Lesley Jane Beale (also Clarke and Collins) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by Laurie Brett. She made her first appearance on 22 June 2004. Brett took maternity leave in 2011 and departed on 19 May. She returned on 8 November and departed again on 27 January 2012. Jane made a temporary return to the show on 6 January 2014 until 20 May and permanently from 24 November 2014 to 23 October 2017. She made two voiceover appearances on 8 and 25 December 2017. Jane’s storylines have included her relationship and later marriages to Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt); the first ended due to his affair with Glenda Mitchell (Glynis Barber), an affair with Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), accidentally shot by Ian's stepson Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell) which results her desire to have a child of her own following a hysterectomy, a relationship with Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra), her popular friendship with Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner), covering up her adopted son Bobby's (Eliot Carrington) role in the murder of her stepdaughter Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater), being paralysed after being brutally attacked with a hockey stick by Bobby, caught up in the fire at Beale's restaurant, which was started by Steven before she was then left in the blaze by Max Branning (Jake Wood) and being forced by Max to leave Walford which led to a second departure.