Jane Beale

Creation and development

Brett joined the cast of EastEnders in 2004 and was asked to dye her hair red and keep it short for the part. She also put on an English accent to disguise her natural Scottish accent. Brett described Jane as "warm, kind, caring and nurturing but she's not somebody that will be pushed around. She is quite feisty. She's a matriarch. Not as a dominant woman but she's definitely a matriarch, she's the centre of a family in the making for EastEnders."

In 2006, Jane has an affair with Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp). The scenes began after writers saw chemistry between Kemp and Brett. Brett considered the storyline to be a turning point for the character as "All I did for the last year was say: 'What can I get you?' in the café." Jane was given a sexier look after a new producer came in and asked Brett to grow her hair and bleach out the red dye.

Jane marries Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), after co-habiting for around two years. Brett described Jane as "the straight man to Ian's buffoon. She's the other half who makes him whole." Speaking on the character's relationship with her husband, she likened herself to his mother, Kathy (Gillian Taylforth), stating: "if Jane doesn't work out for Ian, no one will! Perhaps because Ian is finally married to his mother. Jane is very Kathy-esque. They'd have got on really well, though I can't imagine Kathy would've been too impressed with Jane's affair with Grant – despite the fact she got through a few Mitchells herself!" She stated that she hoped Jane and Ian's marriage would be a lasting one, commenting that so far: "it's panned out brilliantly. There are millions of marriages like this one, involving a strong woman behind an incredibly weak man. But it's Ian's flaws that make everyone love him so much. The only time a character becomes boring is when they're two dimensional, and that's something you could never say about Ian. I can't imagine being anyone else's missus!"

On the Beale family as a whole, Brett commented: "we're probably the most normal family in Albert Square. The Beales are like the Trotters from Only Fools and Horses in many ways. They're salt-of-the-earth people who are trying to better themselves, so there's plenty of scope for drama and comedy. The writers certainly haven't run out of ideas for us yet – I haven't stopped working on big stories since I joined the show!"

Reintroduction (2014)

Jane returned to EastEnders in the 6 and 7 January 2014 episodes. Brett's return to filming was not announced by the show's producers so that viewers would be surprised. Brett found it easy to keep her return a secret, but said that the EastEnders press office and executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins probably found it more difficult. Brett said that she was "absolutely thrilled" with the reaction that she received, after the episode was broadcast, opining that it proved that Jane is a popular character. Brett's character returned to screens from late February to early May, and returned on 24 November 2014.

Second departure (2017)

On 23 October 2017, Jane made a previously unannounced departure from the show after being forced to leave Walford by Max Branning (Jake Wood). Of her departure, Brett commented: "I've loved every minute of playing Jane Beale. To return to EastEnders with such a huge storyline was an absolute gift. However, what I have known from the start is that with the soap gods watching us at all times, there is only so long before things go full circle. It's been hard keeping the secret but the storyline has been great to play out and I have loved every minute of it."

Second reintroduction (2024)

Jane made an unannounced return in July 2024. It was revealed on-screen that Ian had been meeting with Jane in secret, with her return scenes showing her first meeting with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins).

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, twins Lucy (Melissa Suffield) and 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.

Ian's stepson Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell), who has been living overseas, returns to Walford and takes Ian hostage, locking him in a flat. The family eventually learn where Ian is and try to rescue him, but Jane is shot in the process. She and Ian agree to have a baby when she recovers but Jane needs an emergency hysterectomy, leaving them devastated. Jane starts going to a stand-up comedy club, telling Ian that she is going to the gym. However, he knows she is lying so Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel) takes him to the club where she is onstage. Amused initially, he is hurt by her jokes about him and their sex life. He gives her an ultimatum: give up her hobby or end their marriage. After she is accepted by a talent scout, she's shocked when Ian insists on being her agent. His interfering takes the fun out of her comedy career so she ends it.

