‘EastEnders’ actor Aaron Sidwell has opened up about his exit, after his character Steven Beale was killed off on Friday (8 September).
After a week of drama, it was revealed Steven was the mystery Walford resident whose death bosses had been teasing in recent weeks.
His final scenes saw him suffer a haemorrhage, having been taken to hospital following the restaurant fire, which he actually started earlier in the week in an attempt to kill her step-mum Jane and stop her revealing his and Max Branning’s secrets.
In a final twist, he declared his love for Abi Branning upon discovering she was carrying his baby, after she fell pregnant during their affair behind her sister Lauren’s back.
Aaron described the tragedy of Steven’s demise “particularly fitting”, as he praised the way his final scenes harked back to the character’s previous history with Jane, when he kidnapped and shot her.
“It was a very Shakespearean tragedy in that Steven finds out the girl he’s fallen in love with and who loves him too, is carrying his child and all his crimes are forgiven,” he explained.
“It’s everything that he’s ever wanted in life but he doesn’t get to have it. It was very apt for that to be Steven’s end.
“His whole life has been so tragic yet we’ve just seen him make the decision to not be that person - to try to save Jane and yet that’s the decision that cost him his life.
“It was very fitting for me for all my big stuff to be with Laurie [Brett, plays Jane] because of the history between Steven and Jane, so it was great.”
Of how he’d like his character to be remembered, Aaron - who is now heading into a touring production of ‘Wicked’ - continued: “I think that Steven is an iconic character and the fact we had Nasty Nick, Dirty Den and now, as the audience have named him, Psycho Steven - that in itself, the fact he has a ‘name’ tells you what an iconic character he was.
“He was also the eldest Beale, he was the first Beale child in that brood and he will always have an iconic status. I think he was such a brilliant, brilliant, character.”
‘EastEnders’ airs the aftermath of Steven’s death on Monday at 8pm on BBC One.
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