EastEnders' red herrings

Lucy Benjamin can finally reveal the truth

By BBC News Online's Darren Waters

When the mystery of who shot Phil was finally uncovered we all had our suspicions but none of us really knew for certain.

The fact the identity of the would-be assassin had not leaked out to the general public in the month since the shooting was testament to the deviousness and cunning of the producers on EastEnders.

The PR have done a brilliant job - keeping it secret and confusing everybody

Lucy Benjamin, aka Lisa Shaw

The plot line itself was littered with enough red herrings to stock an aquarium.

In true murder mystery style we were offered five plausible suspects - Ian Beale, Steve Owen, Dan Sullivan, Mark Fowler and Lisa Mitchell.

All had motives and all were without alibis for the crucial few minutes when the trigger was pulled.

Chief suspect

Steve Owen was the chief suspect but anyone who has ever read an Agatha Christie novel will tell you: "Ignore the obvious".

Mark Fowler and Ian Beale were dangled in front of us, but in the background lurked the ever-present Lisa Shaw.

We filmed different endings and people only had scripts for their part

Lucy Benjamin

The subterfuge extended even to the cast, who, like the rest of the UK, were kept in the dark.

Actress Lucy Benjamin, who plays Lisa Shaw, told BBC News 24: "I asked them last night after the episode was shown if they did know and apparently nobody knew for definite.

"They were very good to me - if they did have me as their number one, they didn't press me to tell them the truth."

Five different scenes with five different suspects were filmed to keep the secret as long as possible. One possible ending reportedly included Robbie being arrested by police in Brighton.

'Different endings'

Miss Benjamin said: "We filmed different endings and people only had scripts for their part - we usually get sent the whole script.

"My character name was blotted out and replaced with the character name of Grant.

"The PR have done a brilliant job - keeping it secret and confusing everybody."

The whole cast, with the exception of Lucy Benjamin and Steve McFadden, who plays Phil Mitchell, were sent home when the real scene was filmed.

The secrecy did not stop speculation, however.

Emails purporting to reveal the identity of the shooter were sent to thousands of people across the country on the day the episode was shown.

But not all were accurate - one such email correctly identified Lisa Shaw as the culprit, while another was adamant that Mark Fowler would be unmasked as the shooter.