Lionel Skeggins is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street who was portrayed by John Leigh.

[1] However, after landing a 2-week recurring role, the character proved popular and was eventually brought back the following year as a core cast member.

He returned the following year when Leonard and wife Gina (Josephine Davison) gave him the hospital cafe's management contract despite his career as a vet.

Proving a hit with the staff due to his muffin shop, Lionel immediately fell in love with receptionist Kirsty Knight (Angela Dotchin).

Lionel fell into a coma after he digested bad drugs from Darryl's (Mark Ferguson) company and following his recovery, his marriage with Kirsty tightened.

Only months later, Lionel realised he would never stop loving Kirsty but missed her by seconds as she left Ferndale before he could profess his true feelings.

He was shocked to discover he had an illegitimate teenage son - Luke Billingham (Greg Freeman) and he started to date Mackenzie (Ingrid Park).

The two married in 1999 but shortly after the wedding, Lionel discovered evidence to suggest his wife had tried to murder Oscar (Christopher Brown) for money and whilst trying to escape her, was washed off a rock.

5 years later Chris recognised Lionel from afar as the marriage celebrant of Damo Johnson's (Grant Lobban) and Desdemona Schmidt's (Kura Forrester) wedding.

[6] Several people involved in production were skeptical that the "Beauty and the Beast" storyline could actually work, finding it unlikely the glamorous Kirsty would be attracted to the clumsy Lionel.

[8] The characters first began to share scenes when Kirsty was involved in a car crash that saw the deaths of TP Aleni (Elizabeth Skeen) and Steve Mills (Andrew Binns).

[10][11][12] The two got through the hiccup but after Kirsty was hit by a truck in another of the soap's iconic storylines,[7] leaving her with amnesia, she forgot ever loving Lionel and returned to ex-boyfriend Greg (Tim Balme).

[14][15] Luke debuted as a "shy, inarticulate country boy with an adventurous spirit" who shockingly revealed to Lionel that he was his son.

"[15] After initially struggling to connect with Luke, when he was involved in a dramatic bus crash Lionel realised how much he loved his son and even went to the extent of cooking him gourmet school lunches.

[17] Leigh found the situation interesting, stating; "I've got people recognizing me as Lionel who wouldn't have even been born when I was on Shortland Street.

[21] In 2017 New Zealand Herald columnist Ricardo Simich expressed his desire for Lionel to return for the soap opera's 25th anniversary.

[22] That same year stuff.co.nz journalist Fleur Mealing named Lionel as the 2nd character she most wanted to return for the show's 25th anniversary, citing her desire to determine whether he survived his apparent-death and for a chance to reunite with Kirsty.