Aaron Sidwell reflects on EastEnders’ Steven Beale

Former EastEnder Aaron Sidwell says fans of the soap view the death of Steven Beale as ‘a waste’.

The character was killed off in the beeb saga in September when, under pressure from Max Branning who knew about his fake brain tumour, he set fire to Ian Beale’s restaurant to silence Ian’s wife Jane who was onto Max’s own scheming.

As Steven wavered on leaving Jane to die, Max ordered him to get out of the burning eatery, pushing him in the direction of the door, but Steven caught himself on one of the kitchen worktops and later died from the resulting internal jury.

Steven – the result of a fling between Cindy Beale and barman Simon Wicks, who Ian raised as his own son – had been a part of the soap on-and-off since 1989 with Sidwell taking on the role in 2007. 

“A lot of feedback I had from viewers was that they felt the character of Steven had been wasted,” Aaron told Inside Soap.

Sidwell, however, has revealed that he doesn’t share the sentiment his character was ‘wasted’. Speaking to Inside Soap he described his troubled alter-ego as an ‘impact character’ and insisted that he had been ready to leave the soap.

“There was a lot of negativity around the show at the time, and my storylines did meander a bit in the middle. Once you know you’re leaving, though, the story has drive and purpose, and the stuff I had at the end was really strong.” – Aaron Sidwell

Steven’s storylines included sending out poison pen letters; shooting step mum Jane Beale (Laurie Brett); and pretending to have an incurable brain tumour to stay in a relationship with Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa).

“I don’t want to do a soap again. It wasn’t a discipline I enjoyed. I always felt like I didn’t belong there quite as much as I do in a theatre environment,” Aaron also recently told the Daily Star newspaper