Jane Beale the new bookies' favourite to be Lucy's killer in EastEnders

(Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Laurie Brett has admitted she is excited by the prospect that Jane Beale could be Lucy Beale's killer in EastEnders.

The actress has returned to Albert Square after last being seen in the BBC soap in May for step-daughter Lucy's funeral, and bookmakers have shortened the odds of Jane being unmasked as the murderer when the big reveal happens at the end of the year.

Laurie confessed: "I was quite excited. I have no idea why she would do it, but even though she is motiveless, if it is something that has gone wrong then anybody is possible to have done that. If it is Jane I can't wait to see how it came to be her. At the stage we are filming at, it could be any of us really. [Executive producer] Dominic always said when it is revealed everyone will go 'Ah', so yes it could be me."

But even if Jane is exposed as a killer, Laurie - who first appeared in EastEnders in 2004 - revealed she is not expecting to be sent off to prison.

She said: "Even if I am the murderer, nobody said that I can't stay. I don't think I will be going anywhere in the next year or two and I know there is quite a lot of stuff ahead."

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.