After Ian invests in Masala Masood, the curry business run by Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra) and his wife Zainab Masood (Nina Wadia), the Masoods and Beales go into business together, and Jane has a flirtatious relationship with Masood. When Ian refuses to consider the possibility of adopting a child, Jane turns to Masood for comfort and they kiss. Ian changes his mind but she knows it's only for her sake and leaves Walford, refusing to come home when Ian finds her and only returning when Bobby goes missing. Jane discovers her brother, Christian Clarke (John Partridge), is having an affair with Masood's son, Syed Masood (Marc Elliott), while acting as Syed's wedding planner. Zainab discovers this, and blames Jane for Christian coming to Walford. When Zainab hears Tamwar playing an audio recording of Ian having sex with Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), she plays it to Jane. Ian explains that Janine was blackmailing him and admits he stole Archie Mitchell's (Larry Lamb) laptop on the day he was murdered to retrieve the recording. Ian is arrested when Janine implicates Ian in Archie's death, but the charges are dropped. This damages Jane's chances of adopting.

2014–2017

Worried about Ian's behaviour, Peter (now Ben Hardy) calls Jane. She arrives at their house just as Ian is about to propose to his current fiancée, Jane's friend Denise Fox (Diane Parish). Ian is shocked and Jane and Denise feel awkward with each other. Ian and Jane have a heart-to-heart and Ian breaks down, saying that the pressure of his life is overwhelming. She encourages him to stay strong and advises Peter to talk to Denise about it. The next month, Jane returns to watch Bobby compete in a school spelling competition, lodges with Masood, and agrees to buy into Ian's restaurant. Misinterpreting her actions, Masood kisses Jane, but she rebuffs him. Bonding with Jane over past experiences, Ian kisses her, but she flees the house in humiliation, then is further appalled when Max Branning (Jake Wood) tries to seduce her. Jane makes clear to Ian that they are only friends but agrees to keep the truth from Denise. Masood's daughter Shabnam Masood (Rakhee Thakrar) dislikes Jane and Masood's closeness and plots to push Jane closer to Ian, but Denise is trying to push Jane and Masood closer together, and they eventually become a couple.

Jane is devastated when Lucy (now played by Hetti Bywater) is murdered (see Who Killed Lucy Beale?). Jane and Ian grieve together and have sex. This makes Ian hope they will reunite, but Jane immediately regrets it. When she tells Ian it was a mistake, he takes his anger out on Bobby (now played by Rory Stroud), and Jane breaks up with Masood and leaves with Bobby so Ian can grieve properly. Jane and Bobby stay with Christian, return for Lucy's funeral, and leave again when Jane realises that Ian needs more time alone.

Jane returns in November with the news that Bobby (now played by Eliot Carrington) is missing. Masood finds him asleep on Walford Common near where Lucy's body was found. When he is returned home it is apparent that he has been trying to solve the murder and wants to live in Walford. Jane agrees that Bobby needs his father and finds them a flat. Denise digs up Lucy's missing purse and phone in Patrick's allotment and Jane convinces Ian not to hand them in to the police. Denise is angry when she finds out Ian had sex with Jane the day after Lucy's death. Jane reunites Ian and Peter when they fall out after Ian discovers that Peter was sourcing Lucy's drugs for her, and later she decides to stay at the Beale house. She takes Lucy's phone and purse and hides them under a loose floorboard without telling Ian. Jane kisses Ian and regrets it, but later realises she loves him and they kiss again under the mistletoe. Jane does not want everyone to know about their relationship, but Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) has already found out and the news quickly spreads across the Square. When Jane finds out, she tells Ian that their relationship will not work, but after a discussion with Alfie, she changes her mind and proposes to Ian, who accepts. They plan their wedding for February. Jane is upset when her parents decline her invitation, disapproving of her remarrying Ian, but Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy) supports her and she makes her matron of honour. On the day of the wedding, Jane receives a card from Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa), revealing she knows that Lucy was killed at home. Visibly disturbed, she flees her wedding reception and is confronted by Peter, who also has discovered that Lucy died in the house. Ian realises Jane is lying and accuses her of killing Lucy; initially, she confesses, but Ian sees through her and realises Bobby is the real culprit. Jane covered for Bobby by taking Lucy's body and putting it in the common, then convinced Bobby that he didn't kill his sister; that is why they left Walford soon after the murder. Ian forgives Jane and, with the twins' maternal half-sister Cindy Williams (Mimi Keene), they agree that Bobby can never find out. Jane is devastated when Cindy stops her and Ian adopting Beth.

