Jane Beale

Lesley Jane Beale (also Clarke and Collins) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by Laurie Brett. She made her first appearance on 21 June 2004. Brett took maternity leave in 2011 and departed on 19 May. She returned on 8 November and departed again on 27 January 2012. Jane made a temporary return to the show on 6 January 2014 until 20 May of that year and permanently from 24 November 2014 to 23 October 2017. She made two voiceover appearances on 8 and 25 December 2017. Jane’s storylines have included her relationship and later marriages to Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), an affair with Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), accidentally shot by Ian's stepson Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell) which results her desire to have a child of her own following a hysterectomy, a relationship with Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra), her popular friendship with Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner), covering up her adopted son Bobby's (Eliot Carrington) role in the murder of her stepdaughter Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater), being paralysed after being brutally attacked with a hockey stick by Bobby, caught up in the fire at Beale's restaurant, which was started by Steven before she was then left in the blaze by Max Branning (Jake Wood) and being forced by Max to leave Walford which led to a second departure. Storylines 2004–2012 Jane comes to Walford with a funfair, working the candyfloss stall. She argues with Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) but helps out when the funfair collapses. She moves to the Square and becomes friends with Ian. She reveals that her husband, David Collins (Dan Milne), is in a hospice with Huntington's disease. After he dies, Jane and Ian start dating and she moves in with him and his children, Lucy (Melissa Suffield), Peter (Thomas Law), and Bobby (Alex Francis). When Jane and Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) intervene in a feud between Ian and Grant's brother Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), they end up kissing. Jane tells Grant she is not in love with him. After an argument with Ian, she has sex with Grant but stays with Ian, and Grant leaves Walford. Phil tells Ian about the affair so Ian proposes to Jane, quietly planning to humiliate her at the wedding. Jane learns this on their wedding day and disappears. Ian finds her and they fight but realise they love each other and want to be together. They marry in secret.