(neé '''Shaw''') was a
Fictional Character in the
BBC Soap Opera ''
EastEnders ''. She was played by
Lucy Benjamin .
Lisa was known as a bit of a hopeless individual in
Albert Square . She frequently made wrong decisions and always seemed to be attracted to the wrong kind of men, which often had disastrous consequences.
Lisa arrived in Albert Square in
December 1998 as the new assistant
Market Inspector
to
Michael Rose . Although Michael was a married father, it wasn't long before he and Lisa embarked on a secret affair behind his wife's back. The fling went on for a while until Michael decided that he wanted to make a go of things with his wife away from
Walford and promptly left, putting an end to their romance.
Lisa soon moved in with
Mark Fowler and
Garry Hobbs , and although Mark was obviously infatuated with her, Lisa seemed completely unaware of his feelings. Lisa developed a close friendship with
Melanie Healy and Mel would often attempt to set her up with the eligable men of Walford, including
Gianni Di Marco ; however, their brief fling fizzled out almost as quickly as it began. During this time, Lisa was a self-confident fun loving person, but that was soon about to change.
Lisa had a soft spot for bad boys, and despite everyone around her advising her against it, it wasn't long before she and local
Mechanic Phil Mitchell moved in together. The two were happy for a while, but whilst Lisa was falling head over heels in love with Phil, it was clear that her feelings weren't reciprocated. Things between Phil and Lisa continued to deterioate and as the arguments increased, a desperate Lisa looked to Phil's mum
Peggy for advice. Unwisely, Peggy told Lisa that in order to make Phil happy, she needed to provide him with a child. Despite Phil firmly telling Lisa that he didn't want any more children (his first son
Ben was estranged to him after his ex-wife
Kathy moved abroad), Lisa stopped taking
The Pill and she soon fell pregnant. Lisa dropped this bombshell on Phil the same night that he'd decided to end their volatile relationship. Phil begrudgingly stayed with Lisa, but his animosity towards her grew and this led to an overly stressed Lisa
Miscarrying soon after.
With no baby in the picture, Phil became more and more distant from Lisa. Lisa, who was still devastated about losing her child, became more and more unstable in the following months and began to blame Phil for her baby's death. Lisa slowly started to become less and less confident and more and more insecure, which only sought to irritate Phil even more.
On
Christmas Day 2000 after heavy drinking she had a blazing row with Mel at
The Queen Vic after she accused her of flirting with Phil earlier that day. A fight ensued and Lisa ended up throwing wine on Mel. Phil came to break up the fight and told Mel to go to his home to get herself cleaned up. He left Lisa at the Vic and came home alone, and saw a drunken Mel drowning her sorrows. Phil offered his sympathy and even though Mel didn't particualarly like Phil for his treatment of Lisa,
Alcohol took effect and Phil and Mel ended up in bed together. Mel regretted it afterwards and felt guilty that she had betrayed Lisa. Lisa later found out about the affair after Mel confessed, and she left Phil (supposedly for good) and went to live back with Mark. She eventually came to forgive Mel , but their friendship was never quite the same again.
When Phil gatecrashed Mel's wedding to
Steve Owen , he humiliated Lisa by saying he never really loved her and Mel should give her some tips in the bedroom department.
This eventually culminated in her attempting to shoot and kill Phil with a gun she stole from Steve Owen's club the
E20 on the same night of Mel's wedding. Phil survived the shooting and confronted a terrified Lisa when he was released from hospital, but realising that he had pushed her to the brink of insanity, he decided to let her off the hook. Phil decided to frame his nemesis
Dan Sullivan for the deed instead. With everything resolved, Lisa thought she could finally get on with her life without Phil. That was until she discovered that she was pregnant yet again with his baby.
Upon realising she was pregnant to Phil for a second time, Lisa once again became distraught. She didn't want anything to do with Phil and she knew that if she had his child she would be under his control once again. In order to stop this from happening, Lisa's housemate Mark concocted a plan whereby he and Lisa would pretend that they were romantically involved and later announce that Lisa was pregnant, leaving Mark to bring up Lisa's baby as his own. Everyone believed their tale and their fake romance soon evolved into a real one.
Lisa gave birth to baby
Louise in
2001 . However, it was Phil that held Lisa's hand through the birth and not Mark. Directly after giving birth, an emotional Lisa put her 'secret' in jeopardy when she foolishly admitted to Phil's girlfriend
Sharon Watts that Phil was Louise's real father (although Mark did manage to persuade her to keep their secret).
Lisa and Mark were soon married, and despite interferrence from Mark's mother
Pauline they remained happy for a while. Their happiness was not to last though, as on Christmas Day 2001, Sharon told Phil that Louise was in fact his. Once Phil knew the truth, he went out of his way to make life difficult for the newlyweds. Mark and Lisa had to resign themselves to the fact that Phil was now going to be involved in Louise's life.
Lisa soon began to accept Phil as Louise's father and once she saw how loving he was towards her, old feelings began to resurface. Lisa and Phil soon began an affair behind Mark's back and it wasn't long before Lisa had left Mark (who she never really loved) and returned to Phil, severely breaking Mark's heart in the process. However, it was Louise and not Lisa that Phil really wanted, and with Lisa now living with the Mitchells, she began to be sidelined and increasingly shut out of her daughter's life.
Realising that she had made a grave mistake going back to Phil, Lisa made plans to flee Walford and in
2002 , she took Louise and fled to
Portugal to stay with Mel, who now lived there. However, Phil tracked her down and brought Louise back. Lisa was missing and suspected dead and Phil was prime suspect; no one could believe that such a devoted mother would allow her baby to be taken from her willingly. Phil kept what happened with Lisa quiet for months, until an undercover police woman
Kate Morton (who was acting as his girlfriend to gain a confession) finally teased the truth out of him. It was revealed in flashback episodes that after tracking Lisa down in Portugal, Phil had convinced an unstable Lisa that she was an unfit, irresponsible mother, and had allowed Phil to take Louise from her. He left a suicidal Lisa standing near the edge of a cliff and that was the last he saw of her. It was unknown whether Lisa had taken her own life or not.
The investigation into Lisa's murder was dropped and Phil went on to marry Kate in September
2003 . However, on that same day a very much alive Lisa returned to Albert Square with a sophisticated new look and a plan to get Louise back.
Under the pretence that she was a reformed character, Lisa made a plea to Phil to be part of her daughter's life again. It turned out that Lisa was actually planning to do away with Phil once and for all and repay him for some of the hurt he'd caused. She attempted to shoot Phil for a second time, but again failed when Phil outmanoeuvred her. With Phil now banning her from any access to Louise, Lisa reverted back to being an emotional wreck and began to turn to alcohol for comfort, continuously getting drunk to help deaden her pain.
It was then that
Den Watts took Lisa under his wing and promised her that he would help her get Louise back, as well as set his enemy Phil up in the process. Den, with the help of his son
Dennis Rickman , framed Phil for the
Armed Robbery of a
Warehouse . With Phil arrested and being held in prison, Kate had no choice but to give Louise back to Lisa, afterwhich the reunited mother and daughter left Walford for a second time. Her whereabouts are currently unknown.
