User:Raintheone/Bev

Bev McLoughlin (also Dixon) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, played by Sarah White. The character debuted on-screen during the episode broadcast on 1993.

Casting
In 1993, White was cast in the role having only graduated from drama school the previous year. White described receiving the part of Bev as a "dream come true".

Development
In her early stories, Bev is characterised as a manipulative home-wrecker and trouble-maker. Bev is introduced into the series as the younger sister of established character Lyn Rogers (Sharon Power).

Bev's early stories featured her gaining the attention of a married man, Ron Dixon (Vince Earl). Bev is aged twenty-one upon her introduction and Ron enjoys the affections of a younger woman. They begin an affair, causing Ron's wife DD Dixon (Irene Marot) to have a mental breakdown and join a convent. White was not supportive of her character's behaviour. She told Sue Ricketts from What's on TV that "I don't approve of her going out with a married man. It's something I could never do."

With Ron's twenty year marriage ruined, Bev begins a relationship with his son, Mike Dixon (Paul Byatt). White told Ricketts that Ron is unhappy with Bev dating his son and that she planned it. She explained that "it's a calculated move to make him want her again. No man her own age would put up with Bev's scheming ways." White noted that Ron would not usually get offers from younger women and is willing to endure her manipulation. She added that Bev is attracted to Ron because "she can get away with murder" around him.

Reception
Sue Ricketts from What's on TV branded Bev a "sassy" character who "wheedled her way into Brookside Close". She added that Bev "homed in on married man Ron Dixon faster than an Exocet missile."