Lou Beale
| Lou Beale | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lou as played by Anna Wing
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by |
Anna Wing Karen Meagher (flashback) |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1985–1988 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 1 19 February 1985 |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 362 26 July 1988 |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Tony Holland | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Julia Smith | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances |
Home Fires Burning, Swings and Roundabouts, Good Intentions, The Flower of Albert Square |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Spin-off appearances |
CivvyStreet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Housewife | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Lou as she appeared in CivvyStreet, played by Karen Meagher
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Family | Beale |
|---|---|
| Mother | Mrs Medeemey |
| Brothers | Terence Medeemey |
| Sisters |
Flo Medeemey Doris Miller Liz Medeemey Elsie Medeemey Queenie Medeemey |
| Husband | Albert Beale (backstory) |
| Sons |
Harry Beale Ronnie Beale Kenny Beale Pete Beale |
| Daughters |
Maggie Flaherty Pauline Fowler |
| Grandsons |
Ian Beale Mark Fowler Martin Fowler |
| Granddaughters |
Michelle Fowler Elizabeth Beale |
| Other relatives | Vicki Fowler |
Louise Ada "Lou" Beale (also Medeemey in some spin-off media) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anna Wing. She made her first on-screen appearance on 19 February 1985 and departed on 26 July 1988, when 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 appeared 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.
Born in the East End at the outbreak of World War I, Lou lived in Walford all her life. She was born into a large working-class East End family, the youngest of seven siblings, and grew up with a strong sense of community spirit. In the 1930s, she fell in love with a local boy, Albert Beale (Gary Olson), and gave birth to his daughter, Maggie (Olivia Stanley), but had her adopted because she was born out of wedlock. By 1936, Lou and Albert had married and in 1938 moved to 45 Albert Square. They had six more children: Harry (Aaron Mason), Ronnie (Chase Marks), Dora, Kenny (Michael Attwell), and twins Pete (Peter Dean) and Pauline (Wendy Richard). Albert died in 1965, and Lou remained in the same house with Pauline and her husband, Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher). Lou regularly intervened in her family's affairs, especially when she disapproved of Pete's relationship with Kathy Hills (Gillian Taylforth) because he had previously divorced his first wife, Pat (Pam St Clement), and she had banished her son Kenny to New Zealand in the 1960s for having an affair with Pat. Lou then watched her grandchildren Michelle (Susan Tully), Mark (David Scarboro/Todd Carty) and Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) grow up, with Pauline, Pete, Arthur and Kathy looking after her in her old age. In one episode she claims she was one of seven children, one boy and six girls, and on Christmas Day 1987, she states she is from a family of eight, five boys and three girls.
...
Wikipedia