EastEnders spoilers: Lucy Beale to be killed off this spring

The demise of Lucy has been planned out by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who revealed late last year that the Beale family would be getting a big storyline in 2014.

Speaking at a press launch in December 2013, Treadwell-Collins (whose first job in TV was devising methods of homicide on Midsomer Murders) said: “A big story will hit the Beales around Easter and keep going until the 30^th anniversary. It will shock, entertain and make the nation weep. And it will also give Adam Woodyatt – who is a brilliant actor and a lovely man – a chance to shine”.

Now, show bosses are promising that the mysterious death of Lucy won’t be “a typical whodunnit”. No one will know exactly what happened to Lucy on the night she dies, except very few people – even the person responsible for her death.

In the wake of her demise, dad Ian (Adam Woodyatt) will begin to question how well he really knew his daughter as secrets start to spill out. But one Walford resident has a very dark secret about what happened as viewers are left pondering the big question: just who killed Lucy?

Lucy – the daughter of Ian, the twin of Peter, and half-sister to Bobby and Cindy – has featured in the BBC1 soap since her birth on 9 December 1993. During that time she has been played by four actresses: Eva Brittin Snell (1993-96), Casey Anne Rothery (1996-2004), Melissa Suffield (2004-10) and – most recently – Hetti Bywater (2012-14).

During its 29-year history, EastEnders has included a number of high-profile whodunnit storylines, among the most memorable being the murder of Archie Mitchell in 2009 and the shooting of Phil Mitchell in 2001.