The Year Was… 1999

Valentine’s Day Murder!
The year kicked off with a story that would stun the Square and the audience with a gruesome murder that would have major consequences for the whole of the year.

Steve Owen walked into Albert Square with it all: he had good looks, charm, wealth. In fact, one could argue that he was too good to be True. He arrived on the Square, bought George Palmer’s old club, gave it a new Lifeline and opened for business under a new coat of paint and a new name, e20. 

Matthew Rose had moved to the Square with the rather boring Michael Rose and his even more boring mother Susan and lacked any form of Communication with either of them. He latched onto Steve like a father figure made of Gold and ended up working in the club as an aspiring DJ. He was actually pretty good. Steve broke Through the Barricades and became good friends with Matthew, even a confidante.  

Even when we’d seen Saskia turn up at Christmas we knew she was Highly Strung. She had the eyes for it. She was Steve’s ex who had been dumped by him and then terminated their baby. She turned up, massively regretting the whole termination and wanting revenge, plain and simple. The bunny boiler from Hell soon managed to make Steve’s life a misery, even when he Crashed Into Love with Melanie Healy, Alex the Vicar’s sister who had turned more than one head on the Square when she arrived. When Saskia tempted Steve into bed she told the whole world, especially Mel, who ran straight into the worse arms of Ian Beale!  

Valentine’s Night, the opening of the club, was going smoothly. The whole Square had turned up to party. Somewhere during the night it all went wrong, when Saskia got into the office and started battering Steve. Matthew interrupted a fair amount of Raw violence and To Cut a Long Story Short, by the end of it Saskia was dead on the office floor, her head caved in with an astray, with Steve holding the bloodied implement.  The sophisticated Glow around Steve disappeared. He wrapped up the body, enlisted Matthew’s help and they buried the body in a shallow grave in Epping Forrest. The CCTV in the office caught the whole thing, but rather than get rid of it, Matthew took it without Steve’s knowledge. 

Troy the Toy Boy
Irene and Terry got married at the start of the year, not that it changed their relationship much. If anything, he was happy with the boredom of benefits and boozing, but Irene was starting to realise something: Terry was not the most attractive nor the most interesting lover on the planet and she resolved to do something about it. She bought herbal infusions and tried yoga, all trying to stay in touch with herself. It didn’t work well, so she found some handsome young man to touch her instead.

An old friend of Tony’s, Troy needed somewhere to stay. Terry needed the lodge money for the pub and Irene didn’t mind when he started wandering around the house in nothing but his underpants. He tried it on with her best friend, older lady Rosa, and Irene could handle it no more: she seduced Troy and spent the next month having regular tantric sessions behind Terry’s back. In the end, Terry discovered the truth. Rather than tell Irene, he waited until Christmas when she was out, punched Troy, who fled into the night, throwing some rather mean remarks about Irene’s age Terry’s way. When Irene returned, her lover was gone and she settled in for an evening with her husband, where an uncomfortable silence formed. She knew that he knew and from here on in, the end result was inevitable…