Paul Trueman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gary Beadle. The character, who first arrived onto Albert Square on 23 April 2001 and later departed the programme on 23 December 2004, was portrayed as a bad boy who was a member of the already-established Trueman family. In his exit storyline, Paul became a drug dealer, which Beadle has been critical towards, as he suggested it played into black racial stereotyping. It was implied that Paul was killed upon his exit, though his death was not screened.
During his time on the show, Paul instigates a feud with his brother Anthony (Nicholas Bailey); copes with the untimely death of their mother Audrey (Corinne Skinner-Carter); develops a close interaction with Audrey's ex-husband Patrick (Rudolph Walker), who soon turns out to be Paul's adoptive father; sparks friendships with the square's local hardman Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and his nemesis Steve Owen (Martin Kemp); gets blackmailed by old acquaintance Angel Hudson (Goldie) into repaying him the money he owes and later having a relationship with the latter's estranged lover Precious (Judi Shekoni); conspire with Phil's cousin Billy (Perry Fenwick) to force his enemy Trevor Morgan (Alex Ferns) into leaving Walford so his wife, Little Mo Mitchell (Kacey Ainsworth), would be prevented from further domestic abuse; temporarily romanced with Phil's sister Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf); dating Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) and plotting together to steal Barry Evans's (Shaun Williamson) money, culminating in Janine murdering Barry the day after they got married; supports Patrick on his wedding day to his fellow shopkeeper Yolande Duke (Angela Wynter); and end up working for Sam's gangland husband Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs), which ultimately contributes to Paul's departure from the show.
Development
Beadle was critical of his exit storyline, accusing EastEnders of racial stereotyping for turning his character into a drug dealer. He commented to The Mirror: "I hate the storyline, I'm really not happy about it. It's so unimaginative, full of stereotypes - black people and drugs, blah, blah, blah. Any scenes involving drugs, you can rest assured I hated filming them. I just knew Paul wouldn't do that - it's not his style. Once they started hanging my character so dramatically, I knew I'd made the right decision to leave." Speaking to BBC Radio 1 in 2004, Beadle stated that the storyline had a negative effect on his private life, with public shouting at him in the street things such as 'Drug dealer' or 'Sell me some drugs'. Beadle suggested that the storyline was "about a very deep subject and if you are going to write about that subject then you need to explain it completely. I'm just talking about believability. You need to show the beginning, the middle and the end, otherwise it looks negative." Beadle also said that he was disappointed that Paul was not shown to die on-screen - his death was implied not screened. In 2021, Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap wrote that Paul was "one of the best Walford characters of his time – taken from us in such a way that we still cling to the hope that he's not really dead...C'mon EastEnders, we know you're reading this!"