| Leanne Powell | |||||||||||
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| Brookside character | |||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Vickie Gates | ||||||||||
| Duration | 1992–1993, 1997, 2000–2003 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 29 January 1992 | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | 26 April 2003 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | Paul Marquess (2000) | ||||||||||
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Leanne Powell is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, played by Vickie Gates. The character debuted on-screen in the episode airing on 29 January 1992. Gates was sixteen when she joined the cast. Leanne is introduced into the series as a friend of Katie Rogers (Diane Burke) and is portrayed as bad influence on her friends. Brookside's executive producer Mal Young believed there was a need to include more teenage centric stories and created a peer pressure plot for the character. Leanne was portrayed as attempting to seduce Owen Daniels (Danny McCall). Writers also explored the issue of teenage pregnancy with Leanne and her friend's mother, DD Dixon (Irene Marot) helps her arrange a termination in secret.
Gates left the series in 1993 but reprised the role in 1997. Writers made Leanne more outlandish and portrayed her as a prostitute. She propositions David Crosbie (John Burgess) and gets disowned by her friend Jacqui Dixon (Alex Fletcher). Leanne seeks revenge and sprays acid into Jacqui's eyes, which results in Leanne going to prison. In 2000, Brookside producer Paul Marquess reintroduced the character having been impressed by Gates' work on another television series. Marquess developed the character further and introduced her brother, Lance Powell (Mickey Poppins) and created a relationship with Christy Murray (Glyn Pritchard). Other stories include Leanne's friendship and feud with Bev McLoughlin (Sarah White).
Leanne is characterised as a nasty and devious woman. Gates has stated that Leanne always believes she is right and is unapologetic about her behaviour. Leanne's manipulative behaviour caused television critics to review her behaviour. Some assessed that Leanne's deviousness grew as writers developed her more.