| Ian Beale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Adam Woodyatt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Tony Holland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Julia Smith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1985— | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 19 February 1985 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spin-off appearances | Dimensions in Time (1993) EastEnders: E20 (2010) |
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| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1 March 1969 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Chef (1985) Businessman (since 1990) Caterer (since 1990) Landlord (since 2004) |
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Ian Albert Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985. The character appeared in his 2,000th episode in the show on 26 March 2007.[1]
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As a teenager, Ian experiences conflict with his father Pete (Peter Dean) over his desire to become a caterer. He begins several business ventures, becoming the owner of a local café soon after graduating from catering college. Ian becomes engaged to Cindy Williams (Michelle Collins) in 1989, however a one-night-stand with her former lover Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) leaves her pregnant. Cindy marries Ian and pretends that her son, Steven, is his, resulting in Ian attempting suicide upon learning the truth. He recovers and causes Simon to have a vehicular accident in revenge, prompting Simon, Cindy and Steven to leave Walford together. Ian immerses himself in his catering business, though his exploitative working practices alienate his friends, employees and family. He and Cindy later reconcile, and Ian is overjoyed to become a father to twins, Peter and Lucy. After opening a fish and chip shop, Ian becomes so obsessed with building his business empire that he neglects Cindy, who decides to leave him for his half brother David (Michael French). Ian wins custody of their children, and makes Cindy so miserable that she hires a hit man to kill him. Ian is shot, but is only clipped by the bullet and recovers. Cindy flees the country with Steven and Peter, and spends a year in Italy before Ian traces them and retrieves the boys. Cindy returns to Walford and wins back custody of the children, but is implicated in Ian's shooting. She is jailed on remand and dies several months later in prison.
Ian's next serious romance is with Mel Healy (Tamzin Outhwaite), manager of his bric-a-brac shop. Mel proposes to Ian, but later cheats on him with Steve Owen (Martin Kemp). Suspecting that she is planning to leave him, Ian manipulates Mel by falsely claiming that Lucy is dying from lymphoma. They marry on New Year's Eve 1999, but Mel leaves Ian during their wedding reception after discovering that Lucy is fine. Ian then pursues a new business venture: development of high-market flats. He begins a casual relationship with his nanny, Laura Dunn (Hannah Waterman), but only commits to her after being declared bankrupt. Laura buys back the fish and chip shop and, despite fearing that Ian is only interested an inheritance she has received, they marry in May 2001. Their marriage deteriorates when Ian attempts to kiss Mel. He refuses to have a child with Laura, who frequently belittles him. Steven learns that Ian has been visiting local prostitute Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), and tells Laura, before moving to New Zealand to live with Simon. Laura forgives Ian on the condition that they have a baby. Although he agrees, Ian has a secret vasectomy and throws Laura out when she becomes pregnant later that year, conning her into signing over control of their businesses. Laura's son Bobby requires a blood transfusion shortly after his birth, leading Laura to realise that Ian must be his father, as her lover Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves) is not a match. Laura dies in 2004, breaking her neck after falling down the stairs. Ian takes custody of Bobby, and later also takes in his half brother Ben, following the death of their mother. Ian fights Ben's father Phil (Steve McFadden) for custody, worsening their long-standing enmity which stems from Phil's disastrous marriage to Ian's mother Kathy (Gillian Taylforth).
Ian meets a new romantic interest, Jane Collins (Laurie Brett), in 2004. He helps her to come to terms with the death of her husband David (Dan Milne) from Huntington's disease, and although their relationship is severely tested when Jane has a brief affair with Phil's brother Grant (Ross Kemp), they marry in July 2007. Steven returns to Walford and stalks Ian, escalating to holding him hostage for several weeks. He accidentally shoots Jane during an altercation, which results in her needing a hysterectomy. Ian is able to forgive Steven, but banishes him from his life when he later helps Lucy to run away. Ian and Jane temporarily separate over Ian's reluctance to adopt a child. When Lucy becomes pregnant, Jane offers to raise the baby as her own. Ian agrees, but secretly assists Lucy in having an abortion, lying to Jane that she miscarried. Jane later learns the truth, and decides to steal Ian's money and leave him. Ian arranges for her to adopt Bobby, and is devastated to discover Jane's plans. Although she decides to remain with him, Ian begins an affair with Glenda Mitchell (Glynis Barber). He decides to end it for his family's sake but accidentally reveals the affair to Peter. Peter does not tell Jane, but leaves Walford to stay with Lucy (who has already decided to live with her aunt in Devon), disgusted at his father's behaviour.
