'EastEnders' Lucas on his story twist and character

WARNING: Major Spoiler Alert

Ahead of EastEnders' one-hour wedding special on November 26, I recently caught up with former Babyfather actor and über eloquent Don Gilet to chat about his increasingly complex Walford character Lucas Johnson.

The main part of the interview can be found by clicking on this link, but the second half of my chat is below.

Here, Don reveals all about his initial thoughts over the murder twist, Lucas's warped nature, Robbie Gee, Temeka Empson, why Lucas prays alone and more!

What was your reaction when you first heard about the murder twist?
"I was excited. I was very happy but of course it's a double-edged sword. You can only do so many bad things in a soap or any kind of drama. There's a ticking clock to say these characters can only stay for so long once they go down the path of doing so much evil. Somehow they have to make an exit, if it's not with their own death they do a runner or go to prison, but they're not going to be a regular for much longer if they carry on doing these things. That was a secondary thought because I thought that I can't let that get in the way of doing the job itself."

Trina's death is obviously playing on Lucas's mind a fair bit – how do you think he reasoned covering for her death?
"I think he has a warped relationship with what God is. How he squares it with himself is: if he's meant to be found (and this is the wrong thing to do) out there will be some kind of divine intervention. If it is wrong, the police will find out and he'll be in prison rightfully serving a sentence. But if somehow he's able to wriggle out of it or doesn't get caught, it's because they will be done. God didn't want him to be caught therefore it was the right thing to do. His morals are warped because his idea of divine intervention is warped and his whole relationship with God is warped."

He's losing control more easily nowadays...
"The whole thing is about control. As time goes on he seems to have less and less control of the status quo and become more of a fight or flight character. Everything that he does that's immoral is not premeditated - there's no malice of forethought - but it's that demon or darker side which he can't hold back any longer and it bursts out."

Where does this warped nature come from?
"Knowing his history, he's had quite a drug-addled past and he's now a recovering addict. Some people choose to go via the twelve steps, other people find God - they find other ways of harnessing this bad side and dealing with anger issues or addiction. I don't think he's been right since. One of the first things he saw with Chelsea for the first time was that there were times when he was in a drug den with needles sticking out of his arms. I don't think he's ever fully recovered - the drugs did something to him so on the surface he's a good bloke until something threatens it. Then you see his morals aren't completely perfect. He treads a crooked path and he still has this rage within him. He needs this idea of God to keep him sane and to keep him from temptation. That's why I always say it's a twisted morality."

What was it like working with Robbie Gee and Tameka Empson?
"I've worked with Robbie before a long time ago on Desmond's and Tameka on Babyfather. They're great characters, larger-than-life and great actors. It was refreshing and comfortable at the same time. There's a great sense of familiarity. It's the same with Diane [Parish]. I've worked with her before and coming into this show and finding the one person you'll be playing opposite most of the time is someone you have a great respect for and rapport with is great."

Why does Lucas always pray alone?
"These are his moments of recharging his batteries personally. It's him and God, it's not about anybody else. It's him saying, 'I need to have my time with God without any disturbances, I need to read passages from the Bible and have this one-to-one'. It's a writing choice that's made you see him do that but it's important that you do see that. You see him take time out when something has happened and he's got away with it. He says, 'Thank you', or he says, 'Thank you for not intervening or for keeping me free of being caught'. It's a weird thing to thank someone for and I think those are put there specifically to show that he has this interesting relationship with God that he doesn't really share with anyone else. There's no-one else really there."

Do you have a favourite writer?
"It's weird but I don't normally look at the writer until after I've shot it sometimes, maybe because of some kind of journey I've gone through then. I don't particularly think, 'Oh, there's the writer - that'll be brilliant'. I look back and I think Christopher Reason is definitely one of the guys who has observed characters brilliantly and Simon Ashdown - I've really liked his writing as well. There was an episode that I wasn't involved in when Ryan was coming back in with Ruth Gemmell playing his mum and Lacey having her first real breakdown as Stacey and I thought, 'This is a brilliant episode - who wrote this?' I found out it was Simon Ashdown. I don't actually know which ones he's done that I've been in but when I watched that I thought, 'I've got to find out who that is and I've got to let every actor in that episode know how brilliant they were!'"

Emilia Di Girolamo wrote two excellent episodes for Lucas, the ones when he was trying to prevent anyone from discovering Trina's body in the summerhouse...
"I just do the job and some things might not necessarily leap off the page but with the intervention of directing you find you're playing it and you look back and think, 'Gosh - those are stunning episodes'. You're right, those episodes were excellent. Next time she's in I'm going to give her a nod and say, 'You're helping to make my character look great - in terms of size not how good he is!' (Laughs) Maybe she'll write something special for me when they finally get rid of me - I'll be her muse!"

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Additional reporting by Philippa Warr