Diane Butcher

Diane was played by Sophie Lawrence and first appeared in May 1988, and her final appearance up to date was in April 2008.

Background and casting
EastEnders had been on air for three years before the character of Diane made her first screen appearance in May 1988. At the time, big changes were occurring "behind-the-scenes". Co-creator Julia Smith took "a more back-seat role" as Series Producer, which allowed producer Mike Gibbon to take control of the making of the programme.

The arrival of the Butcher family in May 1988 signified an end of an era for the soap, as Den and Angie Watts vacated their positions as landlord and landlady of The Queen Vic, leaving Frank (Mike Reid), and his girlfriend Pat Wicks (Pam St. Clements) to take over tenancy. Ricky (Sid Owen) and Diane, played by Sophie Lawrence, Frank's teenage children came with Frank. Lawrence was 15 at the time, and she got the part in EastEnders straight after leaving stage school. Lawrence has commented, "I always just thought that I would be a dancer and go into a West End musical and that I would be very, very happy. Then I got EastEnders when I was 15 and it kind of changed my life."

Personality
Diane as she appeared in 1989.Diane has been described as "dreamy" and someone who "was always destined for more romantic things than the reality of Walford." "Sensitive and artistic", for a time Diane was portrayed as the least troublesome of the Butcher family, the one who conformed the most, though she began to rebel against her father's heavy handed paternalism. 

EastEnders writer Sarah Phelps has described the character as sharp, smart with elements of her mother in her. Phelps adds "she had a sharp tongue and a quick mind...you could see her looking at her family and looking at Walford...and thinking 'this ain't for me'." Sophie Lawrence has said, "Diane was a bit of a wild child...she was a bit naughty, she was always in trouble. I think it was something to do with losing her mother at an early age...She ran away [from home] to make a statement. I think it was a 'notice me' kind of thing. It worked."

In the 2008 television documentary EastEnders: Ricky and Bianca, Diane was described as "rather normal" for a member of the Butcher family. Upon her return in 2008, the character had altered and matured. Lawrence has commented, "coming back, she seems quite nice actually, she seem more relaxed. She's so much older I suppose, so she's sort of grown up really. She seems nice and kind and settled with her life."

1988 - 2008
Diane arrived in Albert Square in 1988 as the daughter of second-hand car salesman, Frank Butcher and sister to Ricky Butcher. Her mother June died in 1987, and when her father remarried Pat Wicks and took over as landlord of the Queen Victoria pub, she lived with them there. Later the family moved out of the pub to run a bed and breakfast elsewhere on the Square. Diane had her first serious relationship with Paul Priestly in 1989.Problematic and strong-willed, she fell for the Butchers' lodger Paul Priestly in 1989, much to Frank's annoyance. Diane took the relationship more seriously than Paul, and she was devastated when he finished with her to begin a fling with hairdreser Julie Cooper. Paul and Julie did not last, and he immediately returned to Diane. Scorned, Diane could not forgive Julie for taking Paul, and she played various vengeful tricks on her as payback, such as sabotaging the opening day of her salon and sending her a male escort to make her look desperate. Julie responded by flirting with Paul to infuriate Diane further, and their feud culminated in a showdown in The Queen Vic one night, which resulted in Julie humiliating Diane.Paul quickly lost interest in Diane. Ignoring his reticence, Diane convinced herself that Paul was contemplating proposing to her, so she was broken hearted when he returned to his home town in Leeds in December 1989; he left without saying goodbye to her or telling her that he was leaving.

Feeling misunderstood and unloved after believing that her family had forgotten her 16th birthday, Diane ran away from home in January 1990. She joined the down-and-outs on the streets of London. She was sinking fast when a street-wise teenager, Disa O'Brien, took her under her wing, showing her how to survive. Disa turned to prostitution for extra money, and Diane posed nude for photographs for a man name Matthew Taylor who made a sculpture of her. She eventually returned to Albert Square in March 1990, after months of searching by her father, but she struggled to adjust to life back in Walford. As a result of her time away, Diane developed an interest in art. When Taylor turned up trying to woo Diane, he deposited the life size sculpute of her in Albert Square. Frank was livid; he smashed up the statue and confronted Taylor, further alienating Diane.