Phil blackmails Ian over his affair with Glenda but when Ian brings Phil the money, he walks in on Phil having a heart attack while with Glenda who calls an ambulance, but Ian takes revenge by sending the paramedics away, hoping that Phil will die. However, when he hears Ben asking where Phil is, he changes his mind and calls an ambulance for Phil. When Glenda reveals her affair with Phil, Ian worries that she will also reveals her affair with Ian to Jane. Ian asks Jane to renew their wedding vows, which she accepts. Glenda attempts to blackmail Ian but he gives her less than she wants. He then tells Jane about the affair and she is heartbroken. He proposes that they renew their wedding vows, but Jane says she is leaving him as she is no longer in love with him. Ian sees her kissing a man named Martin (Alasdair Harvey) so he hires an escort, Jeanette (Georgia Reece), saying she is his new girlfriend who he knew from his school days. However, Jane finds out the truth. She tells Ian she regrets ever meeting him, and Ian calls her a prostitute disguised as a wife, so she vows to take everything from him in their divorce. However, she decides against taking the house as it is Bobby's home, and instead gets the café. Afterwards, Ian reveals Jane's affair with Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra) affair to his wife Zainab Masood (Nina Wadia). Jane leaves for Bobby's sake, as he is witnessing arguments, and Ian refuses to give up the café, but eventually realises that he has to.
Denise Fox (Diane Parish) starts helping Ian out with Bobby, and they become good friends, but people start to think there is something going on between them. Ian tells Denise that he sees her as nothing more than a friend and that he is not attracted to her. However, when Denise helps organise a birthday party for Bobby, Ian misreads her signals and tries to kiss her, but she leans away. He later tries to get Bobby into a play group, and asks Cheryl Matthews (Heather Craney) to find him a place. She assumes that Jane has died, so Ian goes along with it and she takes pity and finds Bobby a place. They later meet again and Ian buys an urn and fills it with cigarette ash, introducing it to Cheryl as "Jane". He also meets women called Fiona Walker (Sarah Head) and Rebecca (Louise Breckon-Richards), allowing them to believe that Jane is dead. He tells Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) that Jane's death is the best thing that happened to him, which is overheard by Shenice Quinn (Lily Harvey), who tells Bobby that Jane is dead. Bobby is upset so Ian tells him she is still alive and calls her to prove it. When Ian realises he has feelings for Rebecca, he tells her the truth, but she rejects him, whilst the lie also ruins Ian's relationship with Bobby, who ignores him. Feeling dejected, Ian agrees to join Tyler Moon (Tony Discipline) and his brother Anthony (Matt Lapinskas) in visiting a strip club, but Anthony is refused entry and they are forced to return home. Later, Ian returns to the strip club alone but, as he enters, he notices a man threatening a blonde woman nearby. He is stunned when she calls out to him and he realises it is former Walford resident Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton). Mandy comes to live with Ian, but when he hears that Peter and Lucy have been involved in a car crash, he takes Bobby to see them and tells Mandy to stay at a B&B, but she steals his house keys. Ian is angry when he returns to discover that Mandy has been staying there, but soon relents and they begin a relationship, though Alfie and his wife Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) suspect she is only with Ian for his money. After Ian's divorce from Jane is finalised, he proposes to Mandy; she initially rejects him but then accepts after he purchases her a wedding ring. Jane returns to Walford after Bobby sneaks out to visit her. She is shocked to discover Ian is engaged to Mandy. On the day of the wedding, Mandy fails to go at the registry office. When Ian gets home he confronts her, and pleads with her to marry him. Mandy initially refuses, and a dejected Ian goes to the pub. However, Mandy arrives later wearing her wedding dress and ring, telling Ian she will marry him after all. They go on holiday and on their return, Ian discovers that Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) had had sex with Mandy the night before their proposed wedding day. Ian tells Mandy to leave. The following day, Mandy tells Ian that her one-night-stand with Ricky in January 1994 led to her becoming pregnant and giving birth to a premature daughter, Kira, when she was 17. She tells Ian that Kira died and she had sex with Ricky to get closer to her dead daughter. After a small argument, Ian forgives her.
Ian Beale is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Ian is a member of the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers, and Holland took the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Ian's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story.
Because the actress playing Ian's mother (Gillian Taylforth) was fair-haired, they also wanted him to be fair, and because of Taylforth's age he also had to look very young. Ian was meant to be fourteen when the programme first aired, but because of licensing regulations, the actor cast was required to be a 16 year old who could 'play down'. Adam Woodyatt, born in east London, had worked as an actor in his youth, but had given it up and relocated with his family to Wales. He was recruited from his old agency and it was decided that he was perfect for the part and he was subsequently cast as Ian Beale.[2] In 1990 Ian's age was increased and he celebrated his twenty-first birthday two years after his eighteenth. The producers felt Ian needed to be a bit older and more mature for storylines planned for him later that year.
