, which would have clashed with the filming of EastEnders. Julia Smith refused to offer her any leeway and informed her that she had to take a gamble – she could either turn down the play, meaning that if she failed to get the part of Lou she would have lost two jobs, or she could give up the possibility of playing Lou and accept the play. Wing decided to turn down the play and she was subsequently given the role of Lou. An early choice in the casting process, Wing had the face, voice and attitude that Tony Holland had imagined for the character. She was told by producers to bring something from her own background to the role.
Narrative, impact and progression
Lou's fierce demeanour made an impact from the opening episode, with one of the popular press in Britain running the headline "Enter the dragon... Lou Beale!"Lou was a frightening matriarch who domineered over both the Beale and Fowler families and most of her neighbours in Walford as well. The character did have a softer side, most often seen when interacting with her grandchildren. She was depicted as the linchpin of the Walford community and was often first to rally around her neighbours in times of trouble, or instruct various members of her clan to do so in her stead.
She was a family orientated character, particularly opposed to change and determined to hold on to the ever-diminishing traditions of the East End. Most of her storylines were family based, which included various feuds, most notably with Pat Wicks, the ex-wife of her son who showed up in Walford in 1986. Various scandals and hardships were thrown at the character and her family, which she stoically battled through in order to keep the close-knit family that she presided over, together. The character was also used for comedy, most regularly with the other older characters, Dot Cotton and Ethel Skinner, and she had a tendency to take to her bed and feign sickness if she didn't get her own way. Her relationship with son-in-law Arthur was another on-going sub-plot often used for comical effect – Lou portraying the stereotypical nagging mother-in-law and Arthur being the main protagonist for most of her displeasure, although they did share moments of closeness as well.
However, in 1988 Anna Wing began to grow disillusioned with the direction the show was going in. She felt EastEnders did not fit in with her beliefs as a Quaker, commenting "We had 31 million viewers and it was shown all over the world, and I suddenly thought 'Should I be in this?'...I had a crisis of conscience." After three years playing Lou, Anna Wing asked to be written out. Wing has since revealed that creator Julia Smith was devastated when she decided to leave, commenting "she said I could have been in it for ever and ever until I popped off for real."
The character was subsequently killed off, dying in her sleep in July 1988 after being frequently ill throughout the year. The character's final episodes were written by Tony Holland and directed by Julia Smith. Lou spent her final day arranging her affairs, seeing various members of her family, passing on advice and giving them presents and at the end of the episode she announced: "That's you lot sorted. I can go now." At the start of episode 363, Lou was found to have died peacefully in her sleep. The episode then jumped a few days later to the day of her funeral – an emotional episode, which featured Pete breaking down at Lou's graveside and ended with him proposing a toast in the Vic to absent friends and that "bloody old bag." The episode was also notable for featuring, for the first time, a train crossing the railway viaduct in Bridge Street – a special-effects shot commissioned especially for the occasion. The train was actually a ten-second illusion, produced by the BBC's electronic workshop. One EastEnders official commented: "It cost an arm and a leg, but old Lou was worth it."
Continuity regarding children
Lou is a central character, who remains at the heart of the series during her time on screen and is later still occasionally referred to by long-running characters in a nostalgic nod back to the show's early history. There remains, however, a certain level of uncertainty and conflicting information regarding the character's background, in particular the number of offspring she supposedly produced.In the show's earliest episodes, Pauline Fowler and Pete Beale are the only two of Lou's offspring to feature on screen. Through character dialogue in episodes first shown in July 1985, the audience are told of the existence of four other children: Keith, Paul, Norma and Shirley – who were said to be living in Billericay, Romford and Eastbourne. As the series progressed, Keith, Paul and Shirley were apparently forgotten in favour of other children and were not mentioned again; Norma was mentioned occasionally throughout 1985.
In the episode first shown on 28 October 1986, viewers are made aware of another child who lives in New Zealand, Kenny Beale. In addition, the character of Lou Beale also features heavily within a series of spin-off EastEnders novels by Hugh Miller, set prior to 1985 and published in 1986. Within the novelisations readers are introduced to further characters from Lou's history: sons Harry and Ronnie, a daughter Dora and siblings Elsie, Liz, Queenie and Terence. Kenny also features in the books. In the EastEnders novels, Harry, Dora and Ronnie have moved away from home when in their twenties and have lost contact with their mother. The Beales' fruit and veg stall on Bridge Street market is said to have passed to Ronnie after his father's death, and again passed to Pete when Ronnie moved away from Walford.
Kenny appeared in EastEnders for a brief stint in episodes shown in February 1988, and is seen as a young child in the December 1988 spin-off CivvyStreet. Harry and Ronnie also appear in the spin-off episode, but do not appear in the television serial itself, although Ronnie was directly mentioned in the episode first shown on 11 December 1986.
In 1997, another of Lou's children is introduced: Maggie Flaherty, her eldest child, who was placed for adoption as she was born out of wedlock. Other than the already established Pete, Pauline and Kenny, Maggie remains the only sibling to appear in the on-screen serial. In 2000, an EastEnders book was published entitled EastEnders Who's Who. The book pertains to the existence of Ronnie and yet another child, Maureen, who had both died. Harry and Dora are not mentioned in the book and neither Maureen nor Dora has been mentioned or seen on-screen, however, Pauline recounts the story of Arthur proposing to her on her unnamed sister's wedding day on multiple occasions.