Diane developed a friendship with Mark Fowler when he returned to his family home in 1990, and she enlisted his help in finding Disa, who was heavily pregnant and living in "Cardboard City". Disa refused their help initially, and after she gave birth to the baby, Disa abandoned the child, leaving her on Diane's doorstep on Christmas Day 1990. Diane and Mark cared for the baby in secret until they found Disa and persuaded Frank to allow her and the baby to stay in his mother Mo's empty flat. Diane took care of them and attempted to help Disa bond with her child. Diane was keen for her relationship with Mark to progress, though he was hesitant, which upset her. Eventually, Mark confessed that he was HIV-positive. She pledged to stick with him, even though the task was daunting. She acted as a confidante, helping him to face up to his illness and seek counselling and professional help. Diane was unsettled when Mark began spending time with his HIV+ ex-girlfriend Gill, and when Mark proposed to Diane in June 1991, she gently turned him down. The following month she left Walford to go on a fruit picking holiday in France. She telephoned Frank in September to say she would not be returning.

Diane was seen in 1993, when Frank visited her in France. He was horrified to discover she was pregnant, even more so when he discovered that she was unsure who the father was — A French man or a German man. After a heated argument Frank stormed off, refusing to speak to Diane, but they managed to make peace by the time Frank left — Diane drove to the ferry and tearfully waved Frank goodbye. Diane returned for a short stint in 1994, to inform Pat that Frank was alive and well and had merely run away from Walford following his mental breakdown — Frank had visited Diane off-screen in France. Ricky visited Diane in France in 1997, and spent time with her young son Jacques. Diane was in a tempestuous relationship with a Cameroonian musician named Thomas, and when this abruptly ended, she and son Jacques turned up in Walford, looking for a place to stay. However a short time later, Thomas visited Diane and asked her to go travelling with him on tour in Africa. Diane went without informing anyone she was going, leaving Jacques with Ricky and his wife Bianca. Pregnant Bianca struggled to care for troublesome Jacques, and even considered having an abortion as a result. Jacques was sent to live in Manchester with Diane's sister Clare, until Diane retrieved him and took him back to live with her in Paris.

In 2008 Frank died of cancer at his and Diane's home in Paris. Frank had asked Diane and Ricky to have his funeral in Walford. Diane returned on March 31, 2008 alongside Ricky, where they met with their former stepmothers Pat Evans and Peggy Mitchell to convey the news of Frank's death. The following day, Diane was glad to see her sister Janine back for Frank's funeral. During a conversation with Janine, Diane revealed that she had been in a relationship with a woman called Suzanne for the previous three years. Diane has explained the absences of her son, Jacques (who refused to attend the funeral) and her sister, Frank's eldest daughter, Clare (Clare currently lives in Australia, and had already visited Frank when he was ill to say her goodbyes). At Frank's wake in the Queen Vic, Diane was approached by Ian Beale. Ian indicated that he wished to speak to Diane, who initially thought Ian was making a pass at her. She later realised that Ian wanted to speak to her about her experience of running away when she was a teenager. He believed her insights might help him find his own missing daughter, Lucy Beale. Diane told Ian back at his house about her experiences, for which Ian was grateful. Frank left little of value in his estate once his debts were settled, but he left individual gifts to each of his children. Diane received some of her old school paintings and drawings. Diane helped Ricky, Janine and Pat scatter Frank's ashes in the flowerbeds of the Square.

She later returned to Paris on 4 April 2008 and has since been visited by Pat twice - once the following month in May and then again in January 2009.

In January 2010, Ricky and Bianca invited Diane to attend their wedding in February.