Ian Beale has gone on to be the longest running character in the soap's history, and is the only remaining original character. Woodyatt confirmed his desire to remain with the show in 2010, during the show's 25th anniversary: "Why would I want to leave when I'm not going to get the chance to portray even half the range of emotions I get to here in a one-off drama or a six-part series? And you're not going to get the same viewing figures either. You have your moments when things go wrong and you perhaps don't want to work with a certain person. In any office there are going to be people who don't get along but you get on with it and on the whole I enjoy it. Over the last couple of years we've had a really tight crew and it's the best atmosphere I can remember. There have been peaks and troughs, like with any show, but right now things are good."[3]
Ian has been described as a character viewers love to hate.[3] His initial storylines portrayed him as a sensitive young boy with professional aspirations that went against his father's wishes. Not content to follow in his father's footsteps and take over the family fruit and veg stall, Ian wanted to become a chef and this caused a certain amount of hostility between him and his father, who viewed the occupation as effeminate. Ian's keenness to succeed in his business ventures continued as the character grew, so much so that he started using underhand methods in order to get what he wanted and became one of the soap's most renowned "slimeballs".[4] The character is regularly referred to as a "weasel" in the British press.[5]
"The significance of the Ian Beale character is in its perfect rendering of the influence the political climate had on the development of young people in the 1980s. Developing entrepreneurial skills, making money, ignoring the consequences for others - after all they had been told that there was no such thing as society - was a praiseworthy effort for young people during the mercenary go-getting prime-minister inspired 1980s."[6]
Author Dorothy Hobson has described Ian as a typical Thatcher's child, a term used to reference children who grew up in the premiership of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and who adopted the ideology of Thatcherism, such as personal financial gain, self-sufficiency and disregard of the welfare of those who are less well-off. As a result Hobson suggests that Ian is "young, ambitious, rich and unhappy", which she claims is a perfect reflection of the spirit of the age.[6]
In her book, Who's Who?, Kate Lock described Ian as "wimpy, perhaps not what you'd call a man's man [...] trying to turn Walford into the capital of Capitalism [...] Somewhere along the line, Ian evolved into an obsessive, obnoxious money-monster [...] Ian always pretended to be magnanimous, doing things for the community [...] but it's inspired by self-interest."[7]
Hobson suggests that Ian's saving grace is that he is a "passionately caring father"[6] and Woodyatt has suggested that Ian is a chameleon, a description he claims former Executive Producer Louise Berridge used to describe the character.[3] Woodyatt commented in 2010, "Whatever [Louise Berridge] wanted Ian to do, she'd find a way of justifying it. It's true. He can be nice to his family but he can be devious with them as well. He can stitch people up but can be very generous. You can get away with doing anything with Ian. It's probably why I'm still here."[3]
Obsession with success has been an underlying theme with the character for almost the entire duration of the show, but the acceleration of Ian's nasty side can be traced back to his disastrous first marriage to one of EastEnders' most renowned bitches, Cindy Beale in 1989.[8] The storyline centred on Ian's discovery that the child he thought was his (Steven), was actually his best friend's. The climax of this revelation was known to script-writers as the "Devon cottage climax" and aired in September 1990.[8] The episode saw an enraged Ian trace Cindy and Simon Wicks to her parents' house in Devon, just after being released from hospital following a failed suicide bid. The script, written by Debbie Cook, led to a confrontation that EastEnders' writer Colin Brake has suggested contained elements of tragedy and farce.[8] Brake suggests that a particularly memorable scene included Ian furiously throwing bricks through the window of the house, followed by one of his crutches.[8] The episode ended ominously with Ian finding Cindy's father's shotgun and stealing it. Directed by Matthew Evans, Brake suggests that these episodes not only brought the story to a shocking climax but also laid roots for the next three months' worth of storylines, building up to Cindy and Simon's departure, and Ian's spectacular fall from grace.[8]
Author Dorothy Hobson has described Ian and Cindy's relationship as "one of the most tempestuous in any soap opera".[6] The characters were reunited on-screen in 1992 but the relationship ended in adultery once again when Cindy began an affair with Simon's brother David Wicks, which culminated in Cindy hiring an assassin to shoot Ian in 1996 after he discovered the affair. Michelle Collins who played Cindy commented in 1996, "[Cindy] was not thinking properly when she contacted the hitman, and she is being quite. Despite what she has done she never expected Ian to be so cruel to her. Now she cannot really see any other way out of the mess she is in. She has lost touch with reality - but in the end she can't see any other way of escaping Ian."[9] More than 18 million viewers tuned in to see Ian gunned-down, which was more than sixty-four per cent of available viewers.[10] The plot facilitated Collins' desire to leave the programme following the birth of her child, and Cindy, implicated in the shooting, fled the country with Ian's two sons.[11]
Ian has always held a strong hate and rivalry with Phil Mitchell which all began when Phil married Ian's mum Kathy Beale. Ian and Cindy Beale are invited in a dinner party in a resturant by both Phil and Kathy. While there, Ian gets drunk and upsets Kathy when he mocks Phil's gifts and his efforts to be with Kathy. Ian then goes to the toilet and is followed in there by Phil. Phil warns Ian that if he upsets Kathy again, he would put Ian in hospital. Ian (knowing that if Phil hurt Ian, his and Kathy's relationship would be over) dares Phil to hit him. Phil then grabs Ian by the throat and puts his head in the toilet and flushes it leaving Ian soaked. Ian and Phil then return to the table and act as if nothing happened.