2024

A few years prior, Ian reunites with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), Steven, Lucy and Peter's mother, who had faked her death and had been hiding in witness protection for the past 25 years. Suspecting that Ian is having an affair, Cindy follows him to a house in the Cotswolds and finds him meeting with Jane in secret. Jane wishes to reconnect with Bobby, whom she has been estranged with since his release from prison in 2019. Peter (Thomas Law again) brings Bobby (now Clay Milner Russell) to see Jane, but he is resistant to their reconciliation, admitting he does not understand why she covered up Lucy's death to protect him and still feels guilty about attacking her. Cindy and Jane clash over Jane's actions in covering up Lucy's death, but they briefly make peace when Jane tells Cindy that Steven had shot her leading to her infertility, hence why she covered up Lucy's death because Bobby is the only child she will ever have. After Ian argues with Cindy, he kisses Jane, but she turns him down. Jane and Bobby bond again and she gives him an Ayatul Kursi bracelet as a birthday gift before he leaves. Jane later has a phone conversation with Masood where it is revealed that they are dating again. A few months later, Bobby experiences a traumatic episode arising from his girlfriend Anna Knight (Molly Rainford) falling pregnant and having an abortion. Bobby decides to live with Jane, who returns to Walford to pick up Bobby and take him to live with her in the Cotswolds.

Other appearances

Jane also made some cameo appearances in the Internet spin-off series EastEnders: E20. In Series 1 Episode 2, Jane is working in the café where Fatboy (Ricky Norwood) attempts to chat her up. In Series 2 Episode 3, Jane is seen briefly talking to a girl outside the café and in Episode 8 she confronts Asher Levi (Heshima Thompson) about some trainers he sold to Peter. He says he does not give refunds so she snatches his wallet and takes some money out but he snatches it back. Jane tells two police officers that Asher is a thief and they chase after him. In Episode 10, Asher says he will refund Jane and when his brother Sol Levi (Tosin Cole) needs him, she lets him go.

In November 2010, Jane appeared in the EastEnders and Coronation Street crossover mini-episode, East Street for Children in Need. In the episode, various characters from EastEnders visited Weatherfield, while characters from Coronation Street went to Walford.

Reception

In a review of the first decade of the 21st century in soaps, Ruth Deller of lowculture.co.uk wrote that Jane was "one of the best new characters in soap this decade; really believable, sensitive, [and] sensible, [...] she gives EastEnders a bit of heart, which is rare indeed." Deller also expressed her belief that Jane transformed the Beale family into one of the strongest families of the late 2000s, further stating: "A genuinely nice character whom you could imagine being your mate, once they got that nonsense with Grant out of the way, she's been a real asset to the soap." Kevin O'Sullivan of the Sunday Mirror said that Jane was an EastEnders veteran who had a "seismic departure" as she "checked out of soapland's asylum in characteristically crazy style". When Jane departed she said "from now on I can be whoever I want" – in response O'Sullivan quipped "but you'll always be the loser who married Ian Beale". Virgin Media called 2009 the "Good year" for Jane because she left her ex-husband Ian, "the most boring and selfish man in Walford."

Brett was nominated for "Best Actress" at The British Soap Awards 2015, but lost to co-star, Kellie Bright, who portrays Linda Carter. However, she won "Best On-screen Partnership" alongside Woodyatt. In May 2017, Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap wrote that she was "elated" for Jane and Ian when Jane started walking again, calling the scene "beautifully acted" by Brett and Woodyatt.