Donna Ludlow

**Donna Ludlow** was the estranged, given up for adoption, daughter of Kathy Beale. She started life in Walford how she went to go on, lying and manipulating the residents of the area.

Donna was a lost soul and only ever truly wanted one thing - to be accepted by her birth mother. Being rejected once was hurtful enough, but being rejected several times more, led to the end of the straw for Donna. The prim and proper girl from the Vic soon set out to be addicted to heroin and using prostitution as funding for her habits.

Towards the end of her days, Donna became somewhat of a bad smell lurking in Albert Square and nobody wanted to know her, or more importantly, could trust her. She found refugee in elderly hypochondriac Dot Cotton, but from the day Donna set foot in Walford, her days became numbered.

## Biography

### 1966-1987: Early life and return to Walford

Donna was the product of a rape attack between fourteen-year-old Kathy Hills and her music teacher Marcus Duffy. Kathy's pregnancy was kept a secret among the residents of the Square, apart from Dr Legg and her family, and the secret even went onto being hidden into Kathy's adult life and her marriage to Pete Beale. Donna was given up for adoption to the Ludlow's almost immediately after her birth, and Kathy went onto living the rest of her life, blocking out any sign or memory of her daughter.

However, in October 1985, the local villain Nick Cotton managed to break into Dr Legg's surgery and got hold of Kathy's medical records. From this, he found out about Donna. Nick blackmailed Kathy into giving him money so he would keep quiet. Kathy did for a short while, but soon lost her nerve and revealed all to her husband, Pete.

The couple survived the catastrophe and Nick was driven out of the Square. But in April 1987, Kathy received a visit from Donna's godmother, June Watkins, who told her that Donna wanted to contact, but Kathy refused to have anything to do with her.

Donna arrived in the Square several months later in August 1987 and gained a job at the First Til Last and then as a barmaid at The Queen Vic. However, she kept her identity a secret from everyone in the area, including Kathy, and started as she went to go on, telling lies. She would tell several people different stories of her past and where she came from and even made several anonymous calls to Kathy at the Samaritans. But it was only a matter of time before Donna's secret would be exposed.

### 1988: The start of the downfall

As the year progressed in 1988, Donna had her half-brother Ian Beale and Simon Wicks at loggerheads for her attention. Co-worker Pat Wicks started to discover her lies and Kathy was no stranger to Donna's mischevious behaviour. Her lack of gratitude from Ian's attention and her playing between both him and Simon eventually bewildered Kathy. And Kathy set out for a meeting for the pair to have a heated confrontation. It was at this confrontation that Donna finally revealed her true identity and confided in Kathy that she was using Ian as a source to grow closer to her. But when Kathy rejected Donna once again, she was devastated, and set out to get her comeuppance.

The playing between Ian and Simon grew gradually worse until Donna realised that Wicksy was the one she truly wanted. Both her and Wicksy was a happy couple for a short-while until market trader Cindy Williams come on the scene, and Simon's head turned for her attention instead. Donna tried everything to grab Simon's attention back. But when Kathy revealed that she was the product of rape and attempted to get Donna's adoptive parents to take her away from Walford, and Wicksy showed no remorse, Donna started on a winding road of disaster.

When Kathy was raped by her boss James Willmott-Brown in July 1988, Donna was surprisingly comforting towards her, but it was apparent that Kathy wasn't a fan of her attention. Wicksy had completely wiped Donna from the scene and developed a relationship with Cindy. Which led to Donna and Cindy having a brawl in The Vic and Donna losing her job, and later her flat.

From these events, Donna became a lodger at Michelle Fowler and Sharon Watts's flat but soon outstayed her welcome when she was spreading malicious gossip between the pair, which nearly resulted in the ending of the friendship until they find out what was going on and Donna was chucked out.

Donna found friendship in roadie Rod Norman and began squatting in the Square's local squat. Her friends slowly deteriorated from the scene, and it wasn't long until Donna was thieving from the local shops and using heroin. She nearly found work working for Ian in the catering business. But when Rod revealed that Donna was an addict, she was furious with him when he lost her the chance. To fund her habits, Donna started to turn to desperate measures and slept with Ali Osman by the end of the year for money which would go on to her blackmailing him for more cash.

### 1989: The end of the road

By 1989, Donna was a bad smell lurking in the air for the residents of Albert Square. Nobody wanted to know her, and more importantly, nobody could trust her. Donna continued to blackmail Ali for more money, reassuring him that she has the nerve to tell his wife Sue everything if he fails to reach her needs. Donna continued with her heroin habits and soon turned to prostitution. But this came to an end when she was nearly gang-raped and Rod came to the rescue before things got out of hand.

In February, Donna had the Square fooled when she made up the vicious lie that her adopted parents had died in a car crash, everyone took pity on her and believed her until her mother turned up in The Vic as they were all congregating her with money. This was the end of the straw for Donna, and she lost everybody. However, she found a friend in Colin Russell who vowed to help her until Donna started spreading rumours that Colin had AIDS. Colin left the Square shortly after, and Donna became very ill when she attempted to come off the heroin, and Dot Cotton offered to take her in.

Donna eventually confessed to Sue that she and Ali had been sleeping together, and this set out on the breaking of the Osman family. After Rod fled the Square to go back on the road and Kathy rejected her once more, Donna lost all faith in her life. She took a heroin overdose and was found dead by Dot on Dot's living room floor. Despite feeling guilty for a little while, Kathy and all in sundry gradually forgot the memory of Donna.

## Other information

* When Matilda Ziegler was first introduced to the serial as Donna, she was asked by producers to dye her hair dark to avoid any resemblance to Kathy. So viewers wouldn't clue up her characters true identity too quickly.
* Donna's death has been vowed as the most powerful anti-drugs images ever screened in the programme.

## First and last lines

"Excuse me, is there a public phone around here?" (First line to Kelvin Carpenter)

"Dot!" (Final line)