Phil and Kathy soon marry, much to Ian's disgust. Soon afterwards, Kathy becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy: Ben Mitchell. But Phil and Kathy's marriage soon ends but Ian and Phil hate for each other continues.
A few years pass and Ian becomes bankrupt and needs money to clear his debts. He begs Phil to give him money but Phil refuses to give it to him and says that he knew that one day Ian would be grovelling at Phil's feet and begging and pleading him. Ian still continues to beg but Phil says no and walks off, leaving Ian in tears.
Phil soons meets someone new: Lisa Fowler who worked as a new assistant market inspector for Michael Rose but soon loses her job when Ian reports her for being absent. Phil then breaks into Ian's house and assaults Ian in front of Ian's then-wife Laura Beale. Phil then warns Ian that one day he will bring Ian down and destroy every he has. Phil promises Ian this and once again leaves Ian in tears.
One day, Phil and Ian argue over money but then Ben breaks up the arguement and suggests that Phil and Ian take him and Peter Beale camping. In an a attempt to not let their kids down and upsey them, Ian and Phil both unwillingly accept. Ian, Phil and Billy Mitchell drive the kids up to the campsite and set up camp. Then where Ian, Peter, Billy and Ben go look for fire wood and leave Phil with the camp. Phil then begins to cook sausages and accidently burns them. The fire then spreads to the tents which then burns them as well as all the equipment. Billy, Ian and the kids soon return and see the campsite in ashes. They then all have no choice but to go home. While in the car, Ian and Phil begin to argue and whilst driving, Phil nearly hits a pile of fallen trees and skids the car along the road which results in a car crash. Phil gets Ian out along with Billy and begin to argue again. The car's handbrake then gets into gear and begins to start to go down the road with Peter and Ben still inside. The car then drives into a lake. Phil attempts to save the kids as the car begins to sink. He gets Ben out and goes back for Peter (who nearly drowns in the process). Peter lives and Ian thanks and hugs Phil. But there ever going hate for each other gets in the way and their rivalry contiunes.
Ian was one of the suspects in the Who Shot Phil incident but was proven inoccent when Phil discovered that is was infact Lisa Fowler.
Ian and Phil rivalry and hate for each other has been an on-going theme through out Eastenders and has become favourable for fans to watch as well as critics. Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) has said that fans and critics have always liked to see Ian Beale get hurt even by Phil. Numerous fights, pranks and memorable moments between Ian and Phil have always been popular by fans and critics everywhere. These moments include: Phil pouring Ian with ketchup, Ian placing a potato in Phil's motor engine resulting in a backfire on Ian when the potato flys and breaks the window of Ian's fish and chip shop, Ian tormenting Phil whilst he is having a heart attack, and the on-going assault of Phil drowning Ian in either a toilet or sink.
Ian was voted one of the top five television characters "we most love to hate" in a Channel 4 poll in 2001.[12] In 2009, Ian Beale came ninth in a poll by British men's magazine Loaded for 'Top Soap Bloke'.[13] Woodyatt has received a number of award nominations for his portrayal of Ian, including a best actor nomination at the British Soap Awards In 2010.[14]
Author Dorothy Hobson has stated that Ian Beale is a "major creation" capturing the personification of political attitudes taken up during Margaret Thatcher's premiership as Prime Minister in the 1980s. She suggests that Ian Beale is a "major representation of a young man" of that era, and that his sensitive portrayal by Adam Woodyatt is "perhaps unrecognised".[6] Roz Paterson of the Daily Record branded Ian "eminently unlovable" and stated that Melanie proposing to him represented a growing trend in women proposing.[15] Holy Soap said that Ian's most memorable moment was "His attempted murder in the Square".[16]
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