Stella Crawford is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sophie Thompson from 7 September 2006 to 23 July 2007.

Stella Crawford is a lawyer who soon ends up working for Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), the local hardman of Albert Square.

Stella tricks Ben into trusting her, and attempts to end his friendship with classmate Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald).

She smashes a photo of Ben's deceased mother Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), and says he is too pathetic to be Phil's real son.

Phil answers that he chose her because he thought she was "easy", "safe", and would "look after Ben, iron [his] shirts and keep [her] mouth shut for the next 30 years".

Phil publicly declares that he killed her at The Queen Vic and is arrested for murder, but CCTV shows that she jumped.

But everything catches up with you, just like it does with Stella…" In July 2007, the entertainment website Digital Spy interviewed Sophie Thompson about the basics of her character Stella.

It's really nice to read a letter and see how people become engaged and involved in the storylines and want to have a good yarn about them!"

EastEnders series story producer Brigie de Courcy said; "To create her, we took all of Phil's past lovers and came up with somebody completely different from them!

[2] Thompson said of the role that "joining EastEnders is a bit like being welcomed into a really special playground that you never thought you had the chance to play in, and you are rather in awe of all the kids, but very excited.

"[3] When she was first introduced, Stella appeared to be a scatter-brained but well-meaning character who lived on her own and had developed something of a drink problem when Phil first met her.

This was hinted at by her telling Ben that his friend Abi Branning was an unpleasant and untrustworthy person, probably as a result of poor parenting.

An interview with Sophie Thompson says that Charlie Jones, who plays Ben, mused that her vicious nature is caused by the fact that she had a very unhappy childhood.

[5] In 2008, All About Soap included Stella and Ben's child abuse plot in their list of "top ten taboo" storylines of all time.