EastEnders fans will finally learn who killed Lucy Beale on Thursday night. Ten months after Lucy was killed, the truth about her death will be revealed in two special live episodes that will flashback to the night she died. Bookies have reportedly taken £10million in bets on who was responsible for Lucy's demise – beating the previous record for bets on a TV 'whodunnit' set by Dallas in the 1980s when their 'who shot JR' storyline raised £250,000. While the odds have been fluctuating wildly, Lucy's stepmum Jane Beale is currently the bookies' favourite as Lucy's killer, with Abi Branning, whose father Max was having a secret affair with Lucy, in second place.
Lucy was killed in April 2014
Other contenders include Lucy's twin Peter Beale and her friend Ben Mitchell, who had only recently been released from prison after serving time for killing Heather Trott at the time of Lucy's death. Lucy's dad Ian Beale is also a suspect, with many fans noting that victims are often close to their killers and suggesting that the fish and chip show owner's hysterical tears could have been a mask for his guilt. EastEnders' week of live shows, which mark the soap's 30th anniversary, have been building up to Thursday night's big reveal and the episodes will air exactly 30 years after the drama first hit screens on 19 February 1985. "Viewing figures of 9.5m for last night’s #EELive!" posted EastEnders Twitter account. "Thank you all so much. You have NO IDEA what we have in store tonight… #EastEnders."
Bookies have taken a reported £10m in bets on the identity Lucy's murderer
While the live shows have drawn in millions of viewers, they haven't been without their problems. On Wednesday night Jo Joyner was left feeling "gutted" after she accidently got her lines wrong during the broadcast. In character as Tanya Branning, Jo asked Jane Beale: "How's Adam?", using actor Adam Woodyatt's real name instead of his character's name Ian Beale. Jake Wood, who plays Max Branning, helped Jo make light of her mistake by posting a picture of a fake script re-write.
"You seen the rewrite for tomorrow @dollyjoyner @AdamWoodyatt?" Jake captioned the picture which showed Ian's lines explaining that he had changed his name to Adam Woodyatt due to the pressure of the live episodes and had only told Tanya so far. EastEnders will air from 7:30 - 8:25 and again at 9:25 - 10:00 on Thursday.