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Fictional character from the BBC soap opera Eastenders

Pete Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Peter Dean. He makes his first appearance in the programme's first episode, on 19 February 1985. The character was introduced by Tony Holland, one of the creators of EastEnders; he was based on a member of Holland's family. Pete is featured in the soap for eight years as the local fruit and veg trader of Albert Square; he is a member of the original focal clan in the serial, the Beales and Fowlers. Pete is portrayed as a macho and somewhat insensitive individual who struggles to cope with emotion. Pete was axed from the soap in 1993 and departed in May that year after over eight years on screen. The character was killed off screen later that year, following Peter Dean's public criticism of the BBC.

Pete and his twin sister, Pauline (Wendy Richard), were born to Albert (Gary Olsen) and Lou Beale (Anna Wing). They were born and raised in number 45 Albert Square. Albert owned a fruit and veg stall on Walford market. Pete used to help out on the stall as a boy, and when Albert died, Pete inherited the stall. Pete schooled with his neighbour and friend, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham); they remained close in adulthood. In his mid teens, Pete had a one night stand with prostitute Pat Harris (Pam St Clement) who informed Pete she was pregnant. Pete did the chivalrous thing and married Pat in 1961 when he was 16; however it transpired that the pregnancy was a false alarm and Lou always felt that it was a ploy to trap her son. During the marriage, Pat gave birth to two sons, David (Michael French) and Simon (Nick Berry), the latter of whom Pete believed to be his. Yet Pat could not settle down. She had various affairs, including a tryst with her former lover Frank Butcher (Mike Reid), a one night stand with Den, and an affair with Pete's older brother Kenny (Michael Attwell). Lou found Pat and Kenny in bed together and banished Kenny abroad, but Pete was unaware of the affair. Pat was also having an affair with another man named Brian Wicks (Leslie Schofield). When Pete found out he left Pat she was six months pregnant with Simon at the time and then went into a relationship with local girl, Kathy Hills (Gillian Taylforth). There was a messy divorce and soon after, Pat married Brian in 1966 and he took on responsibility of her two sons. Pete had little contact with his children following this. Pete's twin grandchildren are born the same day as his death; a girl called Lucy Beale and a boy, Peter Beale, who Ian names in honour of his father. His body is returned to Walford and buried.

Pete Beale was one of the original twenty three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Holland took the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Pete was based on one of his cousins, the twin brother to Pauline and son of Holland's aunt Lou; a family set up that would eventually be recreated on screen and would go on to be forever hailed as the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers. Pete's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story: "Pete runs a fruit and veg stall in the market married very young to Pat (Pam St Clement) It turned out to be a total disaster. They were too young, rushing into a difficult life for all the wrong reasons, and truthfully, his wife was a vicious shrew he divorced his wife and married Kathy (Gillian Taylforth) when he was 24 Ian (Adam Woodyatt) was born a year later. It took Kathy and Pete about ten years to woo [Pete's mother] Lou (Anna Wing) round to the idea of their marriage, and she can still sometimes be a bit cutting about it She doesn't believe in divorce He did have crazy dreams of making something of himself, he was going to be singer, a red coat, run his own hotel On special occasions it's always Pete who's the life and soul of the party His two sons by his first marriage are nineteen and twenty and he hardly sees them If it wasn't for Thatcher, he'd consider voting Tory Never works on the anniversary of his dad's death, and with [his sister] Pauline (Wendy Richard), escorts his mum to the cemetery. He has a good relationship with Kathy, emotionally and sexually (Maybe he's a little concerned that she's keeping her good looks a bit longer than he is? ).

Author Hilary Kingsley has described Pete as "rough and ready [ ] Rough with his tongue and his fists, and ready to jump into an argument whether he knows anything about it or not. Act first, think later, if at all, is Pete's attitude." She implied that he was unintelligent suggesting that he would not get into Mensa and that he seems "thick as a brick". It has been suggested by writer Dorothy Hobson that the character of Pete was a portrayal of a typical East End male, "macho and mouthy". Author Christine Geraghty has suggested that Pete was seemingly intolerant of difference, but that his position was always undermined "by his blustering espousal of an excessively masculine position. Pete's [homophobic jokes for instance], like much else he does, are not followed through." Discussing the character's other qualities, author Kate Lock has suggested that Pete was "a simple, amiable sort of chap [who] left others to get on with the complicated things in life." Lock added that complications were beyond Pete's grasp and that he had trouble articulating emotions. Meanwhile, author Rupert Smith has classified Pete as a "soft touch" character. He added that Pete started off as "a cheery chappy" but became "hard to like", using his failure to support his wife Kathy through her rape ordeal in 1988 as a reason why he lost public sympathy. He suggested that with Pete, the programme questioned the traditional definition of masculinity: "Pete clearly regards himself as a 'real man' and as 'the boss' of his family [ ] He also feels he is an expert on women [but] on the other hand, however, Pete's masculine self image has been repeatedly undermined. The arrival of his ex wife Pat Wicks [in 1986], for example, provided a view of Pete which had not hitherto been heard in the serial: she told Pauline that Pete was 'boring, selfish and terrible in bed', and went on to torment him by revealing that he was not in fact the father of his son Simon 'you're not man enough to make Simon'." A Prop regularly used by Pete was a metallic pewter tankard; Pete had his own tankard kept at the soap's public house, which Pete allegedly drank beer from. However, Peter Dean, a Buddhist, would only drink lemonade in pub scenes and therefore the tankard had to be used to disguise the fact that he was not really supping beer. In the on screen events, Simon was shown to bond with Kenny, despite Pat admitting that she did not know which of the Beale brothers had fathered Wicksy. A final plot twist mid 1988 saw Pat finally reveal what she thought was the truth, that Simon's real father was Brian Wicks (Leslie Schofield), Pat's second husband and Wicksy's adoptive father. Dean commented, "When they wrote me out of EastEnders, they said they had run out of storylines. I was a naughty boy and said if the wheel falls off the cart, get rid of the cart. But they got rid of me, not the scriptwriters [ ] What gets me is the way it was done. It's all politics and backstabbing."

Despite lasting in the serial for eight years, during his tenure in EastEnders, producers appeared to differ in their opinions of Pete's importance in the programme; some referenced the character's value, while others deemed him disposable and there were several attempts to cull the character. It was revealed in 1987 that Pete was originally only intended to be a short term character. Show creator and series producer Julia Smith had considered killing him off in 1986, but she vetoed this idea, ultimately deciding that Pete was too much of an asset to lose. According to Yallop, the decision to axe the characters was dependent of the talent of the actors portraying them. Yallop stated that Pete Beale was among the characters to be killed. The storyline never came to fruition because Gibbon's controversial plots were not sanctioned by the BBC and Yallop's storylines were not used; Yallop sued the BBC for termination of contract, at which time the finer details of the proposed plots were disclosed to the media. His exposé to The Sun newspaper included his suspicions of set secrets, such as earlier plans to write Pete out and his opinions about former co stars. Following Dean's exposé, Pete was killed off screen seven months after his initial exit. Peter Dean speculated that Pete's off screen killing was a result of the exposé. Although this accusation has never been confirmed by the BBC, show creator Julia Smith had publicly decreed that derogatory stories sold by cast members to the press about the show's production would not be tolerated, and any cast member doing so would not return to the show. The tankard that Pete was often seen drinking from in pub scenes was allegedly so popular that Peter Dean reported it was stolen twice by fans and he had to replace it on both